The Federal Reserve has so far held off on cutting interest rates this year, but that could soon change, according to one key member of the board.

Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Friday that the Fed is now in position to begin lowering rates as early as next month.

“I think we’re in a position that we could do this as early as July,” Waller said. “That would be my view, whether the committee would go along with it or not.”

Waller’s comments came just days after the Fed voted again to hold its key interest rate steady at 4.25 to 4.5 percent, marking the fourth straight meeting with no change. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said the central bank is watching inflation and the labor market closely, while also weighing the effects of President Donald Trump’s tariff policies on the economy.

Powell said the Fed’s “current stance of monetary policy leaves us well positioned to respond in a timely way to potential economic developments.” He added that the labor market remains “at or near maximum employment,” while inflation is still “somewhat above our 2 percent longer-run objective.”

Waller argued that the Fed should not sit back and wait for the labor market to crash before acting.

“If you’re starting to worry about the downside risk [to the] labor market, move now, don’t wait. Why do we want to wait until we actually see a crash before we start cutting rates?” Waller said.

“So I’m all in favor of saying maybe we should start thinking about cutting the policy rate at the next meeting, because we don’t want to wait till the job market tanks before we start cutting the policy rate,” he continued. Waller also suggested the Fed should “start slow” with rate cuts “just to make sure that there’s no big surprises.”

“We’ve been on pause for six months to wait and see, and so far, the data has been fine,” Waller said. “I don’t think we need to wait much longer, because even if the tariffs come in later, the impacts are still the same. It should be a one-off level effect and not cause persistent inflation.”

President Trump has repeatedly criticized the Fed for dragging its feet on rate cuts while the economy faces growing uncertainty from tariffs and trade policy. The president has also ripped into Fed Chair Powell in recent weeks, calling him a “stupid person” and a “numskull” as he pushes for lower rates.

After Waller’s comments Friday, the odds of a rate cut at the Fed’s next meeting in July ticked up slightly but still remain slim, rising from 12.5 percent to 14.5 percent, according to the CME FedWatch tool. The market currently sees the Fed’s September meeting as the more likely window for a cut, with a 61.8 percent chance of a 25 basis point reduction at that meeting.