Particularly those aimed at dealing with those who sponsor terrorism. We also have sanctions against countries that are violating our International Norms on democratic principles. Russia is top on that list. And im going to ask you questions for the record as to your views on the current sanctions and strengthening sanctions. Bipartisan legislation to strengthen the sanctions, particularly with russias attack against americas democratic election institutions. But i want to make sure i understand. You are committed to enforcing the sanctions against russia. 100 so. And i think the president elect has made it very clear that he would only change those sanctions if he got, quote, a better deal and we got something in return, whether it was on nuclear arms or other areas. But yes, senator. And in response to the question that was asked about using the irs, make sure it was not used for partisan reasons, you will enforce these sanctions without regard to a persons Party Affiliation or office. Of course. I think terrorism is the terrorism and supporting terrorism and supporting illegal activities is the most important issue, and i hope thats not a bipartisan i hope excuse me, that is a bipartisan issue and where there are sanctions, i assure you. You know, i will use them to the maximum amount allowable by law. And i appreciate that answer. Senator warner and i are going to be sending you a letter, if youre confirmed, to investigate the allegations that mr. Sc scaramucci, Senior Adviser to the president , may very well have violated the sanctions against russia, in his dealings. And i accept that you would investigate this issue to see whether there was a violation of the sanction law. Of course. Anything that you send to me, i will either myself or make sure my staff properly investigate. And have your respect that i would do that, 100 . I thank you for that. I want to follow up with a second point of senator wyden, which really has me concerned. And that is, you pointed out that you would treat, in your international roles, an American Company thats dealing in the foreign markets equally even if its a trump enterprise entity. Youre taking an oath to defend the constitution of the United States, and the constitution of the United States, theres the emonthlients clause, and you have to make sure that its not getting a favor in exchange for trying to influence the president of the United States or the Trump Administration. So how do you go about knowing that there is no special breaks being given to a trump enterprise if you dont have full access to that type of information . Well, senator, let me first say, and i think we all acknowledge this. Whichever side were on. That we are in a unique situation, that we have a president who has the vast amount of money we know that. And, of course, hes not doing what every other president every other president has done. Every other president. Set up a blind trust or divest. What youre doing, if youre confirmed, divesting. Thats what is required. Hes not doing that. So my question to you, how do you how do you, if confirmed, deal with compliance to the constitution to make sure that a trump enterprise is not getting a special treatment which would violate our constitution . Well, senator, let me first say, and i think this is a very important issue for the american public. So i can understand why youre asking it. But let me first say, i know that the president elect is absolutely following the law and is committed to following the law and has set out a series of although its not a blind trust, he has removed himself from his business. He has put his sons in charge of his business. He has committed still i understand excuse me one second. Hes put hes going to hire an ethics officer. And i can assure you, in my job of treasury secretary, whatever responsibilities i have to monitor these issues, which are very important. I can assure you that i will do. But what you didnt answer and well follow up some questions. How do you determine, make sure there isnt a break given to a trump enterprise, which would violate our constitution . The constitution is supreme law of the land. Well, im as you know, ive employed lots of lawyers, but im not a lawyer. The good news is, we have a big group of lawyers in the Treasury Department and a big ethics group. And i can assure you, we will make sure that we absolutely follow the law and the constitution, and i have every reason to believe that the president elect absolutely wants to adhere to it, and will do so. Thank you senator brown. Thank you, mr. Chairman. And mr. Mnuchin, thank you, and thank you for the conversation and my office thank you for meeting with me. And banking issues, and start with this. Lets clear up one thing. Banks are not your words, highly incented to do modifications for their borrowers. Thats why we had a systemic breakdown, why so many families lost their homes and forced to pay billions of dollars in fines and remediation. I want to talk about your situation. I understand your defensiveness, both in individual meetings, mine and others, and in this committee about what happened at 1 west. Let melee this out. In 2006, Businessman Donald Trump responded to a question about the possibility of a real estate crash by saying, quote, i hope i sort of hope that happens, because then people like me would go in and buy, unquote. Now, you didnt just buy properties. You bought the bank, you bought the ability to help families stay in their homes. Thats not what you did. So my questions are these. You have been saying that is we1 west i really want yes or no answers, because i have a lot of questions. And what i will say is factual, in my view. I would like you to confirm with yes or no. Is it true that Community Groups say that 1 west, specifically the california the california lets see, the California Reinvestment Coalition is it true that Community Say that 1 west foreclosed on 60,000 families nationwide and denied three fourths of mortgage modification applications . I am not aware of that. I know they have well, they did. If you know they did i want to hear it from you. If you dont know i dont have it in front of me. Im going to keep interrupting because we dont have a lot of time. I apologize if you see this as rude. Is it true that the occ said you had deficient mortgage practices, foreclosed on 10,000plus borrowers without proper procedure and at least 23 current on their mortgages . So what i would say is, we followed the same procedures yes or no. The occ say that . That the fdic followed. We inherited the fdic procedures let him answer the question. Is it true that 1 west independent audit firm said that it violated the Service Members civil relief act by initiating foreclosures on 54 active duty military families. Thats the independent audit firm said, yes or no. You have the document in front of you, i dont. Well, they did. Let me just say im pretty surprised im sorry. Im pretty sprooid you dont know these things, because youve been rather defensive about what happened at 1 west. Is it true that the California Attorney general i do want to just comment for the record. We unfortunately did foreclose on certain people in the military. It was quite unfortunate. It was inappropriate. We responded to those people and made them whole. As i said, every Single Person had the opportunity to have their mortgage reviewed and we corrected any errors. Our errors were less than anybody else. Okay. Im going to cut you off its not that im being defensive. Im proud of our results. I wouldnt be proud of these findings. Is it true that the California AttorneyGenerals Office said that 1 west back dated 96 of the documents they examined, and then you aggressively obstructed their investigation . Thats what the Attorney Generals Office said. Did they say that . So first, let me comment that i saw the leaked memo as you did. I think its highly inappropriate that somebody at the Attorney Generals Office so is there no truth in that about back dating . Again, what i would say is, the primary regulator was the occ. They were the ones who had the obligation to regulate. And occ said those things mr. Mnuchin, im sorry. The occ said they said you had these deficient mortgage practices, but you couldnt remember when i asked you about occ. Now youre citing occ in response to the California Attorney general. Is it true that one of the employees who was in charge of the modification, one of 1 west employees, has accused 1 west about not having any process in place to help its 3,000 fha and v. A. Mortgage borrowers avoid foreclosure and that this same employee, who was in charge of modifications, has accused 1 west of not having a process in place to help those v. A. Mortgage borrowers avoid foreclosures and submitting false claims. It seems to me, you just want to shoot questions at me and not let me explain. Im let you explain after i go through the questions. I know one answer will take all the time. Ill let you explain. Mr. Mnuchin at least understand, these are complicated questions. They are complicated. Let me at least explain them, otherwise there is no point in shooting them at me and i dont have the ability to respond. You dont, but all of these are factual things, if you want to follow up with a response later in more detail. One example of and you can answer this and take as long as you need. One example of an insider loan was the relative media deal, the fbi denied a fouryear request related to rely tillty meeting, citing enforcement procedures. Have you been questioned about by Law Enforcement on this, yes or no . I have not. And i saw that you wrote that letter yesterday. I assume that the fbi did a thorough review of my background report. I have no idea why they didnt approve the issue. I have been told we have no reason to believe its any issue associated with me. Fair enough. Im glad direct that to the fbi. And i will. I accept your answer. I accept your answer, youre not being investigated. But i find it interesting that you know about the letter i sent yesterday, the letter i sent with all those questions detailing all of the issues i just asked about with bank west, west bank bank west 1 west. I apologize. Thats all right. My father forgot the name sometimes, as well. But the letter i sent in early mid december, and you have not taken the time to answer. I think the issue is, the 1 west purchase went well for the treasury secretary designee, but it was a disaster for homeowners, for employees, for investors in relativity and for taxpayers. We can talk more about taxpayer cost on this whole process and the amount of money that he bought it for, sold it for. But mostly subsidized by taxpayers. Senator, your time is up. Now you take as much thank you. To answer the questions. Thank you very much. First of all, senator, i did enjoy meeting you. I dont believe we had the opportunity to meet before that time. And if im confirmed, i look forward to spending more time with you. Thank you for saying that. I know that you have some although we may not agree on everything, there were certain things we did agree on when we met. And i have a lot of respect, as you as a senator to hear your issues. Now, i did tell you i did acknowledge that you sent me the letter. I was advised by the staff that the appropriate thing was for me to come here and answer questions or meet with all of you independently. And answer questions that you have. And if i dont satisfy that, you have the ability to submit questions afterward, which i will respond to. When i came to your office, i told you that. And i said that i would spend as much time with you as you wanted answering those questions that they were quite significant. And, you know, because i knew they were complicated. So i did tell you, although i wouldnt respond to them in writing at that point, that i did understand your questions, and i wanted to address them. Senator thune. Thank you, mr. Chairman, mr. Mnuchin, welcome. We have had in the last eight years, havent had a single year where the growth rate has exceeded 3 . And a lot of the administration, current administration, describes that as the new normal. Tell me, what do you think is a reasonable expectation in terms of the growth rate in our economy . Historically, if you go back to world war ii, we have averaged 3. 2 a year. What do you think is a reasonable growth rate . Hang on. Im just looking at some of my notes. I mean, the short answer is, ive said publicly, and i believe that we should be able to get to 3 to 4 sustained gdp. I think that thats absolutely important. I think that as a country the most important issue we have is Economic Growth. That whatever issues we have as republicans or democrats, i think we can agree that with more growth, its a lot easier to solve these issues, and we should all be focused on things that help grow the economy. In 1984, we had 7 . In 1998, we had 5 . And in 2005 we had 3 . That was the last time we had appropriate growth rates. So i share the president elects concern of low growth. Our number one priority from my standpoint is Economic Growth, and i can assure you, i will work tirelessly if i am confirmed to create growth in the economy and create pro growth programs. And i commit to work with all of you on that. I believe that tax reform will be our first and most important part of that. Yeah, and the president elect has identified tax reform, reg reform, the regulatory burden, two areas i think we can unleash the economy and achieve a higher level of growth. To what degree do you think that regulations and a lot of regulations of volume coming out of this administration, even up to right now. There was as of yesterday 277page regulation that came out of the Obama Administration that affects businesses, farmers, Small Businesses, the folks i represent. And there was also in september, we sent a letter to secretary lew, basically trying to get him to withdraw some regulations that dealt with valuation discounts that impact the estates and makes it very difficult for us Small Business or farmer rancher to pass it on. When you get over there, are you going to hopefully look at with drawing those types of regulations and undoing a lot of the harm and economic harm, i think, and frankly, what has adversely impacted the growth rate in this economy as quickly as possible . Absolutely. And i will tell you both, i and the president elect believe in appropriate regulation. But that in many, many areas of the economy, not just in financial services, there is excess regulation that is inhibiting jobs and growth and hurting the American Workers and were committed. And specifically on what youve mentioned, on the irs regs on family businesses, i am committed to work with you in your office. You know, we want to make sure that we cover the appropriate loopholes so that if, you know, people have businesses set up to avoid taxes, its one thing, and theyre not operating business. But any operating business, we need to make sure that people who own minority interests and operating businesses, that the valuation for tax purposes are reflected appropriately. And anybody who follows the markets knows that there is a significant difference between control and noncontrol, and, you know, the irs should follow fair valuations. So we should make sure we collect the most money, and not have not have lots of loopholes. On the other, we need to reflect fair valuations. Senator carden and i shared a working group on business tax income and one of the issues that came out of that is if we get into comprehensive tax reform, and i hope that we do, how do you treat pass businesses. To me, 90 of the businesses in this country organize as passthroughs. 50 of net business income is generated, and they employ 55 of the people in this country. And so as we think about tax reform, i guess im asking you, if you would commit to work with us, to ensure that passthrough businesses are treated fairly, and that whatever we come up with in terms of policy reflects the Economic Impact that llcs and partnerships and Sub Chapter S Corporation businesses are organized in that manner have on our economy. Absolutely. Not only am i committed to it, but i actually spent time on this issue already. Ive worked with the trade group that follows Small Businesses, and not only do they support the trump economic plan, which i helped design, but they were kind enough to write a letter of support for me to the committee. And i think the important issue on passthroughs that we are committed is that we want to make sure that there is a business tax. This is not just a corporate tax. That there is a business tax. If there are large passthroughs that earn tens of million or hundreds of millions of dollars, we want to make sure that they keep the money in the company, okay, as an incentive and that they dont use passthroughs as a way to get lower taxes than they would pay as personal income tax. And we want to make sure that Hedge Fund Managers dont use passthroughs, again, to avoid what would be higher personal income taxes. But we are absolutely committed and we have spoken to many Small Businesses and entrepreneurs to make sure that they are protected and they get the benefit of the business tax. So i appreciate your concern. We have heard this loud and clear on the campaign trail, and i can assure you its something were committed to working with you and your office on. Thank you. Keep that focus on growth. Thank you. Senator toomey is next. Thank you, mr. Chairman, and mr. Mnuchin, thank you for joining us. I enjoyed our chat the other day and i appreciate your willingness to serve in this extremely important post. Mr. Chairman, i want to thank you for observing some not too distant history, the fact that our current treasury secretary had investments in the came en island and i dont remember the outreach from my colleagues on the other side when