Irrelevant. What is relevant, as the gentleman and i i think both agree, if we dont get to an agreement on a number that is as we did in ryanmurray, we have done this before. We have done this before. My view is we did it because you didnt want to have your members vote on legislation that had numbers that were draconian before the election, but that may be only my personal perspective. But the fact of the matter is, the American People expect us to get their work done. Getting their work done at minimum means funding the government at appropriate levels. And again i have said that mr. Rogers does not believe the see quester. I believe you its the law of the land. I think its wrong. Its bad laufment it was not a law intended to go into effect. It went into effect simply because the supercommittee that was established in that same legislation couldnt come out with a solution. And 13 months the congress couldnt come out with a solution. Therefore on january 1 2014, we were confronted with this draconian, illconceived numbers, according to mr. Rogers. Lets not be confronted with those numbers 60 days from now on october 1 where we are unable to do our business. So i would urge my friend to i would be glad to work with him toward that end. We just passed a bill, mr. Leader which i voted for we passed on a bipartisan basis the the gentlelady reserves the balance of her time of my members voted for t. The majority of your members voted for it, a highway bill. It was, however, i know on our side and i know in discussions with you your feeling as well, that it is not what we ought to be doing. What we ought to be doing is pass a longterm, at least sixyear reauthorization bill for the Highway Program so that governors, mayors, county executives, local officials contractors construction workers would all have some confidence that there would be a revenue stream to fix our roads repair our bridges and build roads where they are needed. Can the gentleman tell me whether he believes that there is a plan to get to the i know he and i discussed it, but a plan to get to before the december 18 date that the present bill calls for a longterm highway reauthorization . I yield to my friend. Mr. Mccarthy i thank my friend for yielding. I thank him for his work and help in passing the highway bill this week. The gentleman knows nobody in this house wants to pass a shortterm highway bill. We want certainty. We want to make sure the money goes the furthest and most efficient and effective way. The reason why we are going to a shortterm december 18 because it is our plan and our intention together to be able to find the resources to have a highway bill that can be five years. And it is our intention to be able to have that. We have a plan, i believe, working towards and the first step was moving the highway to december 18th bill, and all we have next is to pass the senate. They pass our highway bill, well be in the right place prepared to have it done before december, five year that we can all Work Together in a bipartisan manner and have done. I yield back. Mr. Hoyer io hope we do that. In the shortterm, however, we have done another item which we have not reauthorized, thats the export import bank. Senator mcconnell believes that that has the votes in the senate and he believes the highway bill that we just sent them is a vehicle to add that Exportimport Bank proposal to, and my presumption is it will be in that bill when it comes back to us. Hopefully it will come back within the next few days because of course the highway authorization ends at the end of this month. In which case there will be no authorization to spend money on the Highway Program. Can the gentleman tell me whether or not, if that comes back, that that will be on the floor . Ive heard some discussion about the fact that the speaker says it will be on the floor but it would be the Exportimport Bank would be open to amendment. Can the gentleman tell me whether or not there are any plans along those lines . I yield to my friend. Mr. Mccarthy i thank the gentleman for yielding to me one more time. The gentlemans well aware of how i feel about the exim bank, exportimport, we have a difference of opinion. I am one who has always believed in the principle that you should just deal with the subject thats before you. We have passed the highway bill. The best advice i can give to the senate, it is a clean highway bill to december 18. To pass a clean highway bill and move it to the president. And i yield back. Mr. Hoyer i understand thats the gentlemans desire. I know hes opposed to the exim bank reauthorization. As you know, we passed it in a bipartisan fashion when mr. Cantor was the majority leader. The gentleman voted for it. Hes changed his mind. Thats certainly many of us do that from time to time. But my question to him is, if they dont do what the gentleman suggests, a clean highway bill, and they send it back as is apparently mr. Mcconnells, leader mcconnells, thought that they will do, consistent with his representation to the senator from Washington State and others, if they add the exim bank to that bill and it comes back, i know the gentlemans reluctant to speculate, but we have very, very short period of time left in this session before the august break. Does he believe that if it comes back and is in the highway bill that we would make the Exportimport Bank a portion of that bill at least open to amendment . I yield to my friend. Mr. Mccarthy i thank the gentleman for yielding. If i just may correct the gentleman. It took the liberty of saying whether i he took the liberty of saying whether i changed to my mind. I did vote for the exim bank two years ago. But i voted for an exim bank that had reform in it. I did not see that reform. I did not change my mind, i kept my principle. The same principle that i have is my best advice to the senate. I know you want to talk hypotheticals and i know our colloquy is about next week. None of that is scheduled for next week. But to the gentleman and to the senate, my best advice for them is to pass our clean highway bill and send it to the president. I yield back. Mr. Hoyer i thank the gentleman. Mr. Speaker, the problem with that suggestion, ma the the majority leader makes is, the Exportimport Bank will be out of business. And if that happens, Speaker Boehner has said, its going to adversely effect jobs in america. It will adversely affect the ability of small, medium and Large Businesses to sell our goods overseas. By people working here in america. The Exportimport Bank is about jobs. And to simply let it twist in the wind and let it be unauthorized simply because of inattention, when it has the majority of votes on this floor, mr. Speaker, ive said that over and over again and have not been contradicted. There are 60 republicans who sponsored the Exportimport Banks reauthorization. There are 188 democrats or at least 185 democrats who will vote for it. Thats 249 votes. All you need is 21. There is no doubt that the 218. There is no doubt that the Exportimport Bank has the votes to pass this house and the senate. And yet we fiddle while jobs are being burned. Mr. Speaker thats not good policy for our country. Not good policy for our workers. Its not good policy for our businesses. For our exporters. It makes us uncompetitive with the rest of the world. 60 countries have a similar facility. I know in a perfect world, perhaps that wouldnt exist. But 60 of our exet competitors around the world have such a facility. That make their goods cheaper than we will be making ours. Thats not good sense its not good policy. And its not the expectation i think the American People i think of the American People and it is not the will of this house. I regret that we have not addressed this already. But i certainly hope when the senate as i expect them to do, adds it mr. Speaker, to the house highway bill and im not sure whether it will be our bill or their bill, our bill amended we may have to go to conference or we may have to get to an agreement, but one way or the other we ought to adopt the will of this house and reauthorize the Exportimport Bank so that we will protect jobs. It was speaker bain who are said that, it was shortly after boehner who said that it was shortly after the action we took on june 30 and allowed the Exportimport Bank to expire, that we would lose jobs. In fact, thats happening. So i would hope that that would not be the case. Lastly mr. Speaker, i would like to ask the majority leader, i get a lot of rumors on my side, i know you get a lot of rumors on your side and i sort of smile at them. I say i think not. But ive had 20 members today ask me, mr. Speaker, are we not going to be here the last week of july, that is presently scheduled, and id like to clear up that. I yield to my friend for a definitive answer on the schedule for this is a scheduling question by the way, as to whether or not in fact were going to be here the last week of july. Mr. Mccarthy i thank the gentleman for yielding and i do smile because the only rumor i heard more about tailor swift throughout the cap taylor swift throughout the capitol the other day. This is this is i think this is wirgful thinking by the members. We have a lot of work to get done. Which will be here and will not leave early. Mr. Hoyer i appreciate the majority leaders clarification. Our members will not necessarily appreciate it. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2015] captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption contents and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org the fed as we all know plays an Important Role in the overall economy both in managing the supply of money and monitoring the health of the Financial System. Through its quantitative easing and other special programs, the feds Balance Sheet has expanded to an unprecedented size of 34. 5 trillion. To put it in perspective, nearly 20 of all securities are held on the feds Balance Sheet. Further more, rather than using the proceeds for matured mortgagebacked securities to reduce its Balance Sheet, the Federal Reserve continues to reinvest these proceeds into even more mortgagebacked securities. In addition, the Federal Reserve continues to hold down Interest Rates despite potential adverse effects on the u. S. Economy including the negative impact on household savings. Passed announcements by the federal open Market Committee has stated that it would adjust its Interest Rate policy once unemployment fell to 5. 6 . The feds estimates however, show an uneement ployment rate of 5. 3 and yet Interest Rates remain unchanged. The Monetary Policy report released yesterday states that the fed will keep rates low even though the Unemployment Rate will be at or below its longerrun normal level. Whatever that means. A lot of people, because pushing the economy beyond its normal level can have negative effects, as we have seen with economic bubbles in recent history. More than ever, the Financial Markets have become heavily dependent on the feds Monetary Policy decisions which makes transparency i believe even more important. The fed is often described by its own officials as the worlds most transparent central bank. Or at least one of the most transparent. But it is worth noting that in recent respects federal open Market Committee monthry policy decisions are less transparent than in other Central Banks including the European Central bank and the bank of england. For example, the bank of england has more annual meetings and a shorter delay in publishing its minutes than Federal Reserve and both banks issue more monetary reports in a year. In addition, the European Central bank has twice the number of press conferences. So it seems that some aspects of the feds transparency could be improved. Similar concerns exist the Federal Reserves dodd frank and ccar stress test determine the fate of u. S. Banks. But the fed does not reveal exactly how the banks will be tested or in what ways they have fallen short. Similarly, many banks have been forced to file and refile their living wills without a thorough explanation from the fed on why the submission failed. I believe the Federal Reserve must provide more complete explanations of its actions in order for the Financial System and the u. S. Economy to function effectively. Chairman yellen, we look forward to your testimony here today and your appearance, and hope that you will be able sho shed some light on some of the questions i have raised. Senator brown. Thank you, mr. Chairman. And welcome back to the Committee Chairman yellen. Five years arkse next week, july 21, the wall street reform act became law. That anniversary serves as an important and ever present reminder of the cost of the financial crisis. The cost of the crisis were 9 million jobs lost an Unemployment Rate that reached 210 , 5 million americans who lost their homes 13 trillion in Household Wealth erased. In ohio alone unemployment was over 10 . Between 2006 and 2011. My wife and i live in zip code 44105 and in 2007 i believe that zip code had the highest number wife and i of foreclosures of any zip code in the United States. My state suffered 14 years in a row of one foreclosure the entire state one foreclosure more one year to the next, every year ain creased for 14 years. As the chair of the federal reservist has said, the unemployed are more than just staggets sticks. Behind each job loss and foreclosures were painful conversations. Leaving their neighborhood schools and friends or that they could no longer afford their childs education. Think what that would be like. The crisis took a devastating financial and psychological toll on a generation of workers and their families. We cannot forget, that is why we passed the wall street reform law. Todays hearing is a reminder how far we have come in five years. After unprecedented actions by the government to stabilize the economy and the creation of a new Regulatory Framework to maintain Financial Stability and protect consumers, the private sector has created almost 13 million new jobs, Household Wealth has grown by some 30 trillion exceeding precrisis levels and business lending has climbed over 30 . This is also a reminder how important it is that our Financial System remains well regulated for Financial Stability, for Consumer Protection and to prevent the next crisis. No one wants to return to the days of 2008 and 2009. Yet opponents of wall street reform continue to say that the law has not stabilized the economy and even that new regulations will bring on the next financial crichese. Wall street reform did not ruin the economy. Wall street gambling did along with the failure of regulators to take away the punch bowl. Since wall street reforms passage the economy has strengthened. We have made it less likely taxpayers will get stuck with the tab for another bailout. Polling released last week show americans agree with that assessment overwhelmingly support Strong Financial rules. Some of the behavior in the economy is the product of extraordinary Interest Rate environment of the past 7 years. So it is no surprive prize that all eyes are on the fed as it considers its first rate increase rate since 2008. There is real risk in tightening too soon because although the economy has made progress we still have a ways to go. The recovery has been uneven. There are many groups of americans who have not benefited from it. Premature rate increases could mean these people dont see new jobs wage increases or have access to credit. The current economic problems in greece and china also remind us that any progress in our economy that our economy makes cannot be divorced from what is happening overseas. Our manufacturers and exporters are already contending with a very strong dollar. I look forward of your assessment as well as your appraisal of the progress made from the enactment and the implementation of wall street reform. Thank you again for joining us. Welcome again to the committee. Your written statement will be made part of the record. Proceed as you wish. Thank you. I am pleased to present the semi annual Monetary Policy report to the congress. In my remarks overseas. Our today i will discuss the current Economic Situation and outlook before turning to Monetary Policy. Since my appearance before this committee in february, the economy has made further progress toward the Federal Reserves objective of maximum employment while inflation has continued to run below th