Transcripts For CSPAN Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell On COVID-19 Economic Impact 20240712

Welcome everybody. ,oday our select subcommittee some members will appear in person and others may appear remotely. Since some members are appearing in person, let me remind , all individuals attending this hearing in person must wear a mask or face covered. Ing. Over members who do not wear a Face Covering will not be recognized to speak. Let me make a few reminders about hearings. For those members appearing in able to seewill be members appearing remotely on the monitors in front of you. On one, you will see all the members appearing remotely at as gradehat is known view mode grid view mode. On the other monitor you will see each person speaking during the hearing when they are speaking, including members who are appearing remotely. For those members appearing remotely, you can see each person speaking during the hearing whether they are in person or remote if you have your web app set to active speaker mode. If you have any questions about this, contact a member of staff immediately. Let me also remind everyone of the house procedures that apply to our hearings. Person,ers appearing in a timer is visible in the room directly in front of you. , wethose who may be remote have a timer that should be visible on your screen when you are in the active speaker with thumbnail mode and have the timer pinned. For members who may be appearing otherly, if you reminders. House rules require that we see you, so have your cameras turned on at all times, not just when you are speaking. Members who are not recognized should remain muted. I will recognize members verbally. Members retain the right to seek recognition verbally. In regular order, members will be recognized in seniority order for questions. If you are remote and want to be recognized outside regular order, you may identify that in several ways. You may use the chat function to send a request. You may send an email to the majority stand or you may unmute your mike to seek recognition. We do not want people talking over each other. Use the chat function or email to facilitate verbal recognition. We will begin the hearing in just a moment when they tell me they are ready to begin the live stream. Good morning. The committee will come to order. [gavel] the chair is authorized to declare a recess of the committee at any time. I recognize myself for an opening statement. That am pleased welcomeome lease to Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell. Thank you for appearing before us today. Our goal today is to understand the course and scope of the ongoing jobs crisis in america, what the fed is doing to address it, and what else needs to be done. Chairman powell, you said in april, and i quote, this is first and foremost a Public Health crisis. In july former chairs ben bernanke and janet yellen appeared before the select subcommittee. Quoting from their testimony, nothing is more important for restoring Economic Growth than improving Public Health. I agree. This Health Crisis has dragged on for eight months and we just passed a tragic milestone of , far00 americans killed more than any other country on earth. Administration refuses to show leadership and implement a sciencebased address theategy to Public Health emergency. Testing, social distancing, and wearing masks. These failures have allowed the virus to spread, causing millions of infections, tens of thousands of preventable deaths, and one of the worst Economic Crises in our nations history. Let us be clear. Despite the rosy picture this administration tries to paint, Many American families are still struggling and millions of Small Businesses are on the verge of collapse. Reap recordstors profits and gains in the stock market. Nearly 30 million americans continue to rely on on up limit benefits. Unemployment benefits. Employment rates for lower wage workers are still down more than 16 since january 2020. And an increasing number of these jobs are lost permanently. August, permanent job losses skyrocketed to 3. 4 million. Half a million more than the month before. More than 2. 5 times what they were in january. Job losses have dire consequences. Survey, 12 of households with children indicated they did not have enough food to eat in the last seven days. The numbers are even worse for minority families. 16 of hispanic households with children and 20 of black households with children without enough food in the previous week. In the richest country in the world, tens of millions of children do not have enough to eat. Congress helped keep 12 million americans out of poverty when we passed the cares act. The expiration of federal and limit benefits and other relief measures the summer but millions of americans at risk. Of hunger, homelessness, and debt. We need to provide additional economic assistance for American Workers and families, especially low income americans and communities of color that have been hit hardest. Enact mustture we comprehensively address the alarmist growth of the problems we face. Again, quoting chairman powell from last week, the current economic downturn is the most severe in our lifetimes. And fiscal support is lightly to be needed. Again, i agree. The Federal Reserve has a central role to play. Unfortunately, the action so far has prioritized big businesses over small ones that are most at risk. Failed to protect American Workers. Subcommitteeect released a report examining the feds purchases in wall streets Corporate Bond market. The report finds that while the fed helped many Large Companies by purchasing bonds, the terms of these purchases failed to include any protection for these companies workers. Theout protections, Companies Whose bonds have been bought by the fed have prioritized the interest of shareholders over workers. Continued even while dividends have been issued. Due to recognize Economic Crises, federal government assistance can be necessary to support a wider economy, public support must always be undertaken to achieve maximum public benefit. I believe the feds terms have been improved could have been improved so benefits were more equitably shared by workers as well as investors. Assistance for big businesses is never a replacement for assistance for Small Businesses and state and local governments. Revenues are down nearly 20 since january. States and localities face of 1 shortfalls trillion. The feds lending programs designed to help these have failed to make an impact because of overly restrictive rules and onerous loan terms. Includingkey programs the main Street Lending program and the Municipal Liquidity barely loaned any money at all of a combined 1. 1 trillion dollars in available lending. Remains unspent. The main Street Program has been plagued by delays, overly restricting loan terms, and 250,000 loan minimum. That is out of reach for most Small Businesses. And a lack of Employee Retention safeguards. The Municipal Program has been plagued by onerous Interest Rates and a short repayment facilityndering the useless to most jurisdictions. We must do better across the board. Administration must implement a National Plan to get the coronavirus pandemic under control. Agree to a must comprehensive recovery package like the heroes act that provides the necessary resources to stop the spread of the virus and alleviate economic harm. And the fed must use its tremendous resources and market power, not just to bail out wealthy stockholders, but also to protect low income workers and struggling Small Businesses. Thisare the backbones of countrys economy. I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle and throughout the federal groundent to seek common and Meaningful Solutions to help the millions of Americans Still struggling through this crisis. Onmust find Solutions Based science and economies and economics, not politics or ideology. Thank you for being here mr. Chairman. Member to the ranking for his opening statement. Thank you for calling todays hearing. Chairman powell, thank you for coming before us today. Thank you for your service to our country. Earlier this year we had the chairs of the Federal Reserve, former chairs, ben bernanke and janet yellen come before our committee. I would venture to say chairman powell that the challenges you faced during your tenure far exceed things we have seen from previous fed chairman. As we Work Together through this, i want to thank you for keeping a steady hand at the Federal Reserve, which is been so important as we start seeing this economic recovery. Has long chairman declared a goal of overtaking the United States economically and militarily. At the outset of this pandemic, china lied about the emergence of the most dangerous virus we have seen in over 100 years. China refused to allow american scientists into their country to help assess the threat. Despite the fact many scientists within china were asking for our help. I was in those meetings at the white house with dr. Fauci and others when the Trump Administration was trying to get our best doctors into china to find out what was happening. The Chinese Communist party refused our ability to find that out. At the same time, china was closing down domestic travel, they were sending thousands of includingay overseas, into the United States. Setting the table for this global pandemic. In january and february, china hoarded medical ppe. The Chinese Communist party actually banned the exports of surgical masks, gloves, and gowns to the United States so they could hoard ppe for themselves while they lied to the rest of the world about covid19s dangers. China not only covered up the emerging pandemic. They also spread the pandemic and made sure the rest of the world was not prepared to thwart the virus. This House Majority calls chinas role in this pandemic a distraction. The majority has held zero hearings on chinas role. We have had celebrities testify before our committee. Yet we cannot get the Chinese Ambassador as we have called for multiple times to testify before this committee. We cannot fully understand this pandemic and the impact it has had on the American People without understanding the role of the Chinese Communist party and the Chinese Government in this coverup. But lets start with where america was prior to covid. Prior to covid19, the economy added jobs every month since the election of President Trump. Prior to covid19, since the president s election, the economy has added more than 7 million jobs. This is more than the entire population of the state of massachusetts in 2018. This is 5. 1 million more jobs than the Congressional Budget Office projected in its final forecast before the 2016 election. In 2019 real Median Household Income increased by more than 4000 per household reaching an alltime high of 68,700 of household income. This represents a 6. 8 one year increase, the largest one year increase in Median Income on record. As income group by 4379 per this represents more than the entire Median Income gains during eight years of the previous administration. By more than 1300 per family. Poverty also hit a record low in 2019. The official rate fell to an alltime low. More than 4 Million People were lifted out of poverty. For 1. 3 percentage point decrease. This was the largest reduction in poverty in more than 50 years. Hispanic poverty fell by 1. 8 . Asian poverty fell by 2. 8 Percentage Points. The poverty rate fell to an alltime record low for every race and ethnic group in 2019. The the black poverty rate below 20 for the first time in history. Africanamerican employment increased by 1. 3 million jobs. Then the virus hit our shores. President trump listened to the experts. President trump did taken continues to take decisive action, carrying out a plan that is saving american lives. A plan that is getting is on the verge of multiple, not one, but multiple vaccines for covid19. That is a successful plan. The first thing President Trump did is make a critical decision. He banned flights from china. Dr. Fauci testified from that very chair you are sitting in just a few weeks ago before this committee that President Trumps decision on that and so many other decisions along the way carrying out his plan was the right decision and that President Trumps plan saved american lives. People were coming to the United States and the president made another tough decision, but the right decision according to the scientists. He banned flights from europe. Then the president instituted the 15 days to stop the spread plan. Again, dr. Fauci testified under oath that was not only the right decision, but that decision saved american lives. Decisione subsequent to extend another 30 days. We haveother decisions seen this president make, we put the strongest economy in American History on its selfinduced,. Selfinduced coma. 70 of job losses happened among people making less than 40,000 a year. 45 ofome state almost the accommodation and food Service Workforce had lost their jobs. An industry dominated by low income workers. Congress responded in a bipartisan way. We passed the cares act. We came together to help those Small Businesses, to help families struggling, to help hospitals who were struggling, and also to help those states who were struggling. The team to work carrying out this plan. Lending main Street Lending program has taken originally path than. The fed injected muchneeded liquidity at a critical moment. The United States had the smallest Economic Contraction of any major western economy in the first half of this year during this pandemic. Now america has begun this next Great American recovery. Total nonfarm Payroll Employment rose by 1. 4 million jobs in august with a recordbreaking job gain in may and june and july and now in august, this economy has added more than 10. 5 million new jobs just the last four months. We can talk about those numbers. We can also talk about how much more we need to go. A plan that has created over 10 million jobs to get that economy back is the right direction we need to be heading. The Unemployment Rate ticked down in august, beating marketings dictations. Africanamerican employment has increased by 1. 3 million jobs. Keep this Great American economic recovery on track . I want to emphasize a point chairman powell made yesterday. Fullyonomy will recover from this difficult period. He talked about that yesterday. Im sure we are going to talk more today. The chairman also testified yesterday the path forward will depend on keeping the virus under control and on policy actions taken that all government levels. Areas in termsse of keeping the virus under control, because clearly this has been a criminal a critical component of the president s plan is to get a vaccine. Groups three different of a very wellrespected internationally respected Drug Companies that are in final testing, phase 3 of fda testing, for vaccine. We do not know when this will complete. We dont know if all three will be approved by the fda. On the brink of never have we seen one let alone three vaccines on the brink of being approved by the fda. It is because of the president s plan that has brought us to this point. We allow the fda, cdc, and other agencies to having stability to go out and encourage development of a vaccine. No corners being cut. Tens of thousand americans signed off. 250,000 plus americans signed up to dissipate in this, it is unprecedented. Americans from all walks of life have stood up and said, im willing to be part of these trials so we can get a vaccine that will save american lives. I am concerned there are some people trained to undermine Public Confidence in this process. You start to see it just asked week. Some politicians for their own personal benefit trying to put doubt in the heads of people whether or not this process is going to yield a safe and effective drug. There ought to be no doubt. There ought to be nobody trying to use politics to interfere with this process. Highest integrity not just in america but in the world is taking place at the fda. Fda is the Gold Standard for the world of testing and approving drugs. Suggested that process has been compromised. I challenge anybody to name one company on this list that would cut corners or speed up the process that involves putting a drug in your body just because they are trying to help some candidate for political office. That is a ridiculous and dangerous notion. That kind of attempt to reduce Public Confidence would cost american lives. Lets follow the science. Lets let the fda run its course. If a drug or two or three or more get approved, vaccines, therapies, we have to celebrate that. We ought to encourage people to listen to their doctor. Ultimately that it is a discussion between them and their doctor. Forward process move without further corruption. I applaud the president for the work he has done to lay out how schools can safely reopen. We need to encourage all elements of our economy to safely reopen. It can be done. Some are choosing to do it and some of the local level are choosing not to do it. We have seen and we have heard testimony about the devastating impact on children, for example, when a local School System makes the decision not to safely reopen for inn school learning. The guidelines are there. Some are choosing to do it and some are not, but there are consequences to those children. Consequences when economies are shut down and we are seeing death rates unfortunately go up. Because people are losing their jobs, losing their way of life. Companies are collapsing. We have to we have a bill. Acongressman from ohio filed bill to take the remaining ppp funding. Sitting idle in a bank account because the program expired. It was a highly successful program. We all voted on it. It had unbelievable success. Over 50 million jobs have been created. Many of those businesses are still struggling today. They could use a second lifeline and we have the money to do it. Javitss billan does is free of that money so Small Businesses is having a decline in sales, some are increased, some are decreased, let those businesses go a second round. I would hope the majority would bring that to the floor. Ofking about a number democrats who are very interested in that bill. We could come together and get that done. The negotiation has been going on for weeks. Lets take a program we agree on and get a lifeline to those Small Businesses i yields the balance of my time. Thank you for your statement and i wish to say i have only heard one politician casting doubt upon the Scientific Research being done as well as thisimeline for when vaccine might come online. Only one i have heard from. I would like to introduce our witness. Committee is pleased to welcome jerome hp howell, chair of the board of governors aired thank you chairman powell for being here. Please stand so i might swear you when. Please raise your right hand swear you in. Please raise your right hand. Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you god . You may be seated. Let the record show the witness answered in the affirmative. Writtenobjection, the statement will be made part of the record. You are recognized for your opening statement. Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity to update you on the ongoing measures to address the hardship brought on by the pandemic. To alleviate the economic fallout. We remain committed to using tools to do what we can for as long as it takes to ensure the recovery will be as strong as possible and limit the lasting damage to the economy. Economic activity has picked up from the Second Quarter level when much of the economy was shut down to stem the spread of the virus. Many indicators show marked improvement. Household spending has recovered three quarters of the earlier decline, likely owing in part to stimulus payments. The housing sector has rebounded her has rebounded. In the labor market, roughly half of the 22 million payroll jobs lost in march and april have been regained as people returned to work. Employment and Economic Activity remain below prepandemic levels and the path ahead is uncertain. The downturn has not fallen equally on all. Thee least able to bear burden has been the most affected. The rising joblessness for lower wage workers, women, africanamericans, and hispanics. The reversal of fortune has theted uncertainty about future. A full recovery is likely to come only when people are confident it is safe to reengage in a broad range of activities. The path forward will depend on keeping the virus under control and on policy actions taken at all levels of government. Since midmarch, we have taken forcible action, implementing a policy of near zero rates, increasing asset holdings, and lending facilities. We took the measures to support broader financial conditions and to support the threat of support credit to houses, businesses, and governments. The actions taken together have unlocked more than 1 trillion and funding which has helped keep organizations from closing, putting them in a better position to keep on workers and higher than back as the economy recovers. The main Street Program has been of interest to the committee and the public. Many businesses affected are smaller and rely on banks for loans. Ton street is designed facilitate the flow of credit to small and medium businesses. We conducted extensive outreach and held indepth discussions with borrowers and lenders. In response to feedback we make adjustments to main street to provide greater support to small and medium businesses and nonprofit like educational institutions, and hospitals. Nearly 600 banks representing more than half the essence in the Banking System have either completed registration or are in the process of doing so. Of 2 billion are funded or in the pipeline. Main street is intended for businesses on sound footing before the pandemic and have good longterm prospects. They have encountered temporary cannotow problems and get credit on reasonable terms as a result. The loans might not be the right solution for some businesses because the cares act state the loans cannot be forgiven. The Credit Facilities have improved Lending Conditions broadly, including for main street borrowers and evidence suggests most businesses can currently get loans from private sector financial institution. Rely onthe programs emergency lending power that require the support of the Treasury Department and are only available in unusual circumstances. The facilities are just a backstop. They are designed to support the functioning of private markets, not replace them. Many will benefit from these programs but for others, alone difficult to repay might not be the answer. Direct fiscal support might be needed. The economy will recover fully. We remain committed to using the tools to support the economy for as long as needed. Thank you. Much, chairmanry powell. Because we are running behind on time, i would like to go out of order and recognize other members so he may go to another meeting. No objection. I recognize mr. Foster for five minutes. Chair andou, mr. Hello, chairman powell. Thank theke to chairman and my colleagues for letting me ask my questions early because i have to leave to chair a hearing on the subcommittee on the science into political interference at the cdc. I would like to talk about the importance of regulatory independence. The Coronavirus Response provides us with examples of benefits of regulatory independence and danger of political interference. The independence of the Federal Reserve seems to have been respected during the crisis and you succeeded in the major part of your charge to stable the Financial System against external shocks. But we have also seen a tragic example of the dangers of political interference into jobs best left to experts. Theically demonstrated by Trump Administration and the dangerous interference into the nih, fda,als at cdc, and other Public Health agencies. Tens of thousands of americans have died as a result. 4 of the worlds population and 25 of the deaths and no amount of attempts to rewrite history will change that. Many more thousands are at risk if the public loses confidence in the effectiveness of the vaccine because of attempts to move the attempts to manipulate the scientific judgment of professionals. Your luckycount stars you have been able to do your job. You can depend on the integrity of the statistics you need to do your job. Mentionedstimony you doing what you can to help our economy by acknowledging the limits to help different segments of the economy survive. To minimizevention pain on wall street has been largely successful because of the feds intervention in the Corporate Bond market that have lower the cost of raising capitals for Large Corporations and markets are functioning adequately. During the previous financial crisis we saw a risk spread over treasuries for most Corporate Bonds. Several hundred basis points. In the crisis the yield spike was smaller and disappeared promptly in response to federal intervention. Beenpp program has successful for many Small Businesses because of the prospect of loan forgiveness and there is bipartisan support for extending it. But not for medium businesses. , theed has a facility socalled main Street Lending facility. , manyan programs businesses dont need loans, they need money to survive but handing out taxpayer money carries is hazards. What are the possible extensions and modifications to the program you might have considered that might make it more effective in ivering capital to medical midsize businesses . On the corporate Credit Facilities, the Larger Companies that have access to the bond market, that market was closed down in february and march and these are very Large Companies. The businesses were severely affected by the pandemic and our toions were not an attempt relieve pain and wall street, they were focused on opening up the markets so the companies could finance themselves and keep people working. I think we have had success in that. Worked toties have allow companies to finance themselves, not borrow from us we are pleased with the success so far. You asked about main street. Medium size company and Small Companies that fall between the ppp program and corporate audit facilities. That it corporate Credit Facilities. That is a world where lending takes place through banks. Every agreement is negotiated and unique. There is not the standardization that allows you to intervene quickly. To only way for the fed reach the companies was through the Banking System so we had to create standardized products broad asd need as possible a range of companies and do it in a way that was act aith the cares way that was consistent with the cares act. We have had repeated waves to broaden the appeal of the program. Weve done all the things we could think of that are clear gains and we look to do more. The uptake is modest. But more broadly, credit is broadly available. Banks are lending. If the economy performs worse than we expect, main street will take on a heavier load. Havehe things we have done been to widen the appeal of the program and its effectiveness. Nothing major we are looking at now, nothing i am over time. Creativeu to remain and see what you can do to make that more effective. I yield back. Thank you, mr. Foster. The chair recognizes the Ranking Member for five minute. Five minutes. Minutes ago i showed a chart in my opening but a few minutes ago there was an announcement that a Fourth Company has just been entered into phase 3 of fda testing, Johnson Johnson. Butug that showed progress less than one hour ago we got movedrd the fda has Johnson Johnson into phase 3 on testing on a vaccine where they see progress. There are four different major Drug Companies on the verge of a vaccine to be approved by the fda. The scientists have been able to focus on save saving lives. Lets continue to embrace the Scientific Research. Powell, i want to ask about where we are in the economy. Saw job growth and personal income raising for everyone prior to covid and now we are working through the pandemic and the whole world is dealing with it. Between april and august, how many Percentage Points have we seen unemployment fall in america as we have started to reopen the economy . Frome official number is 14 to Something Like 8. 4 today. He said some things in your remarks. We have made substantial faster than we expected that there is left to do plenty left to do. Clearly. In the 2008 recession, i have seen numbers at 10 years for the economy to recover. Is that what you have seen . Yes. This was different. We shut down the economy. You would expect the first new quarter would be good. This has been a good start to a recovery. Right. The economy was shut down in part to make sure hospitals were not overrun and also slow the death rate. When we learned about the virus as china lied to the world, we still havent had a hearing, chinas role in this, this was a global pandemic. We are morning every rning everye mou loss of life. Other countries have a higher death rate than the United States. We are doing everything we can to keep the numbers down. You see these countries above of us. They will benefit from the work we are doing. The president s operation warp speed is getting us to the brink. It will benefit all countries. You you doo not see china or russia because they will not release their numbers. We all want to conquer the disease. Because of the science, we are on the brink of a vaccine and that will help us safely reopen the economy. I want to talk about reopening schools. We have done a lot to help Small Businesses. The Paycheck Protection Program has been successful. If we went a second round for ,he businesses still struggling would it be helpful to the economy . Yes. Peopleurns to making feel safe enough to engage in more activities from an economic standpoint, the returns would be high. And reopening schools, there is a way to do it. Is it a benefit to the children and the economy to safely reopen schools . Yes. But the emphasis is on the safely. People have to feel, that. Plexiglas, standards in place. A lot of it is laid out. It is online. Continue to will encourage people to follow guidelines and to safely so we can finally safely reopen the economy. Im sure we will talk more about it. The chair recognizes himself. In your opening statement, you , thatned Small Businesses they have to be repaid, the loans. Did the minimum loan get to be that amount . Designedpowell we this program for Small Companies. Million original and then we moved to a 1 million minimum. The demand in the facility, there has not been any under 1 million. It would be a different facility truthfully. If we were gonna try to lend money in very small chunks like that. During the Due Diligence on hundreds of thousands of very small loans would be a very different program. It wouldnt work for much smaller loans. Is the money still sitting there . You dont think you can come up to tryprogram to use it to keep businesses open . Chairman powell the purpose of these facilities was to reopen the private capital markets. All of that was closed down in march and april. The private market start working again. With main street, it is not so simple. We are looking for borrowers who were in good shape before the crisis. And who have good longerterm prospects. But because of the pandemic, they have had a real effect. A relatively modest group in size. We have done everything we can to reach out to them. We are experiencing a steady flow of borrowers. , we mind of this issue in the find in the dual , one of them is maximum employment. Whether one million workers have been laid off since march. Of these companies, 383 paid dividends to their shareholders during the pandemic. That does not look like maximum employment. Chairman powell let me explain it a little bit. We are not making loans to these companies. They are not getting loans from us at all. We dont want to be deciding which company to buy from them which do not. We did not ask these companies. We had no basis to ask them to do anything. That was the point of this. It wasnt to allocate credit. These were tiny amounts in the grand scheme of things. That at least Companies Look at themselves as getting a loan from the fed. There are 800 of them. We are buying 20 million worth of bonds. The primary Market Facility is where we would make loans to those companies. We set the facility up, borrowers and lenders started lending again. We were an effective backstop. Were Big American Companies under tremendous strain. They could have laid off hundreds of thousands of people. My time has expired but i think to 27 of these companies over the last three years have been accused of illegal conduct. I yield five minutes to mr. Jordan. Jordan you said the economy would recover fully. Would it recover faster of some states were not largely locked down . Chairman powell the decision of when to lock down is given to others other than the fed. I would not have a view on that. Rep. Jordan we have the state still largely locked down. I am amazed at the american comeback that is happening in spite of the fact that you see some of these big states and population still largely locked down. I think it is a simple question. If they were opening faster, would our economy be recovering faster . Chairman powell the question of opening is about reopening in a way that is sustainable. It is not just a matter of reopening. You have to do it in a way that is sustainable. Some of the European Companies that were countries that were doing so well, they are now having to reevaluate. There seems to be a lot of spread in urban areas. We have a lot of responsibilities. Not prejudge state and local governments and their decisions. Rep. Jordan are you amazed as i am that the economic recovery is as strong as it is despite these states being locked down . I think it is amazing that these states unemployment and recep come down like they have. I dont knowll that they may be locked down. People are working from home. Im not sure their gdp is lower systematically. If you look at a place like new york, a lot of what is happening is the financial markets. People are working out. Their output will be high even though they are still somewhat locked down. Rep. Jordan was the economy pretty good prior to covid . Chairman powell yes. A lot to like about a tight labor market. There are always problems in an economy. But this was as good as an economy as we have seen in a very long time. We just started moving up particularly in the low end of the wage spectrum. Unemployment got down. You saw the benefits. Rep. Jordan poverty rate was down . Chairman powell yes. Was the economy better for everyone in our population . Chairman powell i dont know about everyone. The benefits began to be more widely shared as unemployment got lower and lower. Businesses are hiring people who have been successful in the labor market. They are getting training. There is a lot to like about that. Rep. Jordan the economy was better for africanamericans, hispanic americans, all american . Chairman powell in a lot of measures, he has periods rep. Jordan unemployment was low . Chairman powell lowest sustained. Rep. Jordan here is what secretary mnuchin said a few weeks ago. I believe there is no question that unemployment is high because certain states are not opening up. Do you agree . Chairman powell i cannot validate that. I would have to go back and look. Rep. Jordan you dont think the secretary is right . Chairman powell you are asking the data question. Unemployment rate correlate with the level of lockdown in particular states . I have learned in my nine years to ask economist before answering. Rep. Jordan it is common sense. Some businesses are essential, some are not. Open up,gin to unemployment will come down. I think that is all the secretary is saying. I would want to look at the data. There is common sense and what you are saying. In new york in particular, people are working from home, but they are not unemployed. It would not change things. You could reopen all of the restaurants in the United States right away. You would have unemployment down. With that be a smart thing to do . That is a question for others. Rep. Jordan i yield back. I suspect we would see a flourishing of the economy and undertakers and some iteris. Cemeteries. New came here today discussion with mr. Powell. I am always pleased to see him. We have worked a lot together. Cash s mr. Scalise saying how great the president has been in handling this pandemic. One of the things i would like to find out is whether or not he andd advise the president his daughter to give up the relationship they have with china. In the interest of punishing china. I will not yield. I would be happy to talk about that. Rep. Waters i would like to ask , did you seell that the cdc had basically issued an advisory that said the virus can be airborne for six feet or more. And then they took it back within 24 hours. Chairman powell i am having a hard time hearing you. I dont think i did. Rep. Waters did you hear about the cdc having issued a new advisory that the virus was airborne . And it could affect those six feet away . Because of the emissions from an infected person. You said this is a health problem. Everyone is trying to dump on you because of the economy. And what you are doing or not doing. Did you ever indicate in your speeches or talks that to the degree we would able to handle the health problems, that would help us with opening our economy . Chairman powell pretty much every speech i give i say the path of our economy will be depending on getting control of the virus. We want to follow the advice of the experts. Rep. Waters there are some of states where the virus is spreading. It is not subsiding. Did you know the president did not begin even talking about or letting the public know that we were confronted with the virus after maybe a couple of months . Chairman powell i would have no comment on that. When we have members who are talking about how good the president has been, he has been , they have caused extended problems. Someone is pushing to opening up our schools. We have 40,000 students who have been infected. It was once 1 million. Worked withmmittee miss velasquez. We reduced it. Chairman powell we did reduce it. Rep. Waters in a hearing just yesterday, when you are asked about this, along with mr. Mnuchin, he said perhaps it could be reduced to 100,000. Chairman powell yes, the secretary did say that. Rep. Waters you said you are involved with monetary policy, not fiscal policy. You said you would take another look. I am very concerned about main street. When we think about main street, we dont think about these businesses that you have incorporated. Some of these we know is big businesses. Would you tell us what that amount is . Chairman powell it is less than 15,000 employees. It was designed to go between the ppe facility. Rep. Waters my time has expired but i would certainly like to help you continue to see what you can do to help Small Businesses. I yield back. They are not coming into well with income tax revenue. My question to you is, does that seem reasonable . Is that in the ballpark of what . Ou would anticipate asked forowell i views on that. Expenses have gone up. Range they areat looking to do 2 trillion. That is a fair statement . Chairman powell i have a strong desire to not play a role in your discussion. Smart man. Thank you very much. One of the things that has been talked about is the different facilities. It takes a long time to get anywhere with the fish. You wereere very very responsible. Thank you so much. In this report, this is one of the companies that is mentioned. You will lose all of the jobs. Not just the ones they laid off. You also lose the Small Businesses. I have one plane that is made in my district, 18,000 Small Businesses provide a company. Once he gets back full speed, is that how it works . Chairman powell a lot of companies have thousands of suppliers. It is important that we salvage these businesses to make sure we keep these businesses going. They can also help Small Businesses. In regards to regulatory staff, i am you expected that. That has to be playing a role in the pandemic. Your agency and others were part of an and term rule. Think we need to continue to push this down the road. Two you think we need to continue to postpone implementation of it until this pandemic has passed . Chairman powell what we have done is pretty effective. You guys see there is a problem there . Repeat ofant to 20082009 when regulators came in. Forcing banks to foreclose and push out some customers. Would you agree with that . Chairman powell i think we came in with a strong Banking System. That gave us the ability to make targeted reductions. That is a byproduct of what we did. Long discussion today with the former chairman. It would seem to be a good way to make sure we are not pushing businesses out of business. Thank you. The chair recognizes mr. Velasquez for five minutes. Velasquez this would ensure credit to small and midsize businesses. With the purchase about to 600 billion. It would not nominate any loans until july. Why did it change . They were able to set up credit for businesses in just a few weeks. Street isowell main many times more complicated to set up. In the case of the companies that have market access, there is quite a bit of standardization in the bond market. We did so very quickly. Main street deals with mediumsize companies who get their funding in the Banking System. It is individually negotiated. There is nowhere near the degree of standardization. It was a much more complicated problem to solve. It took us a lot of outreach. We took in public comments. It was quite a bit of work. Yesterday the program set up tends to help larger sized businesses. Can you understand why many of us believe the fed is not saving main street . Chairman powell if i heard you most of the banks that are active in lending are smaller banks. The loans are fairly small. There is a lot of business between 1 million and 10 million. That is not a big loan for a company that would have this type of employees. Congress already authorized a specific Lending Facility to help Small Businesses in the cares act. The fed chose instead to set up the main Street Lending program. The fed have sufficient Legal Authority to provide this for Small Businesses who still need Credit Assistance . I think therel was a particular main street facility that was outlined in the cares act. Not binding. It was designed to be as broadly applicable as we could make it. Act gavezquez cares money to businesses that needed assistance. You decided to create your own facility by having the authority. Last week, the fed updated its guidance. Why was this change made and how does it help encourage greater participation in the program . We want to work with our banks to make sure we will not run in and criticize these loans. If the loan was already going to , there is more risk in them. We want to encourage the banks by telling them we understand that. Rep. Velazquez will you commit today to taking a harder look at how this program was set up as you mentioned yesterday to help small firms on main as we intended . It would beell . Ery hard to create a facility to are wise in the cares act create the ppp for Smaller Companies. Rep. Velazquez he stated yesterday that the coronavirus is a great increase of inequality. Yet you decided not to collect data. In the main Street Program. Including ammit to questionnaire with applications Going Forward . That moreknow businesses are being helped . Chairman powell we did not collect that data. We dont have any plans to do so. It is not a requirement of the law. Thank you. We appreciate you being here. The part of indiana i represent is home to major manufacturers. Known as one of the hardest hit during an economic downturn. Theunty in my district had highest Unemployment Rate. The coronavirus has turned this on its head. Suddenly rvs and boats were in hot demand. They still need help recovering. Recovery is not instantaneous or even. That is why it is sad that democrats have chosen politics over economic recovery. The heroes act is nothing more than a wishlist that had no chance of becoming law. It was not the product of serious negotiations. It was chockfull of giveaways to special interests and the rich. Heroes act had more mentions of cannabis then jobs. He gave more money to state and local governments. It restored the unlimited deduction for state and local taxes. The benefits of those deductions follow 1 of the benefits. The nonpartisan joint committee on limiting these deductions would cost billions of dollars. Speaker pelosi refuses to allow a boat to keep that. Would beld you think better for economic recovery . Oring money to the rich using it to fund more ppes on ppe loans . Chairman powell i dont want to get into your debates with one another. We have definitely benefited in our district. It is not an understatement to say that ppe is a lifeline for Small Businesses. They would not have survived. The senate blocked the Coronavirus Relief package that was restarted it and had a supervision. Republicans have filed a discharge provision. It would allow a second loan for those hardest hit. And simplify the forgiveness process. Can you talk about what you have seen from the macro level . You just talked about the need for a second stimulus. Should a bill i just subscribed described simplify forgiveness . I would startl by saying the good Economic Data we have seen since may is to an extensive extent reflecting what is in the cares act. Those checks, the unemployment insurance, all of that really helped to keep people in their homes, keep them spending. It is a tribute to the aston or slow response that all of you made. We helped. The power of fiscal policy is unequal to anything else. I think it is likely that we will need more fiscal support. We still have a 11 Million People who are going back to work. If you look at broader measures of on ointment, it is more like six million who are working our time or left the labor force. We have come a long way pretty quickly. There is a long way to go. We need to stay with it. All of us. If recovery will go faster there is support coming in congress and the fed. I want to thank you for your efforts. I also want to thank the guidance and with him that President Trump has had continuing to appeal for restoring and recovering of our local business is. I have had two calls in the last couple of days. One from a woman on the west side of south and who is a social worker. And one from a restaurant owner. Those calls were so disturbing because what they are asking for and that in front of you. We were hoping we could get that in this week while we are here. I would plead with Speaker Pelosi and hoping that she listens to these comments today that we have to restore and lift these businesses in our district rebound. Lives are still at stake. We are looking at saving american lives and livelihoods at the same time. There is a balance. We need her help to get us there. Thank you. He chairman recognizes mr. Kim for five minutes. Pleasure to have you before our committee. I wanted to start by raising something that i know your predecessor had mentioned. He said earlier this year if recession, it9 was offset by states through spending and life layoffs. He said it meaningfully slowed down the curve. He told me in a previous hearing that an estimate he saw lets you have half a percentage point off the growth rate at the time that the economy was trying to recover. I feel i care similar statements coming from you. With thisee assessment . Chairman powell there has been a great deal of research on that question. It generally is its that view. Rep. Kim you said the current economic downturn is the most severe in our lifetime. What i thought about his point was how he was trying to bring it here. Would our National Economy right now be at a stronger position to if wer from this pandemic could avoid state and local job cuts . Chairman powell i dont want to give advice to congress on what all to do. Said that ifanke we provide the right amount of apport, this does not leave permanent mark on the economy. Effort was much bigger than the 2008 response. Overall, i would agree there will be the need for further support. I do believe we will get it. Not sure when our in what quantities. I appreciate that. I want to respect your position. Just try to understand the frame by which we should be approaching this. Are talked about as if it is solely about helping our states. Certainly we need to be focused on that. That is a huge part of our work orders. Another point i have been trying is that this is about our country as a whole. Our economy. It is not just about helping certain states or certain cities. It is about our National Economy. Hear the criticisms. There are concerns about money mismanagement. Or bailouts or preexisting debt. I want to dig into that a little bit. Fromyou seen any evidence other situations where funding for state or local government in a time of crisis created the . That is really not something i have looked at. I think that is something we have been trying to track. I understand where youre coming from. I am trying to figure out if there is a way we can square the circle and get through this. I dont know if you will comment mightthere was a way to be able to ensure that the money is going responsibly. Chairman powell that is very much in your hands. Dont really bring any angst to that. What form to provide. It is squarely on your plate. Your predecessor said that the money he structured in a way that would eliminate the. There could be block grants for formulas. Is that something you think we should be looking into . Chairman powell it certainly sounds like a reasonable thing to look into. To get canup to me to these questions and try to design the legislation. Those things are very much in your bailiwick. Rep. Kim i appreciate that. I agree completely. Thank you very much. The chair recognizes mr. Green for five minutes. Green i graduated in the ip of my medical class but deeply respect you and your colleague. Secondhandigress a address School Closures. It has drastically armed by children. We should follow the science. I know the science is definitive. The cdc has stressed the importance of kids returning to cool. There is already Extensive Research on the summer slide. Students lose nearly 20 of their school year gains. After seventh grade, they lose 39 of their school year gains theirding and 50 of school year gains in math. Imagine the detriment a yearlong slide will have on our children. We cannot allow this to happen. School closures in danger emotional health. Posttraumatic stress was four times higher in parents and children in quarantine than those not acorn thing. Suicides are through the roof. The shutdowns showed an enormous increase in Drug Overdose and addiction at all ages. Yet democrats continue to call for more School Closures. They seem willing to put children parent through all of this. Only one of three children have died. Had. Y all of them the left is clearly not stopping children from riding in cars. There is no question we know which comorbidities are at higher risk. We can protect at risk children with Virtual Learning while letting the rest go back to in person school. We hear the left rambling about science and numbers. There clearly ignoring them to keep schools closed. What are the Economic Impacts on School Closures . These decisions kid made at the local level. That is appropriate. It is peoples lives. It is their kids. That makes a lot of sense to me. Asking you to elaborate on the economic impact. What is the impact on the economy on the School Closures . There is an increase in opioids, to his died. Only 103 have died. The comic impact of all of these closures. Chairman powell i do not have a judgment on School Closures whatsoever. I dont have one and i wouldnt say if i did. If the kids are home, some of the parents will they out of the work orders. It has to do with the safety of kids and teachers. Teachers are much more at risk than the young kids. I understand decision on whether or not the open school. You implied a little bit. It has a downstream effects. Impact that the cdc has highlighted area the increase in suicides and overdoses and all of the. Deaths. It looks like im out of time. Thank you very much. Listening to our colleagues wax eloquent about how great the economy was for people were thrown out of work, before we saw spreading hunger, and before a Record Number of americans have been unemployed is like listening to Herbert Hoover talk about how great the economy was before the depression. Surprise that they have decided to go back to china as a way to distract people from the president s epic failures in managing this crisis. We know there are 37 different occasions when President Trump praised the performance of his in the autocratic Chinese Communist party. Twitter, one of the many great things about our trade deal with china is it will ring the u. S. And china closer together. It has been terrific working with president xi. China has been working very hard to tame the coronavirus. U. S. Appreciates their efforts. On behalf of the American People, i wanted to thank president xi. I wish i had 20 minutes to read through all of his tweets praising the communist party. Xisaid he spoke to president and they are working hard. He thinks they have handled it professionally. They are extremely capable. He thinks it will be all resolved. Trump is andent easy mark who got played and exploited by china or he has been collaborating in all of this. From the beginning of the pandemic, people have tried to portray this as a tradeoff between Health Efforts and economic efforts. Now we are eight months into the nightmare of covid19, which is cost more than 200,000 people their lives. What can you tell me about your assessment of this framing . I dont thinkl there is a tradeoff. We all want to reopen the economy as fast and since nibley is possible. The thing we can all do to make that happen is to deal with the experts telling us. Distancing that will help support the disease. For three things go together. They are not a contradiction. The advisors have called it herd mentality. That is mass human sacrifice. Is there any economic reason to compel us to adopt a policy of herd immunity as opposed to going out and try to beat the disease . Chairman powell i never comment on the president s comments or policies just as a general rule. Rep. Raskin i want to go to the question of dividend. That pay 383 companies dividends to their shareholders during their pandemic. They were also the beneficiary of the feds lending program. They laid off about a third of their workforce. And yet they were a beneficiary of your program. Caterpillar announced a distribution to shareholders two weeks after saying they would be furloughing workers. Why are they continuing to fire workers, get dividend, and they are the beneficiaries of the feds stimulus money . Chairman powell there really are not beneficiaries of the program. That refers to the fact that we bought small amounts of about inng bonds from the market, 800 different companies. We did not make a new loan. They got no credit because of it. They are not actually beneficiaries. We have not made a single loan to a corporation. Rep. Raskin ok. I guess im a little puzzled by that. It was my understanding that these companies are partaking of the feds authority. Chairman powell what we are doing buying in the secondary market to support the overall. Rk function area we did not want to pick winners and losers. We created an index of 800 companies. We did not ask their permission. When a hundred companies are having small amounts of their bond purchase, no one is benefiting. It supported market function. A large group of companies were able to go out and finance themselves. They did not have to make any direct loans to these companies. The chair recognizes ms. Maloney. It very good to see you again. I want to ask you about economic recovery. Specifically, who benefited . It is clear to me that Large Corporations have benefited from these rescue programs much more than small and mediumsized businesses. Fed promised to backstop the Corporate Bond market. Large corporations have been able to borrow record amounts of money at rock bottom rates. Small and mediumsize businesses had to wait for months for the fed to set up the rescue facility for them. When the main Street Lending program finally went online, it was woefully insufficient. This has unfortunately led to the perception that the that will do whatever it takes to support Large Corporations but will only do the bare minimum to support smaller and mediumsized testimony,revious you have talked about logistical hurdles. That they had not considered before the pandemic. My question is, in the future, in order to avoid a situation where Large Corporation get ,ubstantial, immediate relief for than smaller and mediumsize businesses are forced to wait for months for inadequate relieved, do you think the fed should build out a robust infrastructure ahead of time to ensure that it can deliver adequate relief in a timely manner to smaller and mediumsized businesses . Think theowell i do question of how to apply the lesson that we are learning main street is a really good one. It is one we will be revisiting over time. This is the first time in our lifetime, and i certainly hope the last time, that we face such a crisis of Credit Availability for nonfinancial companies. We had to use a facility to lend to them. It is highly unusual. We will learn a lot and there may be other ways we can improve. I would also say that surveys small and mediumsize companies do have access to credit. That is not to say they all do. Certainly credit terms have tightened. The smaller the company, the tighter the credit terms right now. Agree with fully your characterizations of main street. I think we are reaching a growing group of companies. We have ongoing interest in the program. They can get larger if the need grows. Rep. Maloney do you think Congress Needs to act in this area in any way . Rep. Maloney i do think for Smaller Companies it is really not practical for the fed to try to create a facility that will deal with millions of very small loans. A loan is something where you need documentation. We have to avoid insolvent companies and make sure companies can repay it. Something like the ppp program could continue to do a lot of good in small and is this companies. Longer than we think for companies to get back online. Rep. Maloney thank you. Inant to ask you about ch, there was to mend this tremendous turmoil in the markets. This was very scary for our country. The treasury market is probably the most important market in the world. The fed took dramatic actions to shore it up. You directly purchased trillions of dollars in treasuries through another round of entity disease and. Quantitative easing. Now that you have taken them and we have had time to study what ant wrong, there seems to be broad consensus that highly leveraged hedge funds were at the senses of the problem. This was a conclusion by the bank of international settlements. Two former fed chairs and governor cuomo. In light of the broad consensus, do you think there needs to be fundsonal reform to hedge to make sure it does not happen again . Do you think congress should consider leverage limitations on hedge funds . Or should we stick to the current structure and let the fed rescue the treasury market whenever there is trouble . Chairman powell i think there are a number of important causes. The one you mentioned with hedge funds is far from the whole story. What we are doing is going back as we did after the financial crisis 10 years ago and we are looking at, where where the stress points . How did all of the work we did for the last 10 years, how did it hold up . What happens that was new . We. Are doing a lot of work on that central part of it will be the treasury markets. What changes do we need to make . Did not make this happen again . All time is expired for questioning. A closingw lead to statement. I think the chairman for hosting the hearing. Chairman powell, thank you for the work you are doing in an incredibly difficult time. The Federal Reserve has stepped many other times. A time when we mourn the deaths we have experienced. We are managing through finally getting our economy back open. Families get back on their feet. It is an ongoing process. We follow the science and we get to a cure to give multiple vaccines. Hopefully in the stage of approval from the fda, which could happen in a matter of weeks. To see this revolutionary work being done with the partnership between the fda, cdc, working with the best scientists, not just in america but the world. To get us to vaccines by some of the most respected companies. Most of them headquartered here in america. The out to be proud. Chinais whole talk about there ought to be a lot of talk. China lied to us. Not just to but the whole world. If china would have been candid with just the u. S. , little of the other countries around the , we all could have dramatic reduction in deaths. You look at deaths all around , we are concerned about all of them. We want to do everything we can. To stop deaths here in america. Doing the things we can do. We still have not gotten the answers we want. Five states broke with President Trumps guidelines and went against the garden. Sent nursing home patients who are covid positive back to the nursing homes. This country lied to the rest of the world. We know a lot more about this disease today. Secretary as are has talked about if you walked into a hospital back in march and you didnt have those preexisting , doctors know a lot more today than they knew just a few months ago. They know how better to treat patients. Closing down schools is hurting kids. It will kill kids. There are so many studies that have shown the harm that has been done to kids. The money is there. We fasted in the cares act. The time for excuses is over. We are on the verge of a vaccine. Today, literally as we were holding this hearing, a Fourth Company was added to the list. We know we can do this. We can get our economy back up and running to the greatest economy we had maybe in the history of our country. The lowest level income groups were doing the best. This is something we should applaud. We can work to get back to this. We have work to do. We all pass the bill that was sitting out there floundering. Moneyll to take ppe sitting idly that can be turned on today to help Small Businesses that are dying on the vine. We dont want those jobs to go away. We ought to get that done. Overwhelmingly if the majority would bring it up. You have talked about what you are doing and what others are doing. You talked about what the president is doing. To get us to the brink of a vaccine. Hopefully everyone who wants to take it will feel comfortable. It only happens if they approve it. All oughtprove it, we to celebrate that achievement. To work that quickly to get a vaccine approved. I know we will have other hearings. We will talk about some of these other issues as we move forward. Thank you for the work you are doing. Memberink the ranking for his closing statement and for yielding back. Closing, let me thank you again, mr. Chairman, for your testimony here today. You are among the Public Servants who i have a great deal of admiration for. I appreciate you being here today. Millions of americans are struggling to find jobs, pay rent, put food on the table. As you know, this subcommittee on the Truman Committee during world war ii. Harry truman is one of my political heroes. Him ase acquainted with an Elementary School student. He had a great deal of what it took to make this country what it is today. I am one of the few democrats who calls himself a new dealer. Im a fair dealer. Harry truman said that he sought to avoid policies that made the big men bigger. And let the little men go out of business. That is what he said back in 1941 when we were trying to recover. This committee was modeled after that. It returned about 16 billion to federal coffers. He was saying his work saved the lives of billions of children. We want to come up with a safe vaccine. Those companies are recipients of most of the significant federal investment. They can dedicate themselves to saving lives. Neither one of these Companies Among thehildren testing that they are doing. No children. Affectsif this virus children and adults differently. All the protocol has been on adults. We have no idea what will happen when children are brought back into classrooms. What will they do to teach us. The centers for Disease Control and prevention has made clear that in Person Learning creates the highest risk for spreading the virus. I dont know what is going on in louisiana but i do know that School Closings in my home state , where the legislature is republicancontrolled, the governor is a republican, this is not about democrats versus republicans. No democrat closed any schools in South Carolina. Schools are closed. I dont know what you are doing down at lsu. Clemson is closed. This is a good, candid conversation. The Vice President came down to our campus. We had the head of the lsu system. It is the only historically black college. Southern is the only full system. Each School System is different. I think new orleans starts this week. They have had good success. There are protocols in place. Overall, it has been going on for over a month. Our kids go to school in the city of new orleans. It is working very well. Each School System is handled differently. The tools are there. I appreciate that. We will continue to follow that process. The operation warp speed status. And what else we can do to spread that progress. I yield back. You make my point very well. Louisiana in louisiana has a democratic governor, South Carolina has a republican governor. Has theout who findings. Wonderful for them. We have this administration that asked us to reopen schools. Information,my 21,000 children and teachers contracted the virus. A lot of the schools have been mostly closed. Schools and North Carolina state up in fourweek in the enclosed and sent the kids home. The students have lost their tuition. Couldnt get it back. Responsibility to do what is necessary for our country. I would hope as weak o4 word the these hearings, on second we will have a hearing. Azar will be here. You can ask why the president was so laudatory of china. We learned a lot more about china. We were finding out information in those early weeks. Thiswe found out, you saw president be very aggressive against the Chinese Communist party. Toking about why we need bring manufacturing back from china. The masks in ppe that we couldnt get it. They were making ppe in china. Banshinese communist party them from exporting that back into the u. S. We need to bring that manufacturing back to america. Been verytrump has aggressive about that. We have learned this. Someone is telling you one thing. If you find out later it is a lie, your attitude will be very different. Thank you. I hope we will hear the president apologizing to the American People for misleading us. He is the one who said china is doing a great job. We list to him. Listened to him. The statement i mentioned , it really calves me. Grabs me. I study truman all of my life. At the end of his presidency he was a pretty unpopular fellow. The more they elevate him in the history books, it wont be long before he is in the top three or four. When people get to compare how his committee dealt with this crisis. Calling on the research from world war i. In 1918. Sh flu hit it was a double whammy on our economy. I am a little bit worried. About whether or not we are adhering to the history. Not repeating this big man versus little man thing. I think we are on the lookout to not go down to 100,000. Or 50,000. And have some it says to me for us to be in this thing as long as we have been in and, 1 trillion sitting there, 90 of it has not been used. Donts to me that we just want to make the policy necessary for local businesses, they shops, restaurants need to be open. They need to receive this money. I can take you to restaurants where they had 100,000. But it is gone. They can reopen safely. They could create the outdoors. It is necessary for them to turn around their businesses. I can show you restaurants that would have outdoor patios they would keep open. But they cant do it. Without that kind of assistance. I want to thank you mr. Chairman. You are among those i admire and respect. I hope we can Work Together Going Forward. To get this economy moving. Do it unless we protect our children. Protect the health of our teachers. Unless we do better. We will have five regular days to submit written testimony. That will be forwarded to the witness. For his response. I asked my witness to respond as quickly as possible. This meeting is adjourned. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2019] [indiscernible] thursday morning, Stephen Ayers shin Steven Mnuchin and Jerome Powell testify on the Coronavirus Impact on the economy. Listen live on the free radio app. You are watching cspan, your unfiltered view of government. Created by americas Cable Television companies. And brought to you today by your television providers. Watch book tv coverage of the National Book festival this weekend. It features online author discussions plus live callin segments. Gail collins with her new book. Of right now, since the 1970s, there has been this transformation of the economic role of women in america. She joins us with a live discussion. Then jon meacham with his new book. In 1940. S a man born acted in the tradition of an early christian saint. Followed by a live callin segments. Sunday, an author with a new book. It was an effort to give the broadest possible public, a global public18, its coordinates in space and in time. 30 Rick Perlstein discusses his book. I write about the corporate world. Savagely. That. Zing against we will take your calls. Watch the coverage of the 20th annual National Book festival this weekend on cspan two. Next, South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham talks about the confirmation process for supreme courtps nominee. And the drama over the supreme court, mike next guest will have a starring role. He is the chairman of the Senate Judiciary committee, where the confirmation fight over Ruth Bader Ginsburgs vacancy will play out. He has had this frontrow seat in the last couple of nominations. Share his perspective along with what the timeline may be, is senator lindsey