Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen testifies before Senate committee | full video.

on myself on everybody else uh so um thank you for understanding all of you for a long time it's been clear what gets rewarded on Wall Street bigger risks mean bigger profits bigger profits mean more stock options bigger profits mean fatter bonuses and then and then we end up with a Wall Street culture that glorifies seeing just how much they can get away with Executives know that when big bets pay off they get to cash out when those bets fail they don't clean up the mess workers and taxpayers and our communities will always that's what Financial fiascos boil down to Wall Street system encourages bad decisions and leads to an economy of excess for executives in a shrinking middle class it's how we got East Palestine it's how we get the CEO of stellantis making 365 times what the average worker at diimler Chrysler stantis makes we saw that story play out just 11 months ago Executives of fbb and the other poorly run Banks put profits ahead of basic B risk management then as the banks imploded small businesses all over the country worried how they'd make payroll if they could access their deposits families ask themselves if their money would be saved Regulators had to step in they always do to protect our economy while the executives walk away pretty happy 2008 was the same story but on a bigger scale Wall Street took big risks with Americans money just like Silicon Valley Bank did Wall Street figured out it could make even bigger bets by exploiting gaps in our regular system always enticed by huge bonuses risk-taking buildup in the shadows until it's too late to contain we know how it turned out Chaos on Wall Street put 9 million n million Americans out of work Millions lost their homes they lost their wealth to foreclosure I saw it in my own neighborhood in Cleveland my ZIP code 44105 had more foreclosures in the first half of 2007 than any zip code in the United States of America a mess that started in New York boardrooms with big barely supervised wall Street companies spread to neighborhoods around the country swallowing up American jobs in homes and livelihoods someone like some would like to dismiss this it's all in the past it's all ancient history it's all once in a century catastrophe we don't need to worry about that anymore but 2008 showed us how Wall Street is always always always trying to hide the same old risky behavior in new terms that their PR teams cooked up they're not going to give up finding new ways to get around the rules so they can make bigger bets to make bigger profits we let them get away with it with no oversight or safeguards Americans pay the price workers pay the price we've seen it too many times that's why 14 years ago we created the financial stability oversight conso a council of all of our financial Regulators which the distinguished Secretary of the Treasury chairs her job is to fj's job is to Monitor and respond to Financial Risk wherever it develops while other Regulators only police some kinds of businesses epso takes a bird's eye 30,000 foot view of our financial system when all Street and its high price lowers try to avoid the rules while fso reacts eso's job is to close gaps in our system covering blind spots that any one agency might have it can make sure safeguards are in place at the biggest riskiest Financial companies plays a finan a critical role in stopping the next AIG from blowing a hole in our economy and epo's a key piece of how we end the cycle of bailouts and golden parachutes for executives with workers always always stuck with the consequences today fso as important as ever right now non-bank Financial companies hedge funds private Equity firms insurance companies Clearing Houses hold nearly 20 trillion do in assets over the last decade they've grown larger and larger these days these companies are responsible for a whole lot of the activity in Wall Street some of these firms sit in the middle of our biggest markets others lend our biggest employers the cash to make payroll many Finance buyouts um service mortgages or make huge Bets with billions of dollars often using money from workers pensions because these companies have become so Central it would all be it would be all too easy for just one of them to drag down our financial system they have the same Dee rooted temptation to take on more risk for a big payday as anyone else in Wall Street does sometimes they're even riskier we know that if one of these firms collapse the executives will be just fine but most of the country including zip code 44105 wouldn't that's why eso's so important when Wall Street tries to shape shift to evade the Watchdogs we depend on epso must be there to take action to protect our economy it's not a surprise that Wall Street and its well-funded allies have always always wanted to kill anything that tries to hold it accountable their lobbyist fought viciously some say to try to stop us from implementing Dodd Frank and all I think everybody in this committee uh remembers if they were here then after we passed it the chief lobbyist for the financial services round Round Table after we passed the bill the chief lobbyist for the largest uh Finance group of companies in the country said now it's halime now it's halim now they've now they've tked their lobbies with trying to block the council from doing its job forcing it to sit on its hands as risk builds up they want to take away some of the most important tools for keeping our economy safe from Reckless Wall Street Behavior fock makes Wall Street nervous that's why they fight so hard against what you're doing nervous that fso could bring over site and accountability to parts of Wall Street that continue to operate in the dark the last Administration worked to handcuff fsock by undermining its ability to impose safeguards at the riskiest Financial firms the W the message in the last Administration was clear epso isn't really watching and won't really act how wrong that was it's changing now today eso's far better position to make sure that bad bets anywhere in Wall Street don't crush Main Street the council's focused in responding to new emerging risks to our financial system these are risks we've talked about in this committee before digital assets cyber crime changing climate artificial intelligence as well as the old risk that is present as ever like Shadow Banks eso's also monitoring how commercial property markets affecting our banking system an important concern given what we've seen just this week secretary is yellen's responsible too for the critical work to safeguard her National Security by cracking down illicit Finance I look forward to working with her to combat all the way that bad actors like like Hamas and Hezbollah in Iran are find funding their activities with including with new tools like digital assets ultimately we cannot allow another Financial Cris crisis or another financial crash sorry whatever the risk wherever the risk may come from to to set workers and consumers back we need an economy where hard work not Financial speculation pays off a system that works for everyone not just big corporations not just hedge funds not their not just their lobbyists who have far far too much influence on this committee we know we're still far from that economy you only have to look at corporate profiteering in the last few years every time every time Americans go to the grocery store they pay for stock backs they pay for executive bonuses every time Americans go to the grocery store they pay for stock BuyBacks they pay for executive bonuses it's what we see now with the big Banks throwings of millions of dollars at a PR campaign to stop Capital rules we'll make sure that taxpayers don't have to bail out another bank failure all to keep their their Lifestyles all to keep their profits High since I've been chair of this committee we've worked every day to end a system that rewards risky Behavior with piles of company stock and huge cash bonuses instead of real economy that's why this committee passed the bipartisan recoup act last year to crack down in a broken system it's ultimately why we created ESO whose mission is so important secretary y thank you again for rearranging your schedule to being with us today I look for forward hearing by F sockor Senator Scott thank you chairman and thank you for being here today without any question we will have lots of questions I'm sure about the economy in the State of Affairs uh it seems like some of my friends on the other side live in an alternate universe the average American sees the economy that we have today and they just shake their heads they can't understand what people in Washington simply can't see two-thirds of Americans do not have $1,000 in their savings account the Biden Administration and Biden ecomics has decimated destroyed leveled family after family after family inflation 18% and it's not coming down period food up 20% energy 20% gas 40% when you're raised in a family like I was raised in a single parent household mired in poverty it is not a problem it is a Crisis crisis brought To Us by the Biden Administration and people who philosophically believe that a bigger government somehow leads to more success that taking their money out of their paychecks so that people here can figure out to spend it better than they can is somehow going to lead to a better future for their kids that's what we call in South Carolina hogwash we also have the responsibility on the Banking Committee to take a look at legislative matters concerning National Security whether that's scrutinizing tools to better curb China's malign influence or punishing the Mexican cartels trafficking deadly drugs across our Southern border to sanctioning International Bad actors like Iran I wish you were here four months ago as I requested you to be here after the devastating attacks that Hamas leveled on Israel on October the 7th I'm ashamed to know that this Administration and your department continue to release billions of dollars to Iran helping them Fuel and fund their Terri teror proxies the American people and our Israeli allies deserve an accounting for this administration's Reckless release of 6 billion dollar in August and then after October the 7th another1 billion dollar in November not to mention the relaxing of the sanctions that allowed hundreds of billions of dollars to flow because of the oil Revenue that's devastating raising the alarms I and 24 of my Republican colleagues sent you a letter demanding answers on how you could continue to provide Iran billions of dollars that we know fund terrorism throughout the Middle East and destroyed devastated and eliminated so many Israeli citizens our strongest Ally in the Middle East partially funded by resources released by this Administration and your Department of Treasury I have not seen a sense of urgency I have not seen accountability and we find that frustrating just look at what's happened around the go the globe since October there have been over 150 attacks by ranb back terrorist groups against American Service members and as tragic as that is it also led to the loss of the lives of two Navy Seals and three members of our United States Army 30 service members injured these are American Patriots who put their lives on the line and we should have their backs and right now no one fears us deterrence because there is no us deterrence to fear and that lack of deterrence certainly encompasses the treasury's role in allowing funds to be released to known terrorist supporting regimes the Biden administration's policies have shifted America from a position of strength on the world stage to a position of weakness for all to see the billion dooll paydays to our adversaries must stop it's time to defend American Service members and American interests abroad and this starts with ending any payments any relaxation on sanctions to Iran but defending America isn't just about looking overseas it's also about here at home from a border crisis to a fit andol emergency we must use our economic tools to stop the flow of fit andol coming into this country 75,000 American lives have been lost to fit andol when we have known National Security threats crossing our Southern border and fol production facilities popping up across Mexico with the help of the Chinese Pill presses Chinese workers and precursors we have a massive problem too many Americans live live lives with family members lost the devastation that so many families feel today is undeniable because of fit all my friend alen sha lost his son Allen sha last year less than a year ago to fit and all we can do so much more more and there's so little action to stop what we know is a killer across our Southern border I look forward hearing your thoughts on how we end this crisis and how we end this crisis now time after time we see this Administration placing partisan issues above the American people the results of bomic as I said earlier it's devastating talked about the gas prices the energy prices the food prices the lack of savings we have to ask ourselves how can American families achieve the American dream when so many of them have so little money in their savings account how can an average Millennial afford to become a firsttime home buyer when interest rates are so high because inflation is not transitory it's permanent brought To Us by the Biden Administration we should not do what we've seen done on the global stage from you and this Administration focus more on leading the European countries or helping the European countries devastate American businesses through climate policies go to China and spend more time talking about climate policy than we do IP theft I know this sounds like a lot but you've been given an awesome responsibility to improve the economy protect Americans and lead us to a better future instead of that we've seen proposals that allow for this government to spy on Americans accounts as with as little as $600 of transactions I'll I'll end with this under your jurisdiction is the financial crimes enforcement Network or fincent and we have seen and heard of abuses from finsen using their power to track Americans for shopping at sporting goods stores purchasing Bibles and making transactions with political keywords in fact I sent a letter to you just a few weeks ago specifically asking about these allegations that the treasury Department should provide materials to Financial in have been providing materials to financial institutions instructing them to search AER Americans Financial transactions using terminology that reveal political interests I would love to hear a response to that if true this is a gross abuse of power finson was created to stop money laundering and not to spy on Americans it was not created for political motivation so I conclude with this America deserves better than what the bid Administration the Department of Treasury has delivered to them Senator Scott uh Janet secretary Yellen Secretary of the Treasury please proceed thank you for joining this committee again thank you good morning chairman Brown ranking member Scott and members of the committee thank you for inviting me to testify over the past three years the Biden Administration has driven an historic recovery GDP growth is strong and inflation has declined signific ific anly we've also achieved a healthy labor market the prim AG labor force participation rate is up by over 2 percentage points from January 2021 the unemployment rate remains below 4% continuing the longest streak in 50 years real wages have increased household median wealth has to by 37% between 2019 and 2022 that's the largest three-year increase on record families are now putting their additional income and accumulated savings back into the economy our continued economic strength depends on a solid and resilient US Financial system throughout 2023 the financial stability oversight Council monitored a wide range of risks including risks stemming from commercial and residential real estate sectors and from Global geopolitical conflicts and technological developments when two Regional banks failed last March we acted quickly to prevent contagion to banks with similar vulnerabilities and to maintain confidence in the banking system the council also increased transparency this year issuing an analytic framework that for the first time provides the public with in-depth information on how it monitors assesses and responds to potential Financial risks let me now highlight five areas of ongoing work that are further detailed in the council's 2023 annual report first the council is focused on risks from the banking sector and from non-bank financial institutions it supports member ageny plans to review whether Capital measures appropriately reflect the banking institution's ability to absorb losses improve resolvability at large complex or interconnected Banks and address vulnerabilities from uninsured deposit levels and depositor composition non-bank Financial instit tions are an important source of capital in financial markets but also pose potential risk to the financial system including risks related to liquidity mismatch and leverage Securities and ex and Exchange Commission initiatives focused on hedge funds money market funds and other investment funds are an important step forward here second the council is focused on member agents genes enhancing assessment efforts and increasing coordination around climate related Financial stability risks from increasingly severe and frequent climate related events Financial Regulators should also continue to promote disclosures that allow investors and financial institutions to consider these risks in their investment and lending decisions third a key f Focus has been bolstering protections against cyber security risk the council promote sh sharing timely and actionable cyber security information including through ongoing Partnerships between state and federal agencies and the private sector fourth the council is closely monitoring the increasing use of artificial intelligence in financial services which brings potential benefits such as reducing costs and improving efficiencies and potential risks like cyber and model risk financial institutions regulators and Market participants should cont continue deepening their expertise and monitoring capacity in this area and fifth the council is focused on digital assets and related risks such as from runs on crypto asset platforms and stable coins potential vulnerabilities from crypto asset price volatility and the proliferation of platforms acting outside of or out of compliance with applicable laws and regulations applicable rules and regulations should be enforced and Congress should pass legislation to provide for the regul of stable coins and of the spot market for crypto assets that are not Securities we look forward to continuing to engage with Congress on this with this overview I look forward to taking your questions on these and other areas uh thanks secretary Yellen uh secretary Yellen again has been very flexible in scheduling this we moved the hearing to 9:00 because she wanted as much time as possible she has to leave by 11:30 exactly I will enforce the f- minute rule on myself on on everyone else uh last March uh you and the banking Regulators after a banking crisis had to step in and stabilize the system it's a pattern we see all too often Executives take outside risk to enrich themselves and rarely suffer consequences 14 years ago Congress gave fso important authorities to impose safeguards of the biggest riskiest non-bank Financial for firms um secretary yell wire epo's designation authorities important for ensuring That Wall Street is accountable when it puts our financial system at risk thank you for that question um I think if we look back to the financial crisis in 2008 and recognize that um in some investment Banks like Leman brothers that were um not not banks at all but rather Shadow Banks or non-bank um financial institutions had very little capital and were immensely highly leveraged and their failure touched off a financial crisis the likes of which we hadn't seen since the Great Depression as you mentioned in your opening comments the toll that this took on American workers and businesses was utterly enormous the unemployment rate Rose close to double digits and um it took almost a decade to recover from that and so um making sure we of course focus on the banking sector but um there are non-banks that can pose risks to the fin their material distress or their failure can pose tremendous spillovers and risks to the entire Financial system and when the council um identif if I such a firm designation may be the appropriate um way to to handle that and dodf Frank uh created an ability for epso to designate such firms for supervision by the Federal Reserve and they need to have higher uh risk management Capital liquidity standards thank you and we again assert that fso should follow through in its non-bank designation uh guidelines and make sure there's appropriate oversight of these companies uh we know that terrorist groups like Hamas Al-Qaeda and hezel have used digital assets to raise and transfer funds we have important deal uh tools to counter elicit Finance but most of them date back to the post 911 error as terorists continue to innovate do we need to update our uh counterterrorism tools Madam Secretary to respond to the risk created by digital assets um there are we we do have authorities many authorities that enable us to act but we've identified a number of holes in our authorities and have um composed a list of suggestions for ways in which uh treasury's authorities could and should be strengthened and we look forward to working with you to try to accomplish that we will work with you on that some of it you can do as the Secretary of the Treasury much of it needs Congressional Authority we will absolutely work with you you've been Cooperative all along we will continue my last question it seemed like almost overnight last March we learned the actions of a few Executives Bank Executives put the whole system under stress thankfully the system stabilized but I think as a a lesson is that risk to our banks can build up and suddenly emerge without much warning it's what happened last year when our banking system faces unexpected stresses how does strong explain to us how strong Capital rules reduce systemic risk and help to protect depositors in small businesses well capital is available to absorb losses from unanticipated shocks what happened last March is that a couple of uh banking organizations that had really mismanage their interest rate risk which is a classic risk something in a rising interest rate environment can lead to either realized or unrealized losses is um for banks um strong Capital enables these Banks to um to to remain uh viable not to fail and um unfortunately Silicon Valley Bank uh touched off uh saw had enormous um uninsured deposits inadequate liquidity and when it suffered um these losses um it's suffered a run and um that run threatened um similar runs at other institutions um that also had exposure to uninsured deposits so the um president the treasury um and The Regulators took actions um to try to stem a systemic Bank Run I believe we were successful in accomplishing that thank you Madam Secretary sen rounds of South Dakota is recognized thank you Mr chairman and secretary Yellen welcome to the committee um Senator lumus had uh headed up a a letter where there eight of us that had sent a letter in uh to you uh the letter was asking that you would commit to a timeline for publishing eso's section 123 report on the economic impact of Regulation to address systemic risk analysis is critical at a time when Financial Regulators are pursuing Comm comp Lex changes to all parts of the financial system the report is 3 years overdue and your response to the letter would be requested fairly quickly I I would encourage you to direct the council to meet its statutory obligations in the next six months and I would ask unanimous consent from the committee Mr chairman that the uh letter be entered into the record that thank you Mr chairman um M Madam Secretary I'm I'm just going to start out like I said I got to ask you an easy one first um the fso 2023 annual report stated US Banks to continue to have sound levels of regulatory capital and healthy levels of profitability while maintaining ample liquidity buffers as the chairwoman of the council I think you would probably agree with the statement correct okay I I also know that that in the past you've been very careful not to get into the middle of discussing the bosle three uh endgame discussions I presume at this stage of the game you don't want to comment on that at this point that's correct okay thank you nonetheless it does seem to me that the fact that we make it very clear that the banks right now have sound levels of regulatory capital and healthy levels of profitability while maintaining ample liquidity buffers which seem to suggest that we may not need uh a whole lot of additional changes with regard to the bosel 3 endgame proposals um secretary Yellen fair to say that uh probably our government is not on a fiscally responsible path right now um I do believe we need to reduce deficits and um to stay on a fiscally sustainable path um thus far in real terms the interest burden of the debt has remained well you know within or below his torical norms and the president's budget last year suggested substantial deficit reduction that would continue to hold the level of interest expense um at comfortable levels but we would need need to work together to uh try to achieve uh those savings you know I recognizing as part of the administration that that's part of the the messaging that's out there but seems to me that the uh the debt service costs on the treasury Securities increased by $237 billion do year-over-year doesn't hardly seem to be sustainable well short-term interest rates have risen considerably as the FED is tightened monetary policy um the expectations of um and actually long-term rates have risen too but by somewhat less um the expectations of most forecast tors and um of C cbo's recent um analysis um suggested that while interest rates are expected um to be above the very low levels that they were at prior to the financial crisis they are expected to decline somewhat I'd like to explore that just a little bit um my understanding is that to accommodate for the rising cost of servicing our debt the treasury Department announced last week another increase of its longer dated debt auctions I if we don't course correct the federal deficit may very well reach a point where no one's willing to take on our government issued debt is that a possibility um it could in an extreme case be a possibility I see no sign of that now our debt is highly valued is um the the soundest and most liquid um asset not only for Americans but around the world but of course we need to stay on a fiscally sustainable path but now also if if the treasury auctions are such that perhaps there is less interest in that debt would the FED have to to restart quantitative easing to accommodate it and would you expect quantitative easing to be a part of the the plans in in the in in the near future the next two years well I'm not going to comment on what the FED will or should do um I would simply say as you as you know the fed's responsibility is to maintain um Full Employment and to hold inflation down and I think that they would um attempt to fulfill that Congressional mandate thank you and I'm these five minutes go by real fast but thank you madam chair thank you Senator re of Rh Island's Rec thank you very much Mr chairman welcome Madam Secretary and let me commend you first for you and president berer for a remarkable job unemployment is now 3.7% it's uh been that away for 24 months that's the longest stretch since 1960s so this Administration has surpassed many administrations previously both Republican and Democrat uh gross domestic product GDP is growing um and we've got a expansion of Labor Force so uh by most statistics and I would add uh real wages have also grown is that correct so and we're seeing particularly the growth of real wages in minority communities which frequently are the the last if if they ever get the benefits of expansion yes it's one of the fairest um expansions we've ever seen with disproportionate gains at the low end and that is a reflection of the policies that the President Biden has taken along with you investing in the economy of creating jobs not simply uh hoping that it all trickles down from the the select few I that is absolutely correct well thank you very much let me change topics for a moment here the the treasury Department released its annual National money laundering risk assessment for 2024 and the assessment notes that investment advises to private funds such as hedge funds and private Equity Funds post the highest risk of moneya laundering because they are exempt from AML the anti-money laundering regulations can you uh describe this the assessment uh and does this represent a danger to the United States well I believe it does represent a danger to our um Financial system and it creates holes um that um you know facilitate illicit Financial activities um investment advisors have never been subject to comprehensive industrywide AML CFT regulations and at this point there is a kind of Patchwork where um some investment advisors Implement some measures some of them are dually registered um as broker dealers or part of financial holding companies but um there are holes in this system which allow legit illegitimate or illicit investors to shop around for an investment adviser who doesn't inquire into their source of wealth and um treasury is planning uh to to issue a proposed rule that would apply uh AML CFT requirements um to those to investment advisors so essentially um it appears uh that some of these advisers who aren't subject to the regulation are taking the money of uh Russians Chinese Etc and moving it through hedge funds and uh uh essentially washing it here in the United States that's absolutely correct and we've identified instances where um investment advisors have worked with sanctioned individuals corrupt officials tax evaders and criminals and this is this is really a risk to us and to the globe we need to address now let me again switch gears uh one of the issues I think we all face in ours particular metropolitan areas is the falling demand for commercial real estate which puts pressure on the banks that have lended to the developers which puts pressures on the developers is ESO looking at this uh in a comprehensive way uh and impact on both the real estate sector and also the banking sector we have been looking at it in a comprehensive way and working with the bank supervisors to understand exposures um I I believe we have discussed at almost all of our um fsac meetings this year commercial real estate and gotten reports and done our own analysis and you're right that particularly for Office Buildings in metropolitan areas vacancy rates have gone way up um especially for other than class a um buildings and of course interest rates are substantially higher valuations are falling and so it's obvious that there's going to be the uh stress and losses that are associated with this the banking supervisors are working with their Banks uh to manage this risk to identify it um I I believe you know this will not end up I hope and believe it will not end up being a systemic risk for the banking system um the exposure of the largest banks um is is quite low but there may be smaller banks that are stressed by these developments thank you uh Madam Secretary very very much thank Senator Reed Senator Kennedy of Louisiana is recognized Madam Secretary i' I've watched you for years even before I came to Washington and uh oh excuse me okay when I have time I do I I I enjoy reading your speeches um I think you're what cool looks like uh you're you're a good sport to go out every day and try to defend biomics it's like trying to defend a uh a fungal infection uh biomics is really just paying more to live worse isn't it he certainly wouldn't agree with that characterization um bomic first try to address the pain that households were experiencing because of the pandemic and to help them survive it um small businesses households people who had lost their jobs to prevent the kind of scarring we saw after the financial crisis and as the economy began to recover and we quickly of all advanced countries that experience the pandemic no country has done better than the United States in quickly having a labor market recovery resuming growth and we have the largest real wage increases of any advanced country and then medium term um bomic is um focused on helping middle class families lead Better Lives address the problems that they have create jobs interrup Madam Secretary because I've only got five minutes um good try these high prices are here to stay aren't they these let me let me amend that Madam Secretary these high prices caused by bomic are here to stay aren't they well the high high prices were not caused by biomics um we suffered a pandemic that resulted in severe dislocations yes ma'am but if I could ask you they're here to stay aren't they I don't expect the level of prices to go down but the rate of inflation so they're here to stay well some prices will be higher than they were before the pandemic and will stay higher but wages have risen considerably and the pace of price increases is now receiv ceeded um over the last 6 months the measure of inflation the FED focuses on has been running exactly at but if your wages and wages are going up if you don't get a pay raise you're screwed I mean here's what there's a difference between disinflation and deflation y'all talk about disinflation which I'm I'm happy to have disinflation means inflation is going down it means prices are rising less rapidly than they were but that's the Far Cry from deflation which means which means the level of these high prices causing caused by bics are here to stay here's what Jay pal just said on February 4th he said he was asked the question inflation is one thing prices are another and I wonder if there's any reason to believe that people will see the prices of things Decline and here's what chairman pal said so the prices of some things will decline others will go up but we don't expect to see a decline in the overall price level that doesn't tend to happen in economies except in very negative circumstances he's talking about a recession it'll take a recession to get these prices down well we don't have to get the prices down because wages wages are going up and um a a metric that is worth knowing is that the median American house worker but let me stop because I'm going get cut you don't think we need to get these prices down you think it's okay that Bacon's up 20% under President Biden chicken's up 235% coffee's up 30% gas is up 44% new cars and trucks are up 20% because people can't afford or that's used cars because people can't afford a new car they're up 24% under bad nomic you don't think we need to get these prices we we wages are also up and wages are up they're not up 24% they're not up 27% they're not up 23 they're not I'm sorry but what is people are really getting good at barely getting by because of biomics look American households have many pressures on their budgets and um President Biden is devoted to doing what we can as an Administration whether it's health care costs um insulin copay um energy cost to getting these prices down and to helping American households um afford a decent um middle class life but um what is true is that the median worker in the United States if you compare today with 2019 can buy the same basket of goods with $1,400 left over to save or spend so American on average are better off in spite of the fact that the level of prices is higher thank you Senator K good sen Manz of New Jersey's recognized thank you Mr chairman let's since we're talking about questions of affordability uh let let's stay in that realm but uh talk about something my Republican friends did not support um the American Rescue plan which I'm proud to have voted for and provided a historic increase to the child tax credit by boosting the credit to 3600 $ for infants and toddlers and 3,000 for children uh and paying those credits on a monthly basis child poverty decreased by 30% in 2021 in the same year food insecurity decreased by 24% the equivalent of 2 million fewer children going hungry for parents the CTC held paid for baby formula child care and so many other things unfortunately this critical Lifeline ended for hardworking families Across the Nation at at the end of 2021 secretary Yellen is it your opinion that the American Rescue plan enhanced child tax credit is the reason for decrease in child poverty in 2021 I believe uh that a recent study showed that about a half of the decrease in child poverty was directly attributable to the child tax credit and there were other things that um also served to lower child many more children would be lifted out of poverty if the bipartisan tax relief for American families and workers Act was signed into law uh I don't know the exact numbers but certainly additional children would based upon what we saw previously and looking at what the credit is uh devised uh in that legislation uh to me it is a proven track record uh of delivering brighter future for our children and I want to thank the chairman for his continued work on this issue I hope we can pass this legislation shortly uh climate change is causing the Property and Casualty Insurance Market to buckle under competing pressures to provide returns for shareholders and sell a product that policy holders can afford as businesses insurers have an obligations obviously to their shareholders to make a profit but as policy makers we have a right to be concerned when families can't afford or access necessary homeowners insurance coverage All State and State farmers sto writing new policies in California 15 other companies have stopped writing new policies in Florida Insurance giant AIG plans to reduce their homeowners insurance business in communities across the United States New York Delaware Florida Colorado Montana Idaho and wyam 12% of homeowners have chosen to forgo home insurance so Madame secretary can you discuss as noted in the report how climate risk drives a negative feedback loop to economic and financial stability well we're very concerned um about the developments that you just cited and um of course the absence of insurance or being priced out of insurance as these climate risks have intensified is harming um the well-being of households and um the cost of living and it's also creating risk to Financial stability because um many banks have exposure um through loans to the risks that can come if there are uninsured losses and so uh there can be a feedback loop um that works to disadvantage between wildfires droughts flooding across the country for those who are deniers uh you can see it before your eyes if you have no insurance then you put for most American families is is the biggest single asset at risk uh at the end of the day finally the epso uh report made some mention of the housing shortage when discussing vulnerabilities in the residential real estate market but I worry that not enough emphasis being placed on this crisis Nationwide we're facing a shortage of 3.2 million homes this shortage is driving up the price of Housing and placing vulnerable Americans such as seniors and those with lower incomes at risk do you agree that the housing shortage if not add could pose a serious threat to the economy and if so what do you think that Congress could do to help alleviate that circumstance well I certainly agree that this is an enormous problem for a very large number of Americans um President Biden has made a number of different proposals to attempt to um address this um that Congress hasn't uh passed and I do think it's an area that requires um very close attention and action by Congress to um address well Choice neighborhood section 202 housing for the elderly and a whole host of other things and the public housing fund is facing a 70 billion Capital needs backlog and the section 202 program hasn't kept with the rising need for affordable senior housing so I know the committee has jurisdiction over that I appreciate the chairman has given housing more attention under his leadership I hope we can Contin to do so thank C man Senator Scott of South Carolina ranking member thank you Mr chairman once again thank you for being here certainly you and I would probably agree on one thing for sure which is that the United States and a strong United States is vital a vital part of Global Security and one of the challenges I have as I started my opening statement with as it relates to uh the Iranian regime's proxy proxy attacks on our American soldiers is the fact that this Administration under your leadership in the treasury Department has released $6 billion before the October 7th attack $10 billion after the October attack and 100 plus billion dollars as relates to uh the relaxation of the oil sanctions and that to me leads to attacks from the hoodies it actually is in part because this Administration downgraded the hoodies from a terrorist organization foreign terrorist organization uh so when I look at the actions of this Administration and I couple that with the resources released to Iran the question I ask is how do you continue to provide Iran with billions of dollars knowing that they are the ones that are orchestrating attacks against our service members and I I assume your answer will in part be that some of those dollars are frozen even though there have been a couple of uh opportunities and acts trying to access those resources but we both understand the fungible nature of money and so I I'd love to hear your answer number one number two likely because I've spoken with you before during these hearings you are very very good uh and therefore I may have to cut you off okay um so first of all I want to say that the treasury Department has been extremely aggressive and very Vigilant about sanctions on the Iranian regime we have worked very hard and had many sanctions actions um addressed at um Iranian oil shipments to uh try to do what we can to minimize um revenues from oil um we have taken many actions in the aftermath of the attacks on Israel um to close down channels for Hamas and other Iranian Affiliated groups um to use the financial system uh to fund their um malicious activities so I think the record is clear we've done a great deal with respect to let me stop there because I do think I want to you and I will not get to an agreement there I do think that the record is clear that when you look at it the net effect of the administration's actions has been more resources more money for Iran not fewer dollars but I have two other subjects I cover with you go ahead could I just quickly the six billion that you're referring to were Iranian funds that were frozen in Korea and you permitted These funds to be transferred to um Qatar they can only both in when they were in Korea and now can only be used for humanitarian purposes and there are strict controls to make sure that they are directed only at humanitarian purposes mostly mostly mostly because I have very little time left and the chairman is being uh very tough on us today as it relates our time so I will just respond by simply saying that if you give me $600 and I had a need I would just use other money to deal with the need if you are trying to restrict the dollars that's why I started the conversation with the fungible nature of dollars but we do have another issue as relates to the fso designations uh the CFI designations under fso under your direction fot finalized guidance on a framework to evaluate non-bank Financial firms for designation as a threat to our financial stability if a company meets epo's new framework it would be designated a cify and would be subject to Federal Reserve supervision and regulation in 2019 EPO issued a common sense proposal on this matter that evaluated firms based on their business activities required a consideration of the firm's Financial Health and perhaps most importantly would have required the government to conduct a cost benefit analysis prior to making any such designation and recently my understanding is that the way that you've restructured it that no longer is the cost benefit analysis necessary uh no longer do you use the activities based approach instead due to as I quote unpredictability of the financial crisis such an analysis is not reasonably estimable useful or warranted in this context so when you eliminate actual standards that people can understand and you go to something far more flexible and subjective I think it makes it even more difficult for companies to figure out when they are in threaten when they are not in threat of becoming a cify um I don't know if I have time to answer this question the chairman Li take your time on your answer no the answer is if proceed um we revised the 2019 guidance because it made it all but impossible to designate a firm um as as a cifi um and deprive D epso of a tool that Congress in do Frank clearly intended for it to have um dodf Frank does not require a cost benefit analysis um it could have required it it chose not to require it and for very good reason and you just cited the reason which is we're talking about some cost to an individual firm and the benefit is a reduced probability of a devastating financial crisis like the one we had in 2008 that can deprive um millions and millions of hard-working Americans and businesses of their livelihoods and um to try to assign a number to what that benefit is even even now um if you ask researchers what is the um what was the cost of the 200 financial crisis um it was obviously huge but um to try to put a number on it is an artificial exercise and um it's clear that dodf Frank did not intend it and with respect to an activities based approach um the 2019 guidance said that there was a preference for an activities based approach and designation could only be used if an activities based approach would not work thank you and there is no preference here for designation it is not the a preferred approach I certainly think of you as an expert that's saying a lot but let me just suggest that an only the government thinks that figuring out the cost of something is unnecessary and determining the activities that lead to the threat is unnecessary that from a business person's perspective is remarkable thank you Senator Scott Senator um tester Montana is recognized uh thank you Mr chairman ranking member and I want to thank uh you for being here I very much appreciate Madam Secretary I want to talk a little bit about Russia and China is particularly China there is no uh no doubt that they want to replace us as the world's economic leader I mean that's a given um it is also a given that they're not going to play fair they never have and I don't think they ever will uh I am pleased that the fsock is focused on ensuring that we have appropriate mitigation and response Management in place uh but it's awfully hard to protect against threats that aren't on our radar so secretary Yellen do we have a good enough handle on where these threats from our foreign adversaries are directed and and and what are you seeing as far as threats are concerned well you know ifsac is really only concerned with threats to the US Financial system now um cyber security that could involve China um there may be artificial intelligence we've identified as a threat but China poses a number of threats that the Biden Administration and the US Treasury are concerned about and attempting to address that would not be in the domain of epo uh amen but if from Department of Treasury standpoint do you feel you have a handle on these threats and where they're coming from because they're they continually as it applies to our financial system military is another situation cyber is another situation but as it applies to our financial system because if they can undermine it take away our confidence in it they've gone a great step towards achieving their goal well we are particularly concerned about cyber threats ransomware and okay so let me talk about a different issue that sander rounds and I have been working on for a long time and it is uh deals with four countries many of them have been already brought up today North Korea Iran uh Russia and China as it applies to buying foreign Farmland um we have um we have a bill we've asked we've asked that cfus be be really the lead on it and and and and I just kind of want to I want to get your help on this because quite Frank frankly we've got some push back because cifas doesn't think this is in their purview I personally think Agriculture and food is National Security and I think uh there are dictatorships around the world that use food to control people I don't want to be in that situation otherwise our democracy will be gone so the real question is is when it comes to buying farmland and Agra business does cifas have the capacity to be able to uh analyze and make a determination and um what's going on well cifas um as it applies to farmland and Agra business so as it applies to Farmland I believe cifas has um the ability to review um real estate transactions if they're close to military fac identified a sensitive facilities I'm talking I'm talking about everything in the United States not just next to military facilities which by the way I don't think has been done very well but but I'm talking about even if they're buying it next to my farm if if it's if it's a person connected with any one of these four countries government do we have the ability to make a determination well we do agree that food security is a national security issue and I I don't know that um we would have the ability not near such an installation to be honest with you you may not the question is is what does Congress need to do to mayble make it so that they have that ability because I think this is a serious serious serious problem um what do we have to do to make sure they have that ability is there do we have to fund them more do we have to put additional mandates on them what do we have to do to make sure because I think they're concerned about um right now semiconductors mostly which I got no problem with that but but when it comes to Farmland aggro business what do we have to do to make sure that they're paying attention to this um you know for cifas to take action Y on this I think would require legislation um I know that you've been a leader in um proposing such regulation and I believe my um the treasury Department has worked with you we're certainly happy to yep so I I appreciate that and it is bipartisan and I think it is a real threat that we need to take seriously we just found out about a Chinese billionaire with about 200,000 acres in Oregon we didn't know a damn thing about it until after the fact after the fact it becomes a problem we need to more be more proactive thank you secretary Yellen for being here thank you Mr chairman and next Senator Chester thank you and that that that Chinese billion I spoke to the farm bureau in Columbus yesterday or a few days ago and uh one of the things we're working on is not just the prohibition but actually having the data and we will come to you and the administration about how to get that we have a bill to do it but it needs to be much more aggressive so we know what they're actually doing with all of their slight of hand uh Senator Smith of Minnesota is recognized thank you Mr chair welcome secretary yell and it's so good to see you again very much appreciate the chance to be with you um so I'd like to ask a little bit about some of the broader economic issues that we see ahead of us and maybe respond a bit to some of the questions that senator Kennedy was asking you so as the FED has raised interest rates a lot of economists predicted of course that the economy was we would we'd be well into a recession by now but that hasn't happened in fact the economy has been defying expectations and this is driven it seems to me by historically strong uh consumer spending also that have really been driving economic um activity and growth and I think as you were attempting to point out um that since President Biden took office way wages have increased significantly for low and middle- inome earners is that is do I have that right that that is true right and um and I think that last year nearly 60% of workers saw their wages outpace prices um surpassing pre pandemic levels is that right ye yes that is correct so actually purchasing power which is how which which is what matters how much you can buy with the money that you have in your wallet has actually is up is that not true yes it is it's uh it's up I I think the number I mentioned is um me the median worker could buy the same basket of goods as in 2019 and have $1,400 left over that's right and I'm not an economist though I did take macroeconomics in college and when when you have price deflation that is usually I mean what that means in fact is that the economy is shrinking and people are actually much worse off in that circumstance right course that's right we've had a good strong labor market in um Stiller growth right right um and of course some would argue that the way that some prices have gone up including food for example you if you look at those price increases and then I'm not asking you to comment on this I'm just observing you look at that those price increases and then you look at the massive increase in corporate profits you mean I would argue that that seems to be driving that seems to be the driver of of prices going up more than some of the um you know more than the Investments that the administration and Congress Democrats and Congress have made um in the American people but let me get to that um if I may um I'm interested to know what you think have been the impact of those big Investments that um Senator Kennedy was talking about that I'm really quite proud of big Investments that we've made in Americans in infrastructure and Broadband um in improving veterans Health Care um and lowering the cost to prescription drugs and bringing manufacturing and chips manufacturing back to the United States for example so could you talk a bit about what impact that you think has had on the historic recovery in our economy so um I I think the legislation there's really a trifactive legislation Congress passed the infrastructure Bill the um chips and semiconductor act and also the inflation reduction act we're seeing an investment boom and um it's creating very good jobs uh for many Americans in parts of the country that just haven't seen a lot of opportunity in recent decades and um the work we're doing shows that a disproportionate amount both of the infrastructure spending and the Investments we're seeing that have been announced because of uh the IRA are going to parts of the country where income is um below average and infrastructure needs are greatest so it's spurring job creation and the benefits are being very widely shared and in fact I think you referred to this in your opening testimony if you look at the performance of the of the American economy compared to the performance of other economies around the world it's we're doing much better ours is the best and we also made significantly more of these sort of broad-based investments in the American people than other economies other countries did right yes we have I I think we've made very impressive Investments and if you just look at the inflation reduction act you see that it is sparking an enormous boom um in clean energy um across the Spectrum across the United States great thank you Mr chair uh thank you Senator Smith uh Senator Butler of California recognized thank you Mr chair and thank you Madame secretary uh for your incredible service to to our country in such a challenging time I want to commend uh you and the Biden Administration um for the sound economic policies uh that we have in place in short what you have said and uh what I believe the fso report uh illuminates for for all of us is that bomic works um and that we have record low unemploy a robust economic growth Rising wages to pick up just where Senator Smith um left off I would love to give you the opportunity to say more to just explain to the American people how this these historic Investments of the IRA and American Rescue plan have contributed uh to the stronger economy and the stronger labor market just to give you some time to really delve into that and explain to the American people well um one of the things I think that's been holding holding our economy back is a failure to invest in infrastructure um we used to be rated among um the very handful of top countries around the world in terms of quality of our infrastructure and um we our rank decreased because we um had highly inadequate investment and now we're seeing roads and bridges that have been falling part where um affects Commerce people are caught for hours in traffic jams um all across the country we're seeing um new infrastructure be built and it's not just old infrastructure but what a modern um economy needs um Broadband both the American Rescue plan and the infrastructure bill um are providing the funding to make sure sure that every American household um has access to high-speed internet I remember during the um pandemic when we would read stories about families um driving their kids to a McDonald's and sitting out in the parking lot um so that they could do their homework had access to broadband that will be a thing of the past and um of course the inflation reduction Act and the chips act are really making sure that the United States will play a significant role in it's it's a matter of National Security um of resilience of our supply chains and making sure that we're creating good jobs in the industries that are going to be powering our economy in the years to come and we are seeing the bill has very strong wage and apprenticeship standards for uh the entire clean energy uh set of Investments so we're making sure that the jobs that are created are good good high-paying well-paying jobs and that people get the training they need to be able to fill them and um there are many aspects of this legislation designed to ensure that all parts of the country benefit from it and particularly parts of the country that just haven't um really seen a lot of opportunity and that would include um energy communities that have been dependent on coal and lowincome communities where there are special bonuses for investing there great pres President Biden committed to the American people that he would build our economy from the bottom up in the middle out and I appreciate uh you helping to explain that um a bit more uh to the American people um two areas uh secretary that I will just name and give you just a quick opportunity to respond and we'll submit some further questions to you for for the record today right now as Senator Menendez pointed out uh in his earlier comments the climate crisis is really at California's front door um the historic Reign 400 mudslides 700,000 people without power uh today um as we sit here the eso report has talked a lot about insurers uh them leaving markets all across the country including California I'd love to get uh your thought on how Noni non-banking um lenders uh and other sort of non fock government agencies are working to integrate um financial and climate data uh so that we could actually um get your just again thoughts around how the health of Banks and non-bank lenders will be affected by the lack of insurance being available well we're doing a great deal of work on that in the federal insurance office um OMB recently approved uh a survey that will be very granular at the ZIP code level to understand Trends in Insurance um the State Insurance Regulators the niic plan also to collect similar data we're working with them and what we'll get is a very granular understanding of what's happening to the availability and pricing of insurance um policy makers I think as they begin to address what's becoming a crisis here this is not straightforward to do you know but we look forward to working with with Congress to see um what responses might be appropriated and it it will have an effect on banks um it raises the risks it's and we're focused very heavily on the agencies working with the banking community so that Banks understand how these developments are impacting well it impacts um the losses that a bank would experience um from The Lending that it's doing and and the value of uh homes and businesses uh that banks are lending to thank you senat thank you Senator Cortez Mast Nevada is recognized thank you um uh Madam Secretary let me follow up on this same conversation because in Nevada we we have similar concerns quite often it's been declared major disaster due to severe storms flooding landslides mudslides same thing I heard from my colleague and one of the concerns I have is the possibility of changes in Property and Casualty Insurance affecting uh the more mortgage markets and home prices right that ultimately exacerbate the affordable housing crisis we see in Nevada and across the country um one of the recommendations and you may have touched on this is to enhance or establish information sharing protocols among federal and state agencies what does that mean well we um are going to try to collect data as I mentioned the federal insurance office that gives us a lot of insight into this issue and with state agencies as well you're is that part of the collaboration we would like to collaborate with State agencies the states are The Regulators of the insurance industry in the United States and they're looking at these issues as well and in order to reduce burdens on um businesses um and to make sure we um have compatible data we're trying to collaborate on on this effort so for that reason please let us know if for particular particularly uh accessing that state data and that collaboration is going to be key for us so let us know how we can help if anyway please very good we'll do thank you let let me jump back to um I'm really interested I think many of us are uh a year later now um how The Regulators have worked to strengthen um regulation and supervision to address what we saw happen in March 2023 the bank failures um I my question to you is in response to the failures of Silicon Valley Bank signature and First Republic Bank um how have the agencies altered their approach to supervision so so you know this is a matter for the individual agencies but both the FDIC and the FED have done and put in the public domain reports on what happened and the these reports include analysis of the failings their own failings in terms of their supervisory programs and clearly is I believe they've testified um strengthening supervision so that they address um taking more timely action and I appreciate that the question is is that happening in other words do do are are the bank supervisors are the supervisors there are they actually following through on the recommendations that we saw coming out of the FDIC and the FED I believe that they are but epso is not attempting to um engage in an independent assessment of the agencies you know I I think calling up the um those agencies directly and asking them for followup is probably I appreciate that helps to have an independent view of it but I I appreciate that let me jump uh to one final thing here non-bank mortgage Originators um uh and servicers I see in the data that that uh I'm sure you see as well they continue to gain market share from Banks over the last 10 years non-banks originated approximately 70% of single family mortgages in the first half of 2023 does this shift away uh from Banks to non-banks pose a financial um stability risk due to non-banks lack of access to deposits for short-term financing is this a concern is this something um that we should be looking into as well senator yes it is and ifso is very focused on that because non-bank mortgage companies um lack access to the kind to deposits which banks have um their short-term their reliant on short-term financing that may be a lot less stable uh than uh deposits and um in stressful times their credit lines can be be pulled they don't have access to the kinds of liquidity back stops that banks have as well such as the fed's discount window they tend to have very limited capital and loss absorbing capacity and Mortgage Service rights are a less liquid um asset so um there is concern that in stressful market conditions um we could see the failure of one of these and as you said uh this has become very very significant in the mortgage Market thank you thank you Mr chair thank you Senator Cortez mes Senator Warner from Virginia thank you Mr chairman um Madam Secretary it's great to see you uh I'm going to bounce around a little bit today uh on a series of questions so I appreciate you hanging in with me um a number of colleagues have already talked about um financing of terrorism um yesterday treasury did a issue annual risk assessments for illicit Finance in the wake of the horrific Hamas attack um yesterday's risk assessment states that Hamas is a well Resource Group that Garners substantial Financial Resources for numerous and divisive sources use complicit virtual asset service providers and money transmitters through Global Tove funds the remarkable thing is back in 2016 United States put secretary sanctions in place for hisbah But Here we are now 120 days after the horrific attacks of October 7th and we still haven't put secondary sanctions in place for Hamas or for that matter any other foreign terrorist organizations so um we've tried to put an end to that uh together with Senator rounds Reed and Romney I've introduced Senate Bill 3441 the terrorist financing prevention act to help address this program uh this this would make sure that all foreign terrorist organizations would be covered and it would be able to have them go after not only their secondary banking but also um their ability to use crypto I really appreciate that treasury has helped uh a lot with technical assistance on this piece of legislation but I want to give you the opportunity now to U speak to this issue and whether you think um this kind of legislation is needed because our understanding is you know without it you can't put in place this uh full full Bevy of extensions I would agree that there are limitations the treasury faces and we certainly support the aims of the bill they would help give us um authorities that would enable us to better deal with a very significant threat I'm going to count that as an endorsement um I'm going to move to another topic um artificial intelligence you know epso report identifies AI as a major risk for the financial sector matter of fact I've been surprised that we have not seen more use of AI tools on Market manipulation already and I sometimes fear that they may be happening and they may not be Fortune 100 companies but Fortune 200 to 500 companies and we may um find um that it's happening real time as somebody that was very involved with in Dodd Frank with the um creation of fock I have to say I've been I think its record so far has been a little bit mixed but boy oh boy if there was ever a case to look across all the regulatory entities within the financial sector um a problem like AI I think would make uh would be perfectly suited for fso again I've got legislation with bipartisan legislation with Senator Kennedy that would um have epso play that coordinating role on AI as as well as um look at some of the issues that already exist in Securities Law around Market manipulation but increase the penalties if AI tools are being used so ad secretary do you agree that this is an area where Congress should move quickly um to make sure that we've got a comprehensive approach for both the upside and the downside of AI in the financial sector I I think the administration would welcome a congressional initiative in this area and um EPO this year identified AI as um of vulnerability that could create systemic risk so we are working very hard to deepen our understanding of the ways in which that could happen and to monitor very rapidly changing developments to be able to um Define best practices for financial institutions um again we've worked closely with your office but I hope you'll take time to look at Senator kenned and I's Bill and uh I think it's at least a good starting point um for giving you the for giving you the tools and frankly us having the guard rails last question some I've raised with particular our friends over at the FED um as we think about how we prevent future svb's and there's been recent reports even now that uh one of the banks that took on some of the assets of signature might be having some challenges is you we might need new regulations but we ought to use some of the tools that are already out there discount window it had been rep repeatedly reported that the discount window a lot of these banks that fell into disrepair didn't even have a process in place um I think we need to go beyond some of the guidance that's been given and actually potentially even make mandatory usage of the discat window so we can make sure that it's easily used I know people are concerned about any kind of reputational risk uh but can you speak to this issue and how we can um make sure that Banks utilize this tool that's been set up since the beginning of the Fed absolutely agree and um inadequate access to liquidity because of a failure by banking institutions to post collateral with the FED in a timely way this is something that I think um is being reviewed and it would not surprise me to see new initiatives in this area it's a it's a critically important matter thank you Madam Secretary thank you Mr chairman Senator Warr Senator Warren of Massachusetts is recognized uh thank you Mr chairman it's good to see you secretary Yellen so today I want to talk about the one percenters not the billionaires but the billionaire Banks um America has more than 4,700 Banks but the ones that have the power to crash our economy and the ones that get government bailouts are not the Community Banks no the ones that pose a threat are the giant Banks the multi-billion dollar Banks so the FED has proposed increased Capital standards to make these giant Banks hold more capital and it turns out that even among those billion doll Banks nearly 90% already hold enough Capital so what we're really talking about here is just a handful of the biggest banks that would have to hold a little more Capital secretary Yellen I just want to start by making sure I've got my facts right would the new basil 3 rule on Capital standards have no impact on Community Banks and in fact only make a handful of giant Banks hold more Capital well it's terms apply to banks with more than a hundred billion dollar or significant trading activities and Community Banks have far lower assets and I'm not aware of any who have those so this is not about our community not about this is this is about our our biggest banks why is it so important for these giant Banks to hold more Capital well capital is a measure of the resources a bank has to absorb losses in the face of a shock it's even in normal times capital is something a bank has to have in order to lend and so it's critical to meeting the borrowing needs of households and businesses throughout the economy when a shock hits like we saw in the financial crisis um a bank can fail if it runs through its capital and if it's a large bank or one that is highly interconnected to other financial institutions its failure can have devastating consequences for the financial system as a whole the failure of One bank can transmit huge problems to other banks that it lends from lends to or borrows from they too can fail and we can see um an event like the 2008 financial crisis and when you have such a financial crisis um it can cause enormous economic toll we saw that when we hit near double digit unemployment when the financial system collapsed um it hits hardworking Americans it hits businesses that really had nothing to do with any of the um activities that caused this okay um so so higher Capital standards are about making the bank safer but it's about making all of us safer right basically yes because it diminishes the odds of a systemic finan of a systemic failure and that's why it's so important for these big Banks and look what's happening today less than a year after three billionaire Banks collapsed another one New York Community Bank is now teetering so we're just trying to make sure that these giant Banks don't go broke and come back to the American taxpayer like they have done before to get a bailout but the big Banks like JP Morgan Bank of America City and Wells Fargo are fighting back hard against these Capital standards they spent millions of dollars lobbying they're even running ads during the NFL playoffs claiming that if they have to be a little bit safer it will somehow raise grocery prices for American families you know in other words they want us to believe that big banks are really worried about Americans grocery bills nobody believes that so the question is what is this really about the answer is profits if giant banks have to hold back just a little more Capital that could bite into their B BuyBacks and their executive compensation in fact Morgan Stanley recently said it out loud the banking Lobby is fighting to water down the capital rules so that these giant Banks can create quote a significant increase in BuyBacks secretary Yellen let me just ask do you happen to know how much money the four biggest banks return to their shareholders through stock BuyBacks and dividends over the last decade um my guess is It's a larger I don't know I don't know the exact fig I actually looked this up $630 billion and do you know how much the average CEO pay at these big Banks was in just 2022 just in that one year I'm not sure my guess would be around 30 million but 28 million you're very very close there so higher Capital requirements May mean fewer stock BuyBacks it may mean somewhat smaller bonuses for the CEOs these giant Banks say that they will stop making mortgage loans if they have to hold a little more Capital but I got to say here who can trust these guys in 2020 Jamie Diamond at JP Morgan made big headlines when he pledged to make 40,000 mortgage loans to Black applicants 40,000 that's a lot more than three years later how many loans have they actually made to Black applicants 100 and 22 yeah so that's what this is all about the biggest banks want to be able to push hundreds of millions of dollars out the door to investors and CEOs while the banks take on more risks and then when things go wrong and they will go wrong they want taxpayers to bail them out again and they claim that if the FED doesn't cave people's groceries will cost more you know I am sick of bailouts and I am sick of banks that Li to the American people we need stronger Capital rules to reduce the need for bailouts and I urge our Regulators to finalize these rules as quickly as possible thank you Mr chairman uh thank you Senator Warren um there is I believe Senator fedman is on the way and Senator Van's on the way so I I will just in the meantime I want to ask another question we've we've had for decades and I appreciate particularly your interchange with um your exchange I guess is the better word with Senator Smith uh pointing out the economy in this country versus other countries pointing out the um wage growth in this country um and and you know people were hit hard by inflation um people were are are for good reason are concerned I think it's clear though that a big part of inflation has been um all the all the corporate BuyBacks and and corporate greed and and just generally Wall Street Predators I I cite often in this committee that um the average the the CEO of stellantis the old dler Chrysler uh which the UAW was on strike with or against um the CEO makes 365 times what the average worker makes and that speaks voles I think Senator BR of Alabama is recognized thank you Mr chairman right late last year um I asked various Regulators who came before this committee whether they believed our banking system was strong or not and they all answered yes so today I would like to start with that same same question for you in your opinion is the US banking sector strong um on balance the answer is yes what what are you balancing there well there are some risks and there are some institutions that um will face stresses from commercial real estate that we know is significantly impacted um particularly Office Buildings by the pandemic um interest rates are higher loans will have to be refinanced in an environment with higher interest charges lower valuations and Rising vacancy rates so um you know for some banks this will be a concern but on balance um I'd say this system is well capitalized so one of the things um that we've been looking at and I want to talk about you leading the council uh you're obviously the chair of eso and its efforts to monitor the risk and vulnerabilities within our financial system of which you just named a few I would certainly hope that part of this and part of what you're evaluating is the potential risk that regulations and rules new rules coming out um the very the very own agencies that you oversee what risk those May pose to our economy I think these regulations could fun fundamentally weaken the banking sector and so just want to talk to you about that are you assessing that and the implications of these new regulations or rules and what they will do to the American economy well I think you've raised a very valid issue but epo's charge is to identify um vulnerabilities in the financial system and threats that could lead to systemic Financial um consequences and not to undertake an evaluation of um the cost to the financial sector of actions that Regulators have taken so I don't think we're the right um agency to be I do hope though that you're looking at the cumulative impact of all of these things it seems that everything is moving so fast we look at where our economy is right now and I think that somebody needs to take a step back and take a look at how all of these things later on to each other what they do and then what they do to the end user this is about everyday Americans this is about people all across the state of Alabama and so I I'm certainly hopeful that there is somebody that is taking a a look in a broad way um at all of these things and how they work or don't work more importantly together speaking of risk I do want to discuss the US sanctions policy while I appreciate you being here today I was frustrated that the treasury Department did not here before this committee following the October 7th um atrocities that we saw occur across the globe that was no doubt a day where we saw Pure Evil and I want to talk to you specifically about our relationship with Iran it's no secret that Iran is the world's leading State sponsor of terrorism providing hundreds of millions of dollars to support terrorist organizations like Hamas Hezbollah the houthis as well as proxies and Syria and Iraq they are actively carrying out other atrocities including attacks on American civilians and service members we know weakness invites aggression and through we want peace we have to do that through strengths terrorist terrorists are emboldened to Target Americans and our allies it seems that this Administration in the face of that has doubled down on a strategy of appeasement my question to you secretary Ellen is after the October 7th tax the administration took actions to sanction a number of members of Hamas and operatives and financial facilitators um but obviously that was too little too late how long had the administration known about the financers of this terrorist attack prior to the the actual date of October 7th well we have been focused on Hamas and um other similar organizations and have been taking actions on sanctions before the attacks um we gained a lot more information in the aftermath of the attacks and have taken many more actions and we've also been cracking down on Iran with respect to um oil shipments with respect to their petrochemical sector um with respect to steel and respectfully my my time is up I would just say it's not working we have to go back to a pressure of Maximum strategy because right now the Middle East is on fire Iran is having its will and we have three American Service members dead we've we've we've got to we got to move in it we're very focused on it and Senator Federman of Pennsylvania deal Senator fedman is recognized of Pennsylvania thank you Mr chairman secretary Yellen I get to I get to I get to talk to one of the leading Experts of the the economy here so now I want to you know I want to talk about this here okay so now President Biden has now brought down inflation and now last month over 350,000 new jobs right yes and the economy is growing at 3.3% right yes okay unemployment is now at 3.7% correct that's pretty good right and it's the longest stretch under 4% in 50 years yeah in fact in fact that was 36 months of of job growth right yes yeah wow and and of course rail wages are up too correct yeah and then now now the the Dow and the S&P 500 are now at record highs right yes oh my gosh so the Dow was over uh 38,600 3600 uh and the NASDAQ is of is almost 16,000 right that's those record highs and is it fair to say that that our economies and our our economy and the recovery is is really the the Envy of the world we're doing better than any other Advanced country yeah so yeah and and actually when I drove I drove myself back to DC from Pittsburgh this week I was able to get gas up at under $3 a gallon uh we're not talking about gas prices anymore uh but now now I want to now put that is is like uh now some randoms on Tik Tok put up videos at McDonald's that they can rig a $16 extra meal so what is really more reflective of our economy right now some kind of a tick tock about McDonald's or with all those other kind of Statistics that that I've just been discussing over in this question well all the statistics you mentioned are highly relevant and by and large extremely positive it is true that the level of some prices that are important to Consumers have risen since the pandemic um one of those would be rents um food prices are somewhat higher um new and used vehicles but wages have also gone up and now inflation has moderated very substantially and in fact by the measure that the FED pays the most attention to um inflation over the last six months has been running at 2% at an annual rate and uh wages are now going up substantially more rapid 2% 2% is the fed's target oh my gosh yeah wow so so prices are not Rising um rapidly anymore wages continue to um the number I tend to cite is that the median worker in the United States can buy the same typical basket of goods as in 2019 and have $1,400 left over to spend or save yeah and and again I it's it's it's remarkable that now people want to talk about some random uh e extra uh meal at McDonald's for $16 uh which really is is uh is a rigged situation but now now anybody any Fair any Fair experts would say that that our economy is the Envy of of the world and now what what's what's Lost in Translation uh in in our national conversation about where we are literally you know in our economy versus now some of you know some of the other discussions in in other parts of the media well I mean we we do see much more positive um surveys of consumer sentiment in recent months since inflation has come under control and wages are rising more quickly um when Americans are ped and asked about a recent poll asking them about their own personal Financial um situation more than 60% said they felt good and more than 60% said they thought 2024 would be a better year now sometimes when people are asked about the economy and how other people are doing they seem more negative on it but their own assessment of their own situation as well as their behavior when it comes to spending or starting small businesses we're seeing really record small business formula formation and that's something that only really occurs when uh people feel confident to about the future of the economy thanks Senor fedman uh thank you I just I didn't give her a shout out like great great job thank you anyway so I'm out thank you Senator thank you s uh Senator Hager if you'd like to also give her a shout out I'll give you an extra 30 seconds thanks Mr chairman we'll see where we land with this welcome more if you'd like to give me a shout out you'll get an extra minute I understand um secretary yelen welcome back um last week the treasury outlined its debt issuing debt issuance plans for the upcoming quarter and it included some unexpectedly optimistic net funding estimates so I have a few questions around that if I might start there first can you explain the treasury's elevated Reliance on Bill issuance which obviously is more costly to the American taxpayer it's certainly more costly than using no or bonds right now uh is it because you've got concerns about demand for long dated instruments or is it more that you're trying to time where the FED might go with its R Cuts we um rely heavily on a regular and predictable schedule of auctions and um we I understand that I'm talking about the mix of what you're we try we never tried to time the market we are in there for the long term we want to make sure that there are not significant surprises for Market participants and so we have quarterly refunding schedules that are um well considered and um follow that principle so I understand but but shortening the duration of the curve where you are on the curve right now very short what's the thought process behind that well we're close to the proportion that has been recommended um by the treasury borrowing advisory committee this close to mean you're shorter or longer than the recommendation slight I believe we have a slightly higher shortterm issuance but um and and let's let's let's come back to the the optimistic funding estimates themselves um the estimates for this coming quarter I thought were were they just released last month is unexpectedly High I'm wondering what's driving this next quarter's uh increased estimate is it strong physical inflows that you're expecting or is it merely tax receipts the is it something structural that you see in the economy that's that's causing your projection to be higher for this coming quarter um I I can't give you I need to come back to you with the details I know we've actually um lowered our estimate of the amount that we'll need to borrow in the first quarter um at our quarterly refunding we indicated we expected to borrow $760 billion do in the first quarter and a lesser amount um in the second quarter um and actually this estimate is lower than um what we had expected no it's more optimistic as a and I'm just trying to understand what what you anticipates driving the inflows and why it's just this quarter why it wouldn't manifest itself in the coming quarters why those estimates happen well there there are patterns that depend on when we get tax receipts so is tax receipts coming in April there's less there's less need so you're more optimistic that tax receips will be higher than originally projected I'm not I don't want to I I need to look into it and I'd like to get back to you with the details let's let's go to another area you and I talked about this before it has to do with the politicization of what's happening at the treasury um you know on multiple occasions you and I have talked about it now there's an IRS contractor that has been um has been actually sentenced for this a leaking confidential tax information belonging to the president belonging to private citizens um and you the presiding judge appropriately referred to what happened as illegal and he said quote it was an intolerable attack on our constitutional democracy and I think exploiting the IRS for political purposes is deeply concerning to every American and and in previous hearings you've referred to this illegal act as very damaging and I I want you to just let me know if you still stand by that statement I I do we I believe that protection of personal taxpayer information is utterly essential and um we're devoted to it and I um know that although I can't give you the I I agree with you on that I I just want to point out one thing that that deeply concerns me because even more damage continues to be inflicted on The credibility to the treasury if you think about last month Revelation that finsen that's a bureau that's under your watch directed financial institutions to flag customers who demonstrated quote extremist indicators like the words Trump or Maga or whether they made transactions to purchase religious books this time it's not just an IRS contractor doing it this is the administration itself taking personal data to Target its political foes secretary Yellen do you believe that people that purchase bibles are extremists I certainly not I want to put this matter in perspective first of all fen's mission is to safeguard the financial system from illicit use to combat money laundering terrorist Finance certainly not the target Americans for purchasing Bibles or voting for Donald Trump finen is is expected to work closely with law enforcement and financial institutions on their money laundering um detection programs and so there are interchanges and conversations between finsen and financial institutions um and I believe that the matter that you were referring to dates back to before my time as treasury secretary and in the aftermath of the January 6th attack on the capital um so um starting in the Trump Administration there were efforts to work with financial institutions to determine um what had happened and to work with them to provide relevant information and purchasing a Bible is relevant information these people it's ridiculous a shame I will get I will get back to you with more detailed information when I've had a chance to study this thoroughly I I want you to understand that this dates back be these these were conversations between I believe staff at finson and financial institutions that are um is the purpose of fincent and so the details I promise to thoroughly investigate thank you Senator is under your charge number of things number of things happened between January 1st and January 20th of 2021 Senator van Hollands recognized uh thank you Mr chairman welcome Madam Secretary thanks for all the work that you are doing and I do want to talk a little about the economy and just uh ask you to reflect on where nonpartisan um groups like the Congressional budget office uh predicted we would be in terms of unemployment today uh back around the time the president was sworn in when the um pandemic was um really in full swing uh the economy was hurting um and before we passed the American Rescue plan I must admit I can't remember the precise numbers but um the impact of the pandemic was expected to be very severe and to last a very long time and um the US economy has done in order of magnitude better than would have been expected by CBO or other forecasters back then and I do believe that Biden Administration policies um have played a very important role for that good performance well yeah I it's exceeded all expectations and as you said earlier in your testimony certainly surpassed any of our other partner economies around uh the world I I would like to talk a little bit about the the price issue and you mentioned the supply chain issues um creating uh bottlenecks that led to price increases around the time of the pandemic um there's another Factor at work uh I believe when it comes to high food prices now and I think the president has spoken to this uh somewhat uh which is the the price gouging in the sense that the profit margins of some of the big grocery manufacturers uh today exceed their profit margins uh before the pandemic is is that an accurate statement I I believe it is um I believe the Council of economic advisors has looked at this I I haven't personally reviewed that data but I I think that is true which is one of the reasons uh the president's been so focused on going after price gouging in all its forms and and junk fees and I know the treasury plays some role in that is that something you're when you're team are working on um well we participate in economic discussions and policy Mak with with the c absolutely well thank you for the role that you are playing um if I could just ask you about uh investor advisor reporting requirements because um you're often before the the Appropriations uh subcommittee that I I chair the FG subcommittee and we've had this ongoing conversation um about uh the fact that you've got Russian oligarchs and other kleptocrats um uh who have used investment advisors uh including private equity and venture capital and hedge fund managers uh to clean attempt to clean their ill gotten gains now uh you you mentioned already the fact that we had the beneficial ownership law I understand that just yesterday you've included some folks within the real estate uh area um but can you talk about progress you're making in this in this broader area uh of investment advisors because it is important that we try to close one door but it doesn't do us any good if it leaves the the back door wide open well investment advisors is a financial sector that hasn't been uniformly covered um by uh AML CFT require IR Ms there are some investment advisors who um are Brokers or may be covered by some rules but there are certainly investment advisors that um are not covered and um our risk assessments show that that is an area that provides an Avenue for uh sanctioned individuals for criminals and the like um to um move wealth and invest in the United States um without the sources of their wealth uh being uh detected and um so are we making progress in terms of developing a rule to close this yes we yes we are absolutely we expect to issue such a proposed rule soon good in my remaining time I just wanted to ask you about the outbound investment um proposals uh Biden administration's put forward uh to try to prevent uh very capital from the United States um helping to invest in China's military uh this is obviously an effort that uh requires cooperation from our allies around the world can you just provide an update on where where that effort stands so um in response to an executive order um treasury prepared a notice of proposed Ru making which it issued um that um asks a series of questions and proposes um both information gathering and some restrictions uh indicates it's contemplating restrictions in the areas of um artificial intelligence um semiconductors and uh Quantum Computing areas that seem to have a clear access to National Security risks and um we've received comments and hope to come out with um notice of proposed rulemaking um that takes uh account of the comments and um closes down channels I mean we have export controls and other controls but um these outbound Investments can be um a way of providing uh um Aid to China's military or other countries of concern that need to be closed down I appreciate that and just want to make sure we're also coordinating with our allies because again it's uh important that we do this in in coordination I think you would agree we yes we are we've worked very closely with our allies and we urging them to um adopt similar similar regulations thank you madam than Senator Vance from Ohio recognized uh thanks Mr chairman um and uh secretary Ellen thanks for being here that I actually want to ask about something that's that's probably pretty far field and you've stopped thinking about uh but but we haven't got a chance to talk about and it's that's the svb collapse and sort of the runup to uh the the acquisition of svb by JP Morgan yeah I want to sort of start just with a kind of a basic question so to recap the systemic risk exception was triggered for the svb situation which was clearly uh pretty pretty dire pretty significant um because of the systemic risk exception was triggered the uh FDIC effectively engaged in what I would call a bailout of the uninsured depositors but what a return you want to apply to it the uninsured depositors were made whole obviously the shareholders were not uh but the argument of course is that that somehow prevented a broader Panic or Bank Run in the markets and I'm I'm curious secretary Ellen if you could just take me back to that that decision uh coming up on a year ago why did you think given that svb was so focused on obviously the technology sector The Venture Capital sector a sector I know well why did you think that it poses systemic R to the economy or why did you and the broader board decide that well um we were concerned to Contagion to other Banks and um the source of the problem I mean they were really two things that affected Silicon Valley Bank one was losses um mainly unrealized but nevertheless obvious losses from a failure to manage interest rate risk properly so interest rates had risen substantially this firm had purchased longer term assets the value of which fell in a higher interest rate environment and that was a risk that a affected many banks in the United States so that risk was not in any way confined just to Silicon Valley Bank many banks um suffered similar losses the other issue is that Silicon Valley Bank relied very very heavily on uninsured deposits and now we saw a pace of runs that was um beyond anything understood but other Banks also we actually have quite a high level of uninsured deposits in the banking system and um many Americans may have felt if depositors uninsured depositors at svb um were haircut or their funds were immobilized in a resolution that the same thing could happen to them at other Banks under understood so Ju Just One One follow-up question to that and if I have time I'll ask about um the cfus review of nipp and steel acquiring us steel but just just quickly on on this if if if you could so my understanding is that there were multiple bids when the svb collapsed there were multiple bids uh that were on the table for uh acquiring svb and sort of its its its assets at the time the public reporting suggested the difference between the JP Morgan bid and the next best bid was $20 billion I believe that you you talking about First Republic that went to JP Morgan Chase um I'm talking about svb didn't svb go to JP Morgan oh sorry sorry first first Republic you're right um my understanding from based of the public reporting is that there was a $ billion difference between the best bid JP Morgans and the second best bid for First Republic um some of the follow on reporting and some of the private conversations I've had my staff has had suggests that the difference was about $1 billion um so two-part question number one what was the difference um so in terms of the bids I didn't see those bids there's a question for Marty grunberg who's head of the FDIC but I will say under the law um the FDIC is required to accept the highest bid that reduces FDIC losses um as much as possible on the details of what the bids were you'll have to consult with him so so I guess the the worry is you know I'm very worried about the three- tiered bank system in our country you want small medium and large Banks obviously we have the GBS but I also want a healthy banking sect sector below the GS and my my concern here is that we we actually didn't care enough about concentration in how that transaction manifested itself and I guess the simple question is is that because you didn't have the tools to analyze that transaction with concerns about concentration or is that because you had the tools and just didn't use them so let me first say I share your concern and believe it's important um to have a diverse banking system I believe there were a number of bids by different different banks for svpb uh and for first for First Republic and as I said I believe under the law the FDIC is required to accept um the bid that results in the smallest losses to the deposit Insurance Fund understood thanks thanks Senator Vance waro of Georgia is recognized thank you so very much uh chair Brown It's been 14 years 14 years since the passage of the Affordable Care act yet 10 States including Georgia have not fully expanded medicaid let me be clear closing the health care Gap is the right thing to do but it's also the smart thing to do it's good for our economy in fact a recent report from the Council of economic advisers concluded that Medicaid expansion increases the dispos disposable income of those gaining health coverage and um for those who are listening and watching I want to be clear that when we say expansion we're not talking about a new program we're not talking about spending additional dollars we're talking about the fact that citizens in States like Georgia don't have access that they're subsidizing healthc care in other states while their hospitals are closing uh but the uh Council of economic advisors uh makes uh pulls into sharp Focus the importance of this the ways in which we can allow hardworking families to spend less on Healthcare and more essential and and more on Essentials like food diapers and school supplies secretary Yellen thank you so much for being here can you discuss how State economies have improved post expansion specifically compared to non-expansion States like Georgia um I you're talking about in terms of uninsured uninsured individuals states that have expanded medicaid how that expansion uh has improved uh the economies of those States just opposed with states that are non-expansion states I I honestly can't give you numerical numerical assessments of that I haven't done that but generally states that have expanded medicaid um have done better and certainly the households um in those States and especially lower income households have been relieved of burdens that allow them to um spend spend more to support themselves and uh the economies of those States here here's what we we do know uh about closing Medicaid coverage Gap in Georgia um if we were to close that Medicaid coverage Gap in Georgia it would mean $1.2 billion in additional Federal support that I secured through the American Rescue plan act that money sitting on the table 600,000 Georgians in the Medicaid Gap it would mean 56,000 new jobs every year with 12,000 of those in rural communities and it would mean $6.5 billion dollar per year generated and economic output and so I'm I'm hopeful I remain hopeful that Georgia lawmakers uh will do the right thing for Georgians and close the health care coverage Gap uh I want to move on uh to another topic the child tax credit and earned income tax credit which was uh which I helped pass through the American Rescue plan was transformational for millions of Americans reducing the number of kids living in poverty by more than 40% all in all these Provisions collectively lifted nearly 10 million children above the poverty line line or just slightly below the poverty line These funds help Georgians buy Essentials like food diapers a coat for their kid life saving prescription drugs but unfortunately these Provisions expired and we lost the dramatic gains we made in combating childhood poverty the 2023 OC annual report noted that while Consumer Financial Health remains positive we are seeing recent indicators of falling savings and Rising credit cards and autol Loan delinquencies secretary yelling the child tax credit was a tax cut that put money in fam's Pockets what economic benefits do we see from policies like this that focused on reducing childhood poverty including on fam's ability to save well I think it had an utterly dramatic effect on households and as you mentioned it it resulted in a massive reduction in child poverty um it fell in 2021 to I believe 5.2% which is the lowest on record and of course it means that families had uh many still struggling because of the pandemic had the resources to support their children um make sure that they weren't deprived of um the food and other support that they need um to go on to lead good lives and be productive um members of the workforce as they um get older and you know these these were many of these payments went to families that were in dire need it's a tremendously important support well thank you so much I'm I'm very much in favor of tax cuts for working families and uh this is why we've got to restore the child tax credit uh and this is why the enhanced child tax credit found within the bipartisan tax relief for American families and workers Act is an important first step and I hope we can uh get that legislation passed soon thank you so much for your thank you Senator thanks Senor warock and thank you for um soon after you came here in 2001 uh we passed the most important attack on child poverty in decades and thank you for your leadership role in it uh secretary y thank you I know that uh this Committee hearing and the preparation time for a hearing like this takes a huge chunk out of maybe most complicated job in in the federal government certainly one of the most complicated every every week it seems we learn about another responsibility that the treasury Department has so thank you and thank you in light of what uh Senator waro said I remember and I still talk about the call I had with you after the president signed the American Recovery Act and uh we passed it on March 6 he signed it within a couple weeks our conversation you immediately brought in commissioner reic who was a trump appointee but who was reasonable and profession and we got that moving in by July checks went out to the families of 60 million children 2 million of them in my state it change the lives of so many it would change the lives dramatically if we could renew it as we're trying to do in a tax bill now but thank you uh for senators who wish to submit questions those questions are due one week from today the 15th of February uh then you will have 45 days you and your staff to respond to any questions um thank you so much for your public service guys e C no no no I'm birthday

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Length: 134min 35sec (8075 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 08 2024