They were not, though, in a panic or worried about an imminent recession. Instead, they were thinking that the old interest rate would not be appropriate going forward.

Michelle Bowman said such a big initial rate cut could complicate the Fed's mission of getting inflation back to its 2% target.

By Howard Schneider WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Federal Reserve officials, in their first public comments since the U.S. central bank cut interest rates by half a percentage point, laid out on Friday the depth of the debate over the move,