Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell told lawmakers Tuesday he doesn’t expect the $1.9 trillion stimulus package will lead to an unwelcome gain in inflation, but he emphasized that the central bank has tools to deal with increasing price pressures if needed.“We might see some upward pressure on prices. Our best view is that the effect on inflation will be neither particularly large nor persistent,” he said, reiterating comments he has made repeatedly since the measure was enacted earlier this month. Critics of the stimulus have stated that it will cause a surge of consumer spending that will coincide with an improving economy to stoke consumer-price advances. The measure includes $1,400 payments to most Americans and enhanced unemployment benefits to deal with the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. Mr. Powell stated that the Fed remained strongly pledged to keeping the public’s expectations for future inflation under control, as they have been for decades, and that he didn’t believe a one-time spending surge that leads to temporary price increases would change those expectations.