Scott Bessent says he wants a probe into 'the entire Federal Reserve institution'

"What we need to do is examine the entire Federal Reserve institution and whether they have been successful," Bessent said on CNBC. He added that if the Federal Aviation Administration had made a similar number of errors, "then we would go back and look at why this has happened."

The size and scope of how such an investigation would be carried out was unclear. Last week, Republican Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Rick Scott of Florida reintroduced a bill to audit the Fed and probe the Board of Governors and the 12 regional Federal Reserve banks. However, several independent auditors already audit financial statements from the Board of Governors and the regional Fed banks each year.

The Treasury Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Trump administration shows no signs of de-escalating its crusade against the Fed for holding interest rates steady. President Donald Trump has harangued the Fed for not lowering the cost of borrowing by at least three percentage points. A lower interest rate usually provokes more consumer and business activity through easier access to credit.

This month, the Trump administration has latched onto an ongoing upgrade of the Fed's century-old headquarters in Washington to allege Powell has mismanaged the $2.5 billion project. Powell has since requested that the Fed's inspector general to review the project once more, the budget for which has been continuously overseen by the Board of Governors since the renovation kicked off in 2017.

Powell sent a letter to the White House on Thursday meant to counter the litany of attacks on the central bank's costly renovation project. The Federal Reserve took additional steps on Monday to defend the renovation project. It published video of a construction site in a Q&A page.

The Fed isn't actually operated with taxpayer-dollars or other legislative appropriations. It operates more like a self-funded bank, drawing its budget from the interest on government securities and later transferring over any excess profits to the Treasury.