Okay, apologies for being late. And let me thank those of you who are here for being here. This afternoon we will be hearing from miss Melinda Young and miss nani colaretti have been nominated to serve as deputy secretary of omb and i want to thank both miss young and miss colaretti for your many yearsof public service. And thank you to your friends and family members who you have brought with youtoday. As we all know the omb is responsible for pairing the president s budget, reviewing federal regulations and providing the proper oversight of agencies. It is a very ulimportant task and i know that both of you are more than capable of leading omb. Since last march, ms. Young has been serving as acting director of omb again, the senate has previously confirmed both of these nominees to highranking positions in the past on strong bipartisan votes. I hope and expect we will do so again in short order. This is our first Budget Committee hearing of 2022. We are facing many challenges as a nation as i think everybody knows, and certainly challenge the nominees are familiar with. We are yet to be free of the we have now entered your three of the pandemic as thousands of americans continue to die from covid every single day and hospitals continue to be overwhelmed with patients in my view , we are moving towards and oligarchic form of society where the people on top incredible wealth and power. While most americans are struggling to pay their bills. We had a dysfunctional Health Care System which costs us more than any other, country we have 90 Million People underinsured or uninsured and we pay the highest price for prescription drugs and among other things Climate Change is an accidental threat to the existence of the enplanet but other than that,not much. Bottom line i think we can agree our solutions may be different but this country faces enormous problems. So with that, i would say that i have been impressed by the work that miss young has done. And i look forward to supporting her and now let me give the gavel over to senator graham. Thank you mister chairman and to both our nominees and regulations and miss young, you are well known to the Committee Even those of us on appropriations and ive always enjoyed working with miss coloretti, is that right . Coloretti. You are wellqualified, you might talk me out of voting for you but i doubt it. I want to talk about a few things i think are important to your job. Number one, Climate Change is real and i like to do something about it but there are a lot ofthreats out there. This is a chart of just some of the areas of the world, iran is an accidental threat to you, they want to kill all the jews. I dont know why they want to do that but thats what he ttalking about and i thinkthey would if they could. Its not a jewish state, they would go after a lot of holds in the muslim faith to purify the faith and make it their form of radical shiism and they kill all of us because we dont agree with them religiously. I want to highlight in this chart that north korea, china, russia, ukraine, the rise of crisis back in syria, the debacle in afghanistan. I dont think i remember a time this dangerous since the 1930s so from our point of view, we believe that the president s budget, the 2022 Defense Budget called for 1. 6 percent increase in spending. Thats well below inflation but a 16 percent increase in nondefense spending. Those priorities are just out of sync with the world as we know it. The number one job of the federal government for me is to defend our nation and the biden budget as defense spending below inflation, well below inflation and the National Defense strategy commission, a nonpartisan commission of defense experts unanimously agree that in order to deter china and russia that the United States would need to increase defense ending by 35 percent and that would be above inflation and failing to increase would make it necessary to alter the expectations of the us defense strategyand our global strategic objectives which is i think a bad idea. Though the budget as adopted would put us at 2. 5 percent of geo National Security which is a historically low arena. So were negotiating, democrats and republicans about trying to use the appropriations process, not the continuing resolution process to fund the government. I think people on our side are going to be very consistent e that the defense numbers dont meet the reality that we face in the world and as a nation so having said that, your job omb will be to kind of ride herd over the regulatory side of government. You will be advised president and run the office and i think they are both very capable people. Whatever differences we have will be honestly held and i just want to use my time mister chairman to us on trying to get us as a body working within the administration the top line numbers for budget purposes to appropriate rather than continuing resolution thats just a terrible way to run the Defense Department and i hope that the two ladies in front of us that these jobs can help us in this process so with that i will you back. Thank you very much. Is senator murray available for introduction from ms. Young . Okay. If not, senator kramer, did you want to introduce miss young . Id be honored to. I hope im not stepping on senator murrays toes by going ahead of her but senator kennedy is not here and hes from louisiana and im something illegal north dakota. But i think it speaks volumes to what relationship means. Its not geographic, its relationship and i want to say first of all mister chairman did an excellent job with miss youngs credentials. You didnt mention that shes a new mom which is probably the greatest credential of all time and congratulations on that. I want to add a couple of insights having worked with director young in this last year. As you pointed out shes been confirmed to be the deputy but hazardous as acting acting director that in and of itself is challenging enough but on top of that course we have this other thing going on, this pandemic and all these other issues. Workforce about, working as best they can remotely. All big challenges and shes met them all. I have found her to be smart, witty and i would suspect in a witty that you would be the Ranking Member im pretty sure but hopefully he will still vote for you. Shes classy and heres what i love as much as anything mister chairman. You talked about her role as a staff we in the house, in the Appropriations Committee and thats why where first i heard about her good work. What impressed me so much and what ive seen in practice as well as in words is that she has not just an understanding of the legislative process but a real respect for the institution. And that means a lot. That makes all of us better at our jobs including the folks at omb. I can tell you from firsthand experience that in my now 10 years roughly in congress ive never worked with a budget director that was as attentive, that is as understanding, that could drill down as deeply on specific issues and inactually took the time to do it as director young has area we have a couple of major Water Infrastructure projects in north dakota and have been authorized many times but never really dealt with appropriately by omb and they have now. She immediately responded to concerns about statistics area, something when you come from a small state or small city that really matters. Even on manufacturing regulations tiwhen we had a question or concern raised, and her staff got right on it so you could ask for anything more or better on somebody who directs an agency as large and important as omb and for those reasons and a bunch of others i am honored you would ask me to introduce you and it is my great pleasure to do it. Senator atgraham, theres nothing she could do today to get me to voteagainst her. We may withdraw her nomination. Shes very witty, i warn you. Thank you very muchsenator kramer. I think senator murray is not yet available so we will go to senator padilla for his introduction of miss coloretti. Thank you chairman sanders and Ranking Member graham. Im proud to introduce President Bidens outstanding nominee to be Deputy Director of omb. Nani coloretti is a lifelong advocate for Economic Opportunity and the needs of working families. She spent more than a decade of her career as a Public Servant in the city and county of San Francisco. Rising to become San Franciscos budget director and the office of then they are gavin newsom. Miss coloretti is an experienced s leader in the federal government as well join the Treasury Department in 2009 as Deputy Assistant secretary for management and budget and in that role she helped shape the newly created Consumer FinancialProtection Bureau. Her record of success led to her appointment as an assistant secretary for management at the Treasury Department where she oversaw and modernized a workforce of hundreds ofPublic Servants managing our economic recovery. In 2014 President Biden nominated miss Nani Coloretti to serve as secretary of housing and urban development. She drew on her long experience and relationships in local government to not only improve publichousing but to do so through Community Partnerships while prioritizing equity at the same time. Currently Senior Vice President at the urban institute miss coloretti is an advocate for Public Policies that will help more families achieve their american dream. She has proven to be a skillful manager and empathetic leader. Shes evidently qualified to support the critical work of the executive branch of our federal government as Deputy Director. I urge the committee to support her swift confirmation m. Thank you senator andyou had eight seconds remaining. I believe senator murray is now available for an introduction of ms. Young. Senator murray, are you there western mark senator murray. You are on mute. How many times in the lastfew years of people said that . Ill say it one more time. You are on mute e. Senator. You are on mute. Sign language. Mute. [laughter] cant hear you. All right, im sure that this is one of the many reasons we all hope to god this pandemic is behind us. All right, senator murray will ensure be back but why dont we in the meantime swear are two nominees in. R under the rules of the Committee Nominees are required to testify under oath. Miss young and miss coloretti, please rise. Do you swear the testimony you give before the Budget Committee will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth . I do. And will you also agree to appear before this committee in the future eeand answer any questions that members of the committee might have . Please be seated. One last try for senator murray. Can you hear yet . We hear you very loudly. For the record, it wasnt me. It was the committee staffs receptacle. Its too loud. I was using my preschool yell at you voice. Thank you so much mister chairman. Im glad to be here today to express my strong support for her swift confirmation as director, a role she has those already on an acting basis for the past year. Ive known this young for many years, many of us have and we know miss young for her expertise, unmatched work ethic and maybe most importantly willingness proven track record of bringing both sides, republican and democrat together to get things done for the American People. We talked about appointing the people in government, people who will do the work were all talking about shalanda young. Any senator whose work on a spending bill on the house Appropriations Committee has seen the nose the budget process inside and out. Ms. Young would also make history, bringing an important perspective as we work to build an economy that works for everyone in this countryand on that note i think its important to mention this young is in brandnew mom. Working mom felt some of the worst of this pandemic at a time when a fullblown childcare crisis is happening lack of childcare has been hard for working moms forcing many of them to turn down extra hours or promotion or even quit t entirely. I cant think of anything more appropriate than putting a working mom in charge of americas budget. Mister chairman we are facing more challenges and holes anytime i can remember. Covid19, a public threat to our health and economy. The pandemic has worsened so many longstanding challenges but childcare and the cost of housing and were seeing the effects and costs of the Climate Crisis in every part of this country. We need a steady hand to help guide our economic recovery and that person is shalanda young. Few people understand the federal budget for appropriations process like miss young and even fewer have the benefit of her years of experience negotiating deals with both republicans and democrats. Lets waste no time in confirming her so she can keep working for the American People. Iq. Thank you very much miss murray and now lets hear from ms. Young. Thank you mister chairman. First id like tothank senator murray, senator kramer for those wonderful words of introduction. I will promise you much other than the Senate Dining room but this is the two who introduced me, they are testaments to the relationships that can be built in this institution. Senator kramer and i have gotten to know each other well working together in vthe same as senator murray so thank you very much. My family has found a new star, my daughter though they are mostly home looking at hursley and maybe watching me but i want to thank my dad for escorting me here today as a loan person who drew the short stick. She really is much cuter than watching me do this today but i still want to thank my family whos been a big support. Iq for the opportunity to testify today as President Bidens nominee for director for the office of management and budget. Its been my honor to serve and i am grateful to the president for the trust he has put in me as his nominee when i first came before this committee i told you about my experience growing up in rural louisiana. I talked about my years leading the house Appropriations Committee as its top staff are serving this institution i care about so deeply and i mean that i made a commitment to you that i would focus my service on restoring regular order, partner with congress in the spirit of bipartisanship and Mutual Respect and delivering results for the American People. Over the past 10 months ive kept that commitment working alongside the Extraordinary Team at omb and with members of this committee from both sides of the eye. I like to highlight these achievements that showcase what our team is capable of with partnership with the senate in this committee in particular. First together with congress we delivered crucial Disaster Relief for communities across the country. Not only to respond to Hurricane Ida and last years devastating wildfires but to address a net recovery from hurricane delta working with fema we announced 5 billion last year to help communities prepare for and respond to extreme weather events and with the help of congress we secured another 4. 5 billion through thebipartisan infrastructure law to build community resilience. Second we worked with members of both parties to help develop and enact a bipartisan infrastructure law permanently authorizing something im committed to get done during my confirmation hearing last march. And omb has focused on lamenting this lawwith the highest level of effectiveness and accountability. We stood up a new made in America Office that has already facilitated millions of dollars in purchases to support american manufacturing. The office is brought unprecedented transparency to the waiver review process that matters to many of us in this room. I am grateful the bipartisan infrastructure law expanded the made in america requirements for all federal infrastructure funding and codified this Important Office at omb b its around for future administrations. Fourth we took action to make the federal government more efficient effective and accountable to the public. Those steps include ombs work to implement a new executive order to streamline Government Services and improved customer experience. As well as muchneeded progress on investing and it modernization process. And finally in keeping with the president s longstanding commitment to oversight, we directed agencies to focus on two important areas, restoring the integrity and independence of their Inspector General and working with congress to ensure igs can fulfill their mandate. I know there are legitimate differences in this country and in this room that deserve honest debate and ive appreciated the opportunity to be with many of you about them. If confirmed, i will continue to work loosely with you and your colleagues to deliver for the American People and continue to find commonground , to be responsive and rebu