Development department recently appeared before the banking committee. Such as the Community Development block grant. This is about 90 minutes. This hearing will come to order. This morning we will consider the nominations of Kevin Hassett and the honorable pamela pate naude. I see friends and family behind you as well and i see my good friend bob dole, at least, i did a few minutes ago and we welcome him here. And will play an Important Role in spurring economic student. Mr. Hassett has had a distinguished career in economics that includes positions in academia, government and policy. A widely consulted expert on Economic Policy and has contributed countless papers, commentary and testimony. Nomination has received bipartisan support. Mr. Hassetts understanding of tax policy will be an asset to the administration. He has extensive experience with economic modelling. For pro growth policies. Key to Economic Growth is not only robust Financial Markets but also economic policies that will enable all americans to unlock their potential. I look forward on hearing from him on how economics can play a role in achieving this goal. Ms. Patenaude has received unanimous to become assistant secretary for Community Planning and development at hud. In this role, she oversaw all of the Community Department operations. As a former leader in a local Housing Agency has on the ground experience. Her nomination has been met with bipartisan support as well. This speaks to her distinguishs reputation and commitment to addressing important. I look forward to working with ms. Patenaud. Empower local decision making. Encourage self sufficiently and address comprehensive finance reform. At this time, i ask unanimous consent to enter into the letters two without objection. So ordered. I also ask unanimous consent to enter into the record more than 30 letters showing bipartisan superiority for ms. Patenaude. Congratulations on both of you. Thank you mr. Chairman. Welcome. Thanks for holding this hearing. I look forward to hearing the views on the two witnesses. Ms. Patenaud comes to us with a long resume of development programs. And report entitled the silent housing crisis. As a part of americas critical compact with its citizen. I look forward to hearing her views particularly since her past advocacy seems at odds. Mr. Hassett, i hope his work at the council of economic advisories will development and actually rebuild infrastructure. That is what is needed to strengthen the economy instead. We have seen the administration threaten wall street reform, attempt to take away Health Insurance from 23 Million People. I appreciate my cleolleague fro ohio speaking out on medicaid cuts. The administrations hud Budget Proposal is a stark illustration to this agenda. 11 million renters as we discussed in my office. Over half their income in rent meaning one thing goes bad in their lives and they are evicted. Everything turns upside down. I want you always to remember that number, 11 million renters pay half their income in rent. The president s budget would cut 15 from the hud budget. The budget would eliminate programs like Community Development block grants and home cut funding for Public Housing repairs by 70 . To cut their funding in repairs by 70 . To protect children from led poisoning from asthma and other problems. Senator portman knows in cities and in my state housing built before senator portman and i were born, the house, the led c content, the lead exposures. Five months ago in this room, dr. Carson scoffed at the notion that he would support a 10 cut in the hud budget. He said he understood from his experience how it was far less costly to avoid lead poisoning than to treat it. I did that because of his personal and his public promises on lead let this budget which apparently he is defending and that is one of the things we want to hear from you. His budget undermines all of this. The broken promises dont end here. The president promised on the campaign trail to revitalize our inner cities. Instead the president proposes to cut more existing Infrastructure Program than the 200 billion he is willing to address. I look forward to hearing from our two witnesses how we tackle. Thank you senator brown. Now we will turn to senator portman to introduce mr. H mr. Hassett. Thank you for letting me do this. The Ranking Member, it is a pleasure to introduce Kevin Hassett, he has you know is being nominated to serve as counsel of economic advisers. His sons squjaemie and his wif. We have known each other a long time. And i got to know him and respect him and he continued to serve as a policy consultant for the Treasury Department under the clinton administration. I went onto the house and ways and Means Committee as i looked to him as we tried to reform the tax code. And again, that is one of his specialties. He has got a lot of respect by economists of both sides of the aisle. His predecessor, has called him an excellent pick. That is from jason furman and been endorsed others. He served as a senior economists of the Federal Reserve board of governors. In particular, i want to point out that he is an expert on tax reform. I think this is going to be incredibly important to us and his focus has been how to have a tax code that gets rid of loop holes and simpler tax code. The major beneficiary would be middle class families. And that wages are flat right now and the best thing to do to get wages up is actually to reform the tax code and i think that is important research. The middle class squeeze is something we can address to a number of ways. And one is through tax reform and his work in that area has respect on both sides of the aisle. He is the right person at the right time. I think the difficult class of tax reform and other things will be each other. Thanks very much for giving me the opportunity say a few words about mr. Hassett. Thank you. Now senator shaheen . Thanks you chairman and members of the committee, [ inaudible ] to be president trumps nominee. And what i have to say is probably overkill after your glowing review of her resume, but her experience in housing policy goes back nearly three and a half decades beginning with her work in new hampshire. That was followed as you pointed out. Pam and i first got to know each other when i was governor and she served in a succession of high level positions, the deputy chief of staff and later state director and assistant deputy secretary of hud. And she later you know, what impressed me always about pam is that she understands that access to Affordable Housing and a safe place to call home is the foundation of families and strong communities. And throughout her career she has been engaged in these challenges as a thinker, leader and problem solver. I appreciate her ability to bring together disparate state leader groups and that she is personally dedicated to the core mission of hud including the challenge of bringing opportunity as you pointed out, senator, brown, to americas most disadvantaged urban communities. I think our nation is fortunate to have someone as pams high caliber. And i hope members of the committee will agree with me that her experience and expertise make her superbly experienced. Thank you. Before we begin your testimony, i would like to place both of the nominees under oath. Please rise and raise your right hand. Do you swear or affirm that the testimony you are about to give is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you god . I do. And do you agree to appear and testify before any dually constituted committee of the snae senate . I do. Thank you. Each of you will take a few moments to introduce any member of your family you may wish to introduce. Thank you very much senator portman for the kind introduction and senator crapo. Distinguished members of the committee. I am humbled and honored to be before you. I am also deeply grateful, and have had a chance to get to know many of you. I would also like to begin as you invited me to senator, by introducing my college sweet heart and wife of 31 years. And next to her are my sons john and james who are sitting behind me. I would like to acknowledge my father john who was a korean war veteran and my mother sylvia and sister julia who are sadly no longer with us. I was raised by two Public School teachers in massachusetts. My mother was a Kindergarten Teacher and my father taught english. And still lives in the same house i was raised in. As i was growing up my pain went through a transition. Neighboring turners fall was almost as prosperous housing a paper mill. As we got older, times were changing, plants closed and families started moving away. It seemed impossible to not look around and see what was happening to my town. Why did plants move away or close . Why did many of the plants clos good jobs disappear . Is there Something Police makesers can do to restore proermts. Economic principles models suggest a answer. But going from things that work in textbook mold models to you will Actual Police recommendations is a difficult things. The world has many complications not included in the models and that the data often surprise economists, especially those who are too much confidence in the theories. That observation led me over the years to focus on things that can be learned from the data. My dissertation focused in part how wages move over the business cycle. What do the beerds are periods when workers prospers have in mcmahon my he remember keir crass spending how firms respond to policy and how labor and capitol interact. Since then my studies have taken my Different Directions you who i record makes clear a few things i would like to emphasize by my approach to economics. First, i believe its a eessential to gather evidence and not just rely on theory. Have easterly in the career the empirical lirt and tax aches contained holes often because the country by country data one would need for study would not be available moop nigh coauthors built a Large International tax database and making data available. I believe that Economic Analysis should be traermt and replikable. An example of my kmiltment to the idea is the open Source Policy Center which i cofounded at the northwestern Enterprise Institute. The ospc has open Source Computer code that allows anyone to score tax plans evaluate the distributional consequences of that plan and see what the ufrpgs assumptions are that others use scoring their plans. The ospc promises to democratize tax deeblt finally wheel i respect Research Even the most theory etic. Mywork has helds the proms of improving the lives of others. And improves the lives of those less fortunate. A recently example of that would be my work with the economic innovation group. Where i explore the causes and curacao of the striking geographic inequality that we see in the america. We have measured distress and constructed publicly available data sets that shed lights on the communities around the country needing help. There is interactive map petition eig website that helps people explore communities with the dark color red sbanging zreem economic des it one of the reddest shades on the mapts is turner falls the town across the river are from my dads house where the paper mill closed. The council of economic sbirsz was created to provide the president with economic advise to help policy makers craft solution force problems we face. Throughout history it has done admirable by both democratic and republican dmgss. In 2009 nominee Christina Romer told that she would do her utmost to protect the integrity a cea and make a center for unby as the he sthiesk analysis. If dpirmt i pledged to you i would do the same and i would enthusiastically and energetically take the helm of the Great American institution. Thank you. Thank you mr. Hassett. Ms. Patenaude. Thank you chairman crapo Ranking Member brown and distinguished members of the committee. It is a great privilege to appear before you this morning. I am deeply honored by president trumps decision to nominate me as the deputy secretary of the u. S. Department of housing and urban development. I also want to thank senator sheeheen for they are thoughtful introduction and a special thanks to a my deer friend senator bob dole for joining us this morning. Mr. Chairman, if i may take a moment to introduce my husband and three daughters. My husband of 32 years, chuck, katlyn, theyre out of order. Meghan and jennifer. And i also want to recognize my niece kristin hews also here with us today. And the many friends sitting behind me showing love and support. Housing halls been disclose my heart and part of my family history. My late parities bob and ee tella heuss together created and ran a successful Home Building business in the new hampshire. There was no escaping talk in my momi about housing. It was no surprise to my parents when i came to share their passion for housing. As a senior at college i experienced our nations capitol as many College Student do as an intern. I never imagined that that internship at hud headquarters 35 years ago would launch a career that continues to energize, challenge and inspire me. The upon graduation i administered the section 8 rental Assistance Program to it at the finance authority which observed first hand the transforms transformational impact for improving plier senior citizensing. During my career ive hevd at hud in several leadership roles at assistant deputy secretary for field policy and management i restructured huds critical Field Operations and contributed to the development of the fiveyear strategic plan. As assistant secretary for Community Planning and development i administered 8 billion in Community Economic development and Affordable Housing funds and managed a team of more than 80 oh experienced professionals committed to carrying out the mission. Outside of hud my career is focused on promoting houses policies aligned with the significant and changing needs of the american people. At the urban Land Institute i established the center for Workforce Housing to draw attention to the plight of americas most essential workers he is firefighters, police officers, nurses and teachers who are too often priced out of the communities they serve. At the bipartisan policy center, i directed the Housing Commission under the steadfast leadership of three of your former colleagues, senator george mitchell, senator kit bond and senator mel marntd ez. The commission developed a comprehensive report outlining a new drerks direction for federal housing policy. Currently i serve as the president as the j ronaldter willinger foundation where we seek to elevate rental affordable foss a nagsle policy. Aen we educate about the silent housing criesness america. Through the initiatives i have dwrefld strong work relations differs enemies of the housing advocates Home Builders mornl bankers government policy makers and academics. Im proud to say that bipartisan collaboration has been a hallmark of the initiatives. My career inhousing at the local state and federal levels of government and in the private sector have broadened my view of americas housing policies. This knew neek perspective enables me to understand the factors cribbing to the success of some programs as well as the factors that diminish the well intended impacts of others. As Matthew Desmond articulated in his pull idser prize winning book evicted we have failed to flf appreciate how deeply house something implicated in the creation of poverty. Dr. Desmond believes powerful solutions are within our reach. I agree with him. I believe that as a nation we must recognize that house something not just a commodity but a foundation for kplk mobility and personal growth. If confirmed by the United States senate i pledge to work closely with this committee and, congress and with secretary carson to develop new solutions to address the Affordable Housing crisis in america and to implement the Critical Mission of the u. S. Department of housing and urban development. I appreciate the committees thoughtful consideration of my nomination. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you very much ms. Patenaude. And my first question and i mean brief here because i only have five minutes. But id like you to each briefly like within 60 seconds to just take a minute to discuss what your Top Priorities will be as you are dmirmd. Mr. Hassett. Senator thank you for the question. If confirmed my First Priority would be frankly to recruit a lot of economists because the counsel of economic advisers has a proud tradition of recruiting folks from university all around the country to provide scientific ob objective advice to the president p unlike a lot of agencies the Counsel Council of economic advisers turns over a lot. So there are knew will new team coming to town