He did not have to do this. That is apparent. He did not have to choose education as you like ambition, but you did. I thank you for the investment and all the kids that you have impacted, for the unbelievable statistics. I am sure you and the senator from minnesota can come to a agreement. Ive sat here and i remember in my first election. I was two minutes into what seemed to be a 45 minute question and answer. After 10 minutes i said are there any questions that deal with kids or outcomes . They said no. I got up and left. We can ask you all sorts of questions about you personally and what you have done, but you came into my office, and before i asked the question, you convinced me that you are passionate about making sure that every child had the opportunity to get a successful education. From not that every child that got that education would have an opportunity to reach for the American Dream of a life that is unlimited in opportunity. You convinced me without me asking a question. I only have one question today. Why is it so difficult for us to figure out how to focus on outcome versus getting hung up on process . Ms. Devos i think that is a very good question. I think we could have a very robust debate in this room of the about that. Human tendency is to protect and guard what is because change is difficult. Yet we see the fact that there are millions of students who are simply not getting the opportunity for an equal opportunity for a quality education. We try to tinker around from the top. We try to fix things, but it becomes more about the system than it does about what is right for each child. I thank you for your support and your encouragement around the notion that every child should have the opportunity. Every parent should have the opportunity on behalf of the child to choose the right educational environment for them. I am hopeful that if we can continue having a robust conversation about this, that we will talk about the great school that our children have the opportunity to go to 10 years from now, which many may not exist today or look very different from what exists today. I think the opportunity to innovate education is virtually unlimited and has been untested to a large extent. I am very hopeful we will have that opportunity for that kind of conversation. Sen. Burr i think we will and i hope the Committee Sees it in their actions to make sure that you are at the helm of the department of education. As i look across america and the world, i have seen an age were technology is going to impact things that we did not even dream about five years ago. What we have seen happen to our health care in manufacturing. I remember my father at 90 years old looking at me about five years ago and saying i do not understand how a fax machine works. I never was able to explain it to him, but that did not limit my use of it or my belief that it served an important purpose. Education will change drastically. What is most foreign is to have someone passionate at the top, concerned about every child in every childs opportunity. I am grateful you are here. I think the nation deserves the secretary who the champion of public education. In a 2015 speech, you are really blunt. Government really sucks. You call the Public School system a deadend. In order to clarify, you never attended a Public School, did you . Ms. Devos correct. You never taught at a Public School. Ms. Devos i did not, but it i mentored at one. Teachers do better when their morale is high, do you agree . Ms. Devos yes. I support teachers. Just with reference to the quote i would like to introduce that for the record. I do not have any other questions about it and i have a limited amount of time. Another quote, you and your husband spoke at a conference a number of years ago. Your husband said the church has been displaced by the Public School as the center for activity and the center for what goes on in the community. Thomas jefferson did not view oublic education as contrary to religion. Do you . Ms. Devos i do not. Do you think school that receive government funding should meet this that meet the same accountability standards . Ms. Devos all schools receiving funding should meet the same accountability standards. Yes. Although you have different accountability standards between traditional Public Schools and charter schools. I am interested in this playing on level playing fid. So they should meet the same accountability standards . Ms. Devos yes. They should be very transparent with the information. Will you insist on the equal accountability for any school that receives federal funding, whether public, public charter, or private . Ms. Devos i support accountability. Is that a yes or a no . Ms. Devos i support accountability. Do you not want to answer my question. Mr. Moss i support accountability. I think all schools should be equally accountable. Do you agree with me or not . Ms. Devos no. Should all k12 schools receiving governmental funding be required to meet the requirements of the individual with disabilities education act . Ms. Devos i think they already are. I am asking you a should question. Should all schools receive receiving taxpayer funding meet the requirements . Ms. Devos that is a matter best left to the states. So some states might be good to kids with disabilities and some may not . Ms. Devos i think that is an issue best left to the state. What about the federal requirement . Lets limit it to federal funding. Should they be required to follow federal law you echo follow federal law . Ms. Devos as the senator referred to there are many parents who are very happy with the program there. I think all schools that receive federal funding should be required to meet this conditions of the individuals with disabilities act. Ms. Devos i think that is worth discussion. You cannot get agree with me. Finally, should all k12 schools receiving federal governmental funding be required to report harrassment . Ms. Devos federal funding certainly comes with strings attached. Think all such schools should report equal information about harassment or bullying, do you agree . Ms. Devos i would look forward to reviewing that provision. If it was a court, i would say that the judge tell the witness answer the question. Steve mnuchin was confirmed on february 13. His career in finance including years as a Senior Executive at goldman sachs. During the 2016 campaign, he served as Donald Trumps chair. This confirmation hearing includes questions from south Dakota Republican john thune. And colorado Democrat Michael bennet. What do you think is a reasonable expectation . Mr. Mnuchin i am looking at some of my notes. The short answer is i believe that we should be able to get 3 to 4 sustained gdp. I think that is absolutely important. The most important issue we have is economic growth. Whatever issues we have as republicans or democrats, i think we can agree that with more growth, it is a lot easier to solve these issues. We should all be focused on things to help grow the economy. In 1984 we had 7 . In 1998, we had 5 . In 2005 we had 3 . That was the last time we had appropriate growth rate. I share the president elects concern. I will work tirelessly if i am confirmed to create growth in the economy and create progrowth programs. I commit to work with all of you on all of that. Tax reform will be out first part of that. There are two areas where i think we can unleash the economy and achieve a higher level of growth. To what degree do you think regulations of volume coming out of this administration, even up to right now. As of yesterday, there was a 277 page regulation that affects farmers, Small Businesses, the folks that i represent. There was also in september, we sent a letter basically trying to get him to withdraw some regulations that dealt with evaluation discounts. That impact the state and make it difficult for a smaller business or former rancher to pass it on. When you get over there, will you hopefully look at the drawing those types of regulations and undoing a lot of harm economic harm which has adversely impacted the growth rate of this economy as quickly as possible . Mr. Mnuchin absolutely. We believe in appropriate regulation. There is excess regulation that is inhibiting jobs and growth and hurting the american workers. We are committed, specifically on what you have mentioned on the irs regulations on family businesses. Im committed to working with you and your office. We want to make sure that we cover the propriate loopholes, so that if people have businesses set up to avoid taxes 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. Anybody who follows the market knows that there is a significant difference between control and noncontrolled. The irs should follow fair of valuations. We should collect the most money and not have lots of loopholes. We need to reflect fair valuations. Do you believe the dollar is too strong . Are we ever going to hear you say that it is too strong . Mr. Mnuchin as treasury secretary, i do not see it as my role, commenting on the dollar. I have commented on what i believe are the longterm. In 2011, due to the dysfunction in congress, we must we almost failed to raise the debt ceiling and as a result, the agency downgraded our nations debt rating for the first time in history. The stock market lost 17 of its value and did not recover for almost a year. A completely selfinflicted wound. In hurt American Retirement savings and dealt a blow to job creation. During the campaign, mr. Trump said that he could be financing or renegotiate our existing debt. Later in the campaign he suggested the country to pay our creditors less than what they do, specifically he said, you go back and say the economy just crashed. I am going to give you back half. He also said the United States never have to default. Do you agree with these statements . Mr. Mnuchin thank you for asking the question about the debt ceiling which i do want to comment on. I think it is a very important issue. If im lucky enough to be confirmed, please do not filibuster. Mr. Mnuchin the president has made it perfectly clear, and i think it is perfectly clear that honoring the u. S. Debt is the most important thing. I hope that when we get to the point, if i am confirmed, that we have the debt ceiling and we will not go to another one of these issues. I firmly believe the u. S. Has the obligation to honor can you commit to working with the congress to pass a clean that ceiling . Clean debt ceiling . Mr. Mnuchin i will commit to absolutely work with the congress, the house, and the senate so that we do not get to the last minute and run out of money. Is that a yes . A clean debt ceiling . Mr. Mnuchin i do not know what your technical issue of a clean debt ceiling . I would like as to raise the debt ceiling sooner rather than later as to raise cash us to raise the dead doing sooner rather than later. The tax plan would increase the debt by 7. 2 trillion over 10 years. The president elect has also proposed increasing defense spending and saying he will not touch entitlements like medicare or social security. He has only suggested reducing spending in 2015, nondefense Discretionary Spending comprised about 16 of the budget. Thisnclus nding for Veterans Benefits and our vestments in research. Even if we did not spend a single penny on any one of these priorities for an entire year, which i would not suggest. That would only pay for about 8 of his tax plan. It is a tax plan that increases the debt by 7. 2 trillion. Is that acceptable to you . Mr. Mnuchin that was the first tax plan and not this a the second tax plan. The first was 11 trillion. Mr. Mnuchin you must be referring to static and not dynamic. 11 trillion. Mr. Mnuchin you must be referring to static and not dynamic. The dynamic is 3. 6 trillion. We are adding mountains of debt. Mr. Mnuchin i discussed the debt with the president elect. We are concerned that we have gone from 10 billion to 20 20 trillion debt. Let me make a comment on the tax plan. Senator thune said that in our history the average growth rate is 3. 2 . You said between 3 or 4 , but there is no way that will fill the gap projected in these tax plans. I can accept the fact that the president elect might have changed your mind, i am trying to understand if you would find it acceptable to bury the American People under this kind of proposed debt. Mr. Mnuchin we had a rather modest Campaign Staff relative to the other people out there. One of the things i look forward to, if confirmed, is having access to all the people at treasury who are able to model these things. We had some internal models but were forced to rely upon external models. Certain of the assumptions we agreed with, certain of the assumptions we did not agree with. President trump has a progrowth economic tax plan. We are sensitive to the cost of that plan. Yesterday i had the opportunity to meet with senator wyden. I will be the person from the administration taking the lead on that. I would look forward to working with the house and the senate, both republicans and democrats, to move forward on tax legislation. I am out of time. I want to make one observation that he has twice praised employees of the treasury department. I want to say that that is a refreshing and Welcome Change from what we have heard of until now and a lot of these hearings. President trump chose longtime business associate wilbur ross for commerce secretary. Sorry secretary. He was confirmed in late february or a vote of 7227. He became an investor in the president s keynote casino operation. Wilbur ross spent most of his career restructuring Failing Companies in steel, coal, and, telecommunications and finance. Heres a portion of his confirmation hearing starting with questions from ron johnson. Senator johnson thank you for being willing to leave your life in the private sector to the and to serve our nation. Our number one priority has to be to grow the economy and realize the full potential of the american economy. What do you believe is t Growth Potential of the economy . Do you have a figure in your head . Mr. Ross i think we can reach 3 growth if we do all the elements of the president s program. Senator johnson that has been the average. I would hope that is a minimum goal. From my standpoint, they are forming reasons that we are not speaking that full potential. Were not using our energy resources. There are so many lawyers here. Could you talk about, from your perspective, what do you think are the primary reasons that we are not realizing the full potential of our economy . Mr. Ross i wrote an editorial that outlines four or five key points. Doing some costbenefit analysis and having sensible regulation. Second, improving our trade balance, particularly by stimulating exports. Third, having an Energy Policy that takes advantage of our Natural Resources and keeps Energy Prices low. Foru and Infrastructure Program that is a sensible one. Fourth, and Infrastructure Program. If we do all those and have a sensible tax system, i think the economy will do very well. Senator johnson talk about your plans are what you think would best suited toward stimulating exports . Mr. Ross the first thing we have to do is deal with the unfair tariff and nontariff other countries put on us. It is a little weird that we have very low tariffs and china has very high triffs. That seemed to be a bit of an imbalance. We would like to have our trading partners practice free trade and do it in a more balanced manner than what has been done at present. I think a lot of what we need is elimination of inappropriate and improper trade barriers to ask. Barriers to us. I think American Labor can compete very effectively if it is a fair fight. In a lot of cases, it is not a fair fight. Senator johnson talk about the nontrade barriers. Specifically talk and prioritize and rank how harmful those nontariff trade barriers are . Mr. Ross some countries with whom we have had treaties agreed to lower their tariffs. They will suddenly say that we have a different environmental standard than what you have, and your cars do not qualify as environmentally correct in our country. I cannot imagine that there is anything that our and buttermilk that our environmental has missed. It is a device to make it more difficult for American Companies to tailor make cars that market. The famous debate over mad cow disease are another very glaring example. I eat quite a lot of beef. I do not have mad cow disease. Some people think applying to be secretarof comrce is a sign at i do. Leaving that aside, it is hard for me to imagine that there is any legitimacy in saying that our beef should not be exported to wherever. If it is good enough for americans, it should be good enough for foreigners to eat. Those are a couple glaring examples. Other ones are inordinate delays at the ports for undue inspections. Just harassing the export process in general. As you can gather, i am quite familiar with a lot of the tactics because ive been a personal victim. Your approach would be to target those abuses . Yes or yes, sir. Welcome to the committee. I appreciate the time that we spent in the office together talking about a variety of issues. One thing i was pleased to hear was your knowledge of michigan and the industry there. The work you did with the Steel Industry and automotive sector. I particularly am pleased with the comments you made in regards to the question made by one of my colleagues related to ttp. It would have a very negative impact on the Auto Industry. Particularly with suppliers in that industry. It would have had a devastating impact on jobs, and it is not about protecting the Auto Industry but having a our rules where we Auto Industry and workers of america fairly with others. We can outcompete anybody if the rules are fair. I appreciate your stance on that. I want to address something that is critically important, w