Economic aid package in congress. The House Financial Services hearing is just over two hours. The committee will come to order. First, i want to thank the chair mnuchin anatole for your patience as we wrap up our vote. The i plan to continue the hearing of the book are called. Both of you have agreed to be here for two hours, and i think you. So, without objection, the chair is authorized to declare recess at any time and i want to welcome all of the members and arresting those witnesses to the First Full Committee Hearing conducted by the committee on financial services. As the congress breaks new ground with these hearings, i want to remind members of the two matters including some required by the regulations accompanying the House Resolution 965 which established the framework for remote and hybrid committee proceedings. First i would ask all members to keep themselves muted when they are not being recognized. Members on the platform owner responsible for meeting and amusing themselves. The staff has been instructed not to mute members. Members on the platform are reminded they may attend one hearing at a times if they were participating today please remain during the hearing. Members should try to avoid coming in and ou out of the meeg particularly during the question period. After the hearing members wish to be recognized that chair will commence to identify themselves by name so as to facilitate the chairs recognition. I would also ask members be patient given the nature of the Online Platform that can be issues and in addition the chair informs the members participating in person enforcing the order and decorum the chair has a duty to protect the safety of members and the physician provided the following guidance for the u. S. House of representatives meetings in a limited and closed space for the greater than 15 minutes they are recovered. Accordingly, the chair will treat Wearing Masks as a matter of order and decorum and all members should wear a mask. The chair has a preference to continue to wear a mask. Members who do not wish to wear a mask may participate virtually through a platform. Without objection, two resolutions distributed to all membermembers offices of establg the Committee Task force is for the remainder of 2020 are approved. This hearing is entitled oversight in the department of Treasury Department and Federal Reserve. This is the committees firstquarter leering for oversight of the various facilities. I would like to inform members are witnesses have a hard stop today at 2 00. I now recognize myself for four minutes to get an opening statement. Welcome back. The pandemic continues to have a terrible impact. More than 126,000 people have lost their lives and this past sunday there were 40,000 new cases of covid19, the highest numbers of daily cases. So, the rate was 13. 3 nearly four times higher than it was last day. All of the job gains of the past decade has been wiped out. Communities of color have been affected disproportionately both by the virus and its economic impacts. The centers for Disease Control reports that figure four to five times more likely than white to be hospitalized for covid19. And half of all black adults are not working. During the foreclosure crisis, we have a similarly disproportionate impact on the communities of color. This was followed by an unequal recovery the agencies and Congress Must do all that we can to ensure history doesnt repeat itself. Including taking many calls to strengthen the implementation of the act. Secretary mnuchin, youve use your authority to provide the development of the Financial Institutions in minority institutions greater access including by setting aside 10 billion for them to lend to ensure they get to the small minority owned businesses. Chairmachairman powell, youve d with us to reduce the mainstream facilities from 1 million to 250,002 extend the length of the loans. Theyve also brought the eligibility of the liquidity facilities to increase access to a greater number. The act has provided important to the struggling families and communities but as the pandemic has driven them so much should our efforts and so with i now recognize the Ranking Member of the committee, the gentleman from North Carolina for four five minutes. Thank you for being before the committee. Its good to see your Smiling Faces behind your masks. Im grateful that we were able to assemble. This is a large undertaking for the largest committee in congress. And i do want to commend the chairwoman for those efforts so that we can actually have this hybrid hearing. It shows the congress of the government is working even if we have to do so using technology. Thank you for your response since the crisis began. I want is the first of all i believe the fed and the treasure the actions pervaded the worst economic catastrophe that there is more work to be done. Its important to remember this isnt a crisis is caused by irresponsible choices by any specific industry or corporati corporation. What we have seen is the impact of the voluntary shutdown in the economy and effort to save lives. The bipartisan act directed the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve to stand up in response to the programs. There were unthinkable even months ago. And to do so quickly youve done so rather quickly. Now that many of the programs were up and running we must be forward thinking to seek the solutions to return us to the roaring economy before the Global Health crisis. That means we need to understand the nature of what weve done and what we need to do Going Forward. We know the pandemic has touched nearly every aspect of the economy and every family. Facilities discussed need to be far reaching and responsive to economic conditions, not political. I know there are a number of programs that have been desired by policymakers to become Something Like that. That is into the appropriate response in commensurate with the law. Members have a lot of questions about fiscal policy and the monetary see which the chair man is best suited to. I think the understanding of that is important for us as policymakers to experience the beginning of the hearing from rather than to defer to another. The rolling congress is to assess these programs, determine the goals for the additional and appropriate entity to provide relief. Of course we also need access to key programmatic data so i want to commend secretary mnuchin for coming forward with the type of oversight material and massive unprecedented way with the type of long leve log level data thae requested in congress and provide it in a transparent way. Its staggering in such a short period of time. I hope my colleagues will use this appropriately so we can make sure that they are working. I want to commend you for the delivery of the program so effectively and so quickly. It wasnt perfect but it saved millions of jobs. Youve made your work good in terms of action and the adults confidence thank you for following through on your word and commitment. There is positive news in terms of the assessment and i want to thank you for being here in the first quarterly oversight hearing. The. Thank you and we welcome you back. The data were released last week and demonstrate unequal access on the basis of race and ethnicity that remains in the norm today. This is something that we can do something about. But there is a problem. Many of the people who have the authority and are in positions to make a difference refused to even acknowledge that the problem exists. I have the evidence and pictures from prior hearings. The ones to my right ask do you believe discrimination in lending exists. One person has his hand up. Hes with the naacp. Hes africanamerican. The anglo persons on the panel, these are the problems we have to contend with. I will yield back the balance of my time. I will now recognize the subcommittee Ranking Member for one minute. I will rise to the questions ask yoas the widow two weeks agi lost my wife unexpectedly to a heart condition and want to express my sincere appreciation in the sympathy for the greatest legacy in this time it means so much and i think all of you. Thank you very much and now you may take a minute if you live on the subject today. Thank you for your continued efforts to ameliorate the effects of the government imposed shutdown arising out of the pandemic. Congress acted decisively to the passage of the act and other legislation to mitigate the damage to the economy to keep people employed in the business is strong to ensure the economy can emerge on the other side in the position for longterm growth. Congress directed him to play a Critical Role in the response throughout the process you both have been decisively aggressive in using the tools at their disposal and incredibly responsive to the congressional concerns with appropriate adjustments including several they cannot see you right now. And there are elements that could still be improved or adjusted to honor the intent and i look forward to talking to you about those today including and especially in the commercial real estate and look forward to discussing this today. And again, thank you both of you for being here today. We have the secretary of the treasury who served in this position since 2017. Hes testified before the committee on previous occasions and i believe he doesnt need any further introduction. Next, we have jerome powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve bank system. He served on the board of governors since 2012 and a chair since 2017. Mr. Powell has testified before the committee, and i believe that he doesnt need any further introduction. Without objection, your statements will be made a part of the record. Each of you will have five minutes to summarize your testimony. When you have a minute remaining, the yellow light will appear and at that time i would ask you to wrap up your testimony so we can be respectful of the Community Members time. Secretary mnuchin, you are now recognized to present your testimony. Thank you very much. Let me express my condolences for your loss. Chairwoman waters, Ranking Member and members of the committee, im pleased to join today to discuss how the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve are working together to provide liquidity to the markets, business, households, as well as state and municipal governments. We remain committed to making sure every american gets back to work as quickly as possible. They continue to recover and the jobs report for the month passed into exceeded expectations and after experts predicted nearly 8 million lost the Unemployment Rate is still historically high we are seeing the conditions will improve significantly and third and fourth quarters this year. Its forecasting the gdp will grow by 17 annualized in the Third Quarter and by 9 in the fourth quarter. 79 of the Small Businesses are at least partially open and half of the remaining businesses are opening very soon. Retail sales rose by 18 more than doubled expectation and investors and business have historically high caste possessions, the highest levels since 1992 indicating the private capital is ready to return as the communities reopened. We are the strong position to recover because the Administration Working with congress on a bipartisan basis that passes legislation and provide liquidity to the market in particular keeping employees connected to their jobs. To address these critical economic issues. Treasury has been hard at work implementing the program. We have improved over 4. 8 million Small Business loans for 519 billion. Economic impact payments were distributed with nearly 160 million payments in record time. Programs to support a dh and other eligible business we have approved and dispersed over 27 million to over 500 airlines and other Aviation Business preserving hundreds of thousands of jobs. We are in the process of documenting loans to the business is businesses and critl security for approximately 25 million. With the money to tribal governments that had also granted treasury the authority to provide 454 billion to support Federal Reserve lending facilities under section 133. Since march 17 using the Funds Available dave approved a number of Federal Reserve programs. With the money market mutual program, the primary market corporate federal facility, the secondary facility for the main street facility and the municipal facilities and the ppp lending facility. Weve committed approximately 200 billion to support the scum othese,the announcement of these programs have helped unlock markets and promote muchneeded access to liquidity. We have over 250 billion remaining to create or expand programs as needed. Will we begin to have conversations around the supplemental relief legislation, we look forward to working with congress on a bipartisan basis in july on any other further legislation that will be necessary. We are closely monitoring the results into seeing the conditions improve. We anticipate any additional relief would be targeted to Certain Industries that have been especially hard hit by the pandemic with a focus on jobs and putting more americans back to work that is due to no fault of their own. The Treasury Department is implementing the act with transparency and accountability. We are providing information to the governmentwide reporting on usa spending and updates to the congress. We are also cooperating with the congressional Oversight Committee, the gao and others. We are pleased to Federal Reserve has announced plans on its website regarding its facilities. The chair and i have had a very productive meetings with Board Members of the Oversight Committee and we look forward to continuing to work with them. Thank you very much. Chair powell you are recognized tare recognizedto pr. Members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify today to discuss the extraordinary challenges the nation is facing into th and ths we are taking to address them. We need as the pandemic continues in this hardship taking the livelihoods both at home and around the world. This is a Global PublicHealth Crisis and we remain grateful to the Health Care Professionals for the delivery of the most important response into to the essential workers at hopeless meet our daily needs. We have dedicated people to put themselves at risk day after day and to serve the country. Beginning in march, the virus and controlling its spread had the declining Economic Activity in the search and job losses. As the economy reopens on incoming data is beginning to reflect the resumption of Economic Activity. Any businesses are opening up their doors, hiring is picking up and spend and is increasing. The economy has entered an important new phase and it has done so sooner than expected. It also presents new challenges to keep the virus in check. While recent Economic Data offers positive signs, we are keeping in mind more than 20 million have lost their jobs and that their opinion hasnt been spread. The rising joblessness has been especially severe for africanamericans, women and hispanics. This reversal of the economic fortune has caused a level of pain that is hard amid the great uncertainty in the future. Fast forward and it remains extraordinarily uncertain and it will depend in large part the success in gaining the virus. A full recovery is unlikely to occur until people know it is safe to engage in a broad range of activities. It will also depend on the policy actions taken at all levels of government to provide relief to support the recovery for as long as is needed. The Federal Reserve is strongly committed to using the tools to do whatever we can for as long as it takes to provide relief and stability to ensure that it will be as strong as possible and limit damage to the economy. After lowering the federal funds rate to essentially zero, the actions so far fall into four categories. Stabilizing the treasury and agency in the markets, money market and liquidity and funding measures could affect efforts to support the flow of credit in the economy, and targeted to givgetthree measures to supporte efforts. So far, we have created 11 facilities under section 13 under the act supports liquidity from the end of the float t floe businesses in the state and local governments. Without access to credit, families can be forced to cut back on this as it is, lose their homes, businesses forced to downsize or close resulting in the further loss of jobs and incomes had worsening the income. The lending facilities have all been undertaken with the approval of the treasury secretary and many are supported with the care act. The status is discussed in greater length in my written statement which i will provide to the committee. The fed will continue to use these powers forcefully, directly and aggressively until we are confident the nation is on the road to recovery. When the time comes, after the crisis is past, we will put these tools back in the toolbox. I would stress these were lending powers and not spending powers and also notably designed the facilities to work with a broad range of business