A bipartisan letter urging for delay in implementation. Every entity both banks and nonbanks which were not included in the cares act on the same footing can conduct the study with real life se narp owe that we had going today. Given the actions by congress, should we delay as i and my colleagues have called for and should the treasury examine the real life scenario we have gone through when kwuki inconducted study. I think that should be considered we are working on the study. The president issued an executive order with regards to each agenc looking at the rules, regulations that were waived, declined or whatever if they dont work now, why should we continue them down the road when we get out of this mess i assume everybody is doing that this accounting principle would fall in that area of we need to be looking at this as something down the road. I would agree thank you appreciate that. Theres a time and place for rules and regulations and a time and place that are nonfunctioning when you start over with the nation recognized organizations, and the Federal Reserve emergency facilities, i know you heard a lot about this issue for members on both sides of the aisle chairman powell especially the fed took modest steps to include smaller nrsro and the most recent faqs but if they accompanied by one of the three incumbent nrsros we started out getting this facilities set up quickly and we went with the big three. We broadened it out to another look after taking a look were balancing the need to move quickly and to move with institutions that we know well or that are well known and included more and more thats a process were still looking at okay. All right. Thank you very much. I yield back thank you point of inquiry. Shouldnt i be on the other side of the aisle im sorry. Okay all right. Thank you. I appreciate that. Chairman and mr. Secretary, you know the word, unprecedented has been banned in my house by my College Graduate he graduated remotely because he was looking around and was a little tired of that word maybe being used he has a history his grandfather, my dad was born in 1921 on a Kitchen Table in a hired mans hand home. My mother was born in 1931 in flint, michigan. Yes, that flint, michigan. Had to move to oklahoma in the middle of the depression to try to survive when they lost their house and my grandfather lost his job. We know that theres history behind this. Im not sure if this is unprecedented. It maybe unprecedented in way in the modern era where we have seen the government come in and sort of shut this down what we do know is from looking at history is we need to get the economy moving again the question is how. Whether its getting kids back to school as some have suggested because if you cant get kids into school, thats not going to free up the parents to be available to work. In my area, i know that manufacturers and Service Companies are having a ver difficult time getting enough workers to come in to complete a full contingent of line workers, for example or to get a full shift filled theres various reasons. We know we have to address those folks who are not able to get a job and how do we distinguish from those that are just deciding to not take that job. The patriot bonus would be a 50 tax credit to any company that would give a per hour bump to their employees or a weakly bonus to their employee ors even a one time bonus to their employees to incentivise them to come off of that Unemployment Insurance and get them back engaged in the work force. I think its critical that we do that i want to say thank you for your work on the paycheck protection program. I talked to cheryl who owned a popular bagel and coffee shop who knows she survived because of it. Don who owns a Bowling Alley in my district able to keep his folks on the payroll those types of things are critical and were very, very important. I do want to draw attention and chairman powell and i had this conversation a couple of weeks ago. I brought up lacomb. Its a philadelphia based company that has a manufacturing Production Facility in my district its a 26yearold fast growing company. You may have got p their coffee and produced a number of great products for the last six years they have been focused on their growth they had to boar rrow tremendou amount of money and lead to accumulation of debt they would not qualifier to participate in the main Street Lending program and i believe that the way that the leverage ratio requirements in the program are drafted really sort of punishing Companies Like lacomb and others who would otherwise be viewed as success stories. If it is the way the rules are written, its designed to prevent funds from going to companies that have this debt but sometimes those Companies Might be some of those that need it the most. Im hoping youll commit to working with me on that to address that issue yes im not familiar with the company but were happy to follow up with you and see if it can work great the remaining time, i talked to jeff this morning. Jeff is 52 i talked to jim and liza shes 64, shes ligslightly younger. She wont tell me how old. What do you want to tell them that have their small invetsm T Investments in the market that are there to help them as they approach retirement. What assurances can we give them about etirement . I want to tell them and the other people that we are going to work with congress to make sure we can do whatever we need to do to get everybody back to work who lost their job due to covid. Im also extremely optimistic about the research thats being done on vaccines and virals and combatting this terrible disease. Thank you mr. Meeks, youre recognized for five minutes thank you, madame chair mr. Powell, you and others at the fed have written and spoken about the importance of maintaining the economy at full employment as a way to pull a greater share of the minority work force upwards which is the first to be laid off and the first to be hired. While this is helpful, its incredibly frustrating its an admission that every one else gets a head start in the economy and communities of color only get out of a starting blocks after every one else has been running the race for mo months, years or decades let me ask you first, mr. Powell, do you agree that structural discrimination exists in the United StatesEconomy Today and impedes the economic success of communities of color and is a key to understanding why black wealth is just 10 of that of White Communities . Yes, i do agree mr. Mnuchin, would you agree . I agree we need to do everything to create a level playing field. Yes. I also believe addressing the legacy of kpleconomic racism mut include Equity Investments communities that have been excluded for decades or hundreds of years that were disproportionately impacted by the financial crisis and now by the covid pandemic cannot borrow their way out of poverty and economic exclusion i believe a sizable Equity Investments over the coming decade or more and to communities of color will be essential to substantially lift them out of poverty and build resilience im working a proposal for creating a Investment Fund pulling together capital from the private sector and government to invest in these communities over the next decade or more. Mr. Mnuchin, do you agree that mass ifr amouive amounts of equ investments will be required to lift the communities and debt alone cannot solve the problem i think investments in these communities is important and we look forward to working with you on your specific ideas great the same with you, mr. Powell. Can we count on the fund in you working with us . Wed be delighted to. Back to you, given that secretary, mnuchin, the Treasury Department has the capacity and the authority to invest t to the best of my recollection t to the best of my recollection tier one authority and could use it for trust funds directly or through custodial accounts but it does not do so. Since we agree we need to have investment, would you agree theres a Critical Role and providing minority communities access to capital and ask you then, will the treasury use its existing authority and capital to provide direct support to mdis i have to review those authorities and get back to you. If thats something we have, it sounds very interesting. Im not familiar with the specific authority let me look into it. Let me say also the cdfis did a terrific job as well i agree i should have added the cdfis. I concur on that i look forward to working with you to make sure were investing. We have public money as well as private money to invest so they have the capital and the wherewithal to move forward. Thats the way to go have the fed and the Treasury Department made a on another issue ill ask mr. Powell this has the fed made a requirement of all Asset Managers and broker dealings with which they contract to partner with minority firms and fulfilling contracts in transactions . Yes, we do have obligations, for example, with the companies we have contracted with during the pandemic they have to address diversity and inclusion issues at their company and reach out to minority suppliers as well and the treasury, secretary mnuchin . Yes im hearing from both you have that youll commit to incorporating it aptnd making ia standard across all Capital Market programs that involve partnership with private Asset Managers or brokered dealers Going Forward with minority broker dealers and Asset Managers is that correct . Thats really part of our rule book now. Mr. Mnuchin thats something we work on as well. Thank you i yield back youre recognized for five minutes. Thank you im hearing from some lenders, and before participating in pppii heard comments from banks they were worried they might be exposed to legal liability without sufficient safeguards in a Government Grant Program they felt like they had a duty to their customers and country during a time of need. Now im told many banks are being targeted by litigation that takes advantage of the lack of clarity about how agent fees are supposed to be processed and how they ork for example, banks dont have precise answers on where the fees were supposed to come from is an agreement between a bank and an agent required before any work on the application is completed or processed is this an issue youre aware of and does treasury offer any faqs to clarify agent fees and when they are due and how that works . I have become aware of this issue as well. What our guidance did say is that banks could pay agent fees out of the fees that they severed. That was intended to be based upon a contractual relationship between the agent and the bank to the extent theres any confusion on that, well look at clarifying that. It would be great if you dould could do clarifying faq. It will prevent litigation or allow for that litigation to move expeditiously and less costly chairman powell, treasury and the International Association supervisors have stated publicly that proposals to retro actively amend Business Interruption insurance policies and cover covid19 claims would endanger financial stability. Specifically, ais stated that they caution against initiative seeking to require ensures to retro actively cover covid19 related losses such as Business Insurance and that those things were excluded in the insurance contracts. Such initiatives could ultimately threaten policy holder protection and financial stability. Do you share the concern requiring pay outs of uncovered policies and that they could result in insuring inkol vesolvs and destabilize our Financial System thats outside our authority except as you point out to the extent to which it relates to financial stability. Were monitoring it. So far we havent taken a position on that im not asking you to exceeds your role but Pay Attention to it chairman powell, could you give us an over view of the current state of view of the municipal finance markets and effectiveness of the feds efforts to stabilize the markets. Municipal markets really shut down in the middle of march and we announced Municipal Liquidity facility and that announcement had an enormous effect on the functioning of that market you see a lot of healing in that market you see plenty of issuance of different Credit Ratings and different kind of issuers. It doesnt return to where it was in february of 2020 but theres been a lot of progress as an example, state of illinois did most of its financing in the private markets without our support and came to our facility for its last piece of financing. Im very pleased that the announcement affect was very strong and effective and is helping a lot of borrowers now i want to say thank you mnuchin and powell for your leadership and availability through this crisis. This hasnt been easy. Clearly mistakes will happen when were in unchartered waters but you both have been bold in your leadership. You made a difference and helped businesses survivor. You help the economy survivor. Thank you for your leadership and we wouldnt be doing as well without it theres more work to be done i appreciate everything you have done and hope youll continue to focus on Small Businesses and medium businesses around main street because they are still struggling thank you so much. Thank you mr. Green youre recognized for five minutes thank you i thank the witnesses for appearing as well. Id like to lay a proper predicate for my questions according to the latest data, in 2019 the vast majority of home purchase loans went to white borrowers at approximately 10 times that of loans that went to black and aapi borrowers here are the numbers the share that went to white borrowers, 60. 3 to hispanic borrowers, 9. 2 . To aapi borrowers, 5. 7 . And to black borrowers, 7 60. 3 to white borrowers, 7 to black borrowers. Even when lending discrimination does not result in outright denials of credit, it drives up borrowing costs for minority home buyers. Loans to black and hispanic borrowers continue to be higher priced for both conventional and nonconventional loans in 2019 home purchase loans were higher priced for the following share of borrowers to black borrowers, 20. 3 . Hispanic borrowers, 23 . White borrowers, 8. 3 . Consistently we see empirical evidence there is evidence in discrimination in lending especially as it relates to people of color. Here are my questions, dear friends. Adjusting for education, credit score, assets and other relevant factors, do you believe that invidious discrimination in lending exist against borrowers of color i have been collecting these pictures i keep them in my office these are pictures of people who deny the existence of invidious discrimination as it relates to people of color. My question to you is, do you believe this invidious discrimination exists in lending as it relates to people of color . If you do believe so, would you extend a hand into the air all right. Would you kindly hold it up just like to get a good picture you have thank you very much. Next question, do you believe that this invidious discrimination against borrowers of color can be addressed with legislation . Can we craft legislation to help end this invidious discrimination if you think so, would you kindly raise a hand. Legislation. Can we craft legislation chair powell seems to think so mr. Mnuchin . Can i respond to the answer if youll let me know where youre going first sometimes when people finish, i dont know what that said. This wouldnt apply do you i think we have legislation i think we need to do a better job. Ill say we can look at legislation but i think its more than just legislation okay. I agree with you that its more than legislation but would you agree that legislation could be part of the remedy if you could kindly extend a hand thank you. Im in agreement with you. We have a couple of pieces of legislation. Hr149. The housing fairness act helps to deal with discrimination in housing as it relates to people of color and others as well. Hr 166, fair lending for all act that would put an end to this race based lending and discrimination two pieces of legislation. Hopefully they will move in congress here is my final question. I believe that its time for us to reconcile in this country we have survivored slaifr ri but we didnt reconcile. We survivored invidious discrimination that exist, segregation but we havent regular siele reconciled would you work with a secretary of reconciliation, your departments, the agencies that you represent . Bould you wo would you work with such a person to help us reconcile in this country if so, raise your hand all right theres a department then it would be a department designed to eliminate invidious discrimination and racism. Thats what it would be all about at the cabinet level thank you both i yield back thank you mr. Barr. I want to thank you all for your very decisive and aggressive actions that you all take from the out set of this pandemic i think both the fed and treasury through the emergency lending and with the tools that we have given you through the Exchange Stabilization fund really made a difference in making a bad situation a lot less bad given the circumstances. Thank you for your actions as an example of the agility that you have shown. Let me thank you in particular for responding favorable to a letter that representative hill and i sent to you about streamlining and making less bureaucratic the loan application under the ppp program. That was tremendously helpful for borrowers and lenders cutting that red tape. Im hearing from those across the country where occupancy rates remain very, very low. Shopping center owners, retail has not recovered. I think youll see a wave of forclosures and defaults you did identify the problem with the inflexibility i think you mentioned we might need additional legislation to allow hotels to hire back workers. Thats not the issue the