Take some time for public to regain confidence and adapt to the new world and start traveling, taking vacation, going to restaurants and things like that. Im glad you brought that up. Thats one thing we havent talked about was this notion that when we looked to open our businesses and i think we all in a bipartisan way, thats what we want. We have to find this balance, opening our businesses in general. Theres only going to be as successful as the Customer Confidence that is there to patronize those businesses thats not just true for the Hospitality Industry thats true for all businesses i do know that the service and retail has been hardest hit business and my understanding that some of the data ive seen over 2 of those businesses have closed permanently already how are we to address this Consumer Confidence issue . I know thats something you thought about and talked about publicly what should we be doing . One thing ill say is it affects different sectors of the economy. The one we talked about is the one where its most important. Other sectors may be able to recover much more quickly and we hope so. The number one thing is people believing that its safe to go back to work and go out. Thats about having a sensible, thoughtful, reopening of the country. Something we all want. Something that were in the early stages of now. Thats what it will take for people to regain confidence and resume their activities. At a different pace depending on the nature of the business and the activity right and the health care piece of it. Theyll feel safe going back out and feel safe, they will be healthy and safe when they go into the establishments, isnt that true . It will be a combination of getting the virus under control, development of therapeutics, development of a vaccine also just, i think, seeing what your eyes are telling you. You can feel it already that people are doing things they wouldnt have done two thing months ago, a little bit at a time i think that process will take time until that happens, many people are relying on their local governments and State Governments as social safety net. Theyre telling them, looking to local government, State Government to tell them how they can stay safe and opening business, where the Health Care Facilities are and test and contact tracing. Isnt it true they rely on their local governments . Yes, i think thats where the decisions will be made state and local government and individual businesses, we talked to a lot of businesses and nonprofits and leaders in all those areas. What i feel is, certainly for the larger one, theres a thoughtful process going on about this ultima ultimately, people will make their own minds up you can change the formal social distancing measures but ultimately people will decide what they should and shouldnt do with themselves and with their families i think that will boil down to having pretty good confidence its safe to go out. I agree with you. I also know, at least in my state that many are waiting and relying on state and local governments to weigh in and help them make those determinations and set those guidelines and make sure they are safe. Thats why funding for our state and local governments is so important. I cannot stress that enough. In the only in the next fiscal package that needs to come to state and local governments but you also touched on it i would like to see more of that available to smaller populated states and local governments nevada has three million population there has to be way to also give them the opportunity to get the liquidity or funds that they need to ensure that theyre providing that safety, that social safety net to consumers in general i know my time is up secretary mnuchin i have questions for you as well. I will submit those for the record thank you both for joining us today. Thank you before i move to senator mcsally, ill announce to those remaining that we started about ten minutes ago and we still have a number left to go i ask you to please Pay Attention to the clock sorry it turns out this way at the end of these hearings. Thank you good to see you, virtually i want to talk about china we know they unleashed this virus on america and the world with their deception, continued Propaganda Campaign costing over 90,000 american lives, 30,000 americans losing jobs so far we dont know who patient zero is they kicked out doctors, journalists. Their reckless behavior continues to be the root of all this as you know this is why were here today were talk about the economy, which was very strong and now really struggling. People all over arizona are really struggling because of the calamity thats come from this virus. I want to i dont think anybody, let me ask. I dont think either of you think theres any reason we should be rewarding china or Chinese State owned enterprises for individuals or entities that want china to prosper as we implement these massive initiatives. Is it fair to say no one want thad to happen thats correct. Chairman powell thats really not a question for me were the economic response to this i know. None of us as americans want to see china or chinese owned enterprise prospering. I want to talk about a Company Called black rock. On march 24th, the Federal Reserve bank of new york retained black rock. As you know these facilities serve as markets for companies to sell bonds and obtain loans during these situations. Typically theres a competition, a Competitive Bidding process but black rock was selected for this one as you probably know blackrock is one of the leading Investment Banks in chinese funds including helping Chinese Companies list and go public on american stock exchanges. Chinese Companies Listed on american exchanges prohibit the Public Company accounting Oversight Board from reviewing their audit reports. Blackrocks website, they have page titled five myths and realities about investing in china. One of the biggest myth s Chinese State owned enterprises dont control their economy. Blackrock tries to back that up with data. I wont go into all of it but its ridiculous. Blackrock ode to china doesnt mention anything about human rights abuses, military abuses or the country is ruled by a communist party. They are one of the Worlds LargestInvestment Bank and a staple of free market. Neglects to mentions that communist run china while refusing to invest in legitimate issues here in america how did blackrock get selected how much money do they stand to make and what, if anything, will prevent blackrock from taking their profits they earn to invest in their interest in china and Chinese State owned enterprises . I guess ill take that. We hired blackrock for their expertise in these markets they are very large Asset Managers in the markets were concerned with it was done very quickly due to the urgency for their expertise. Well rebid the contract as we do Going Forward thats where that is the fees are a matter of Public Record and well be happy to supply those what, if anything, can we do to prevent any of their profits from this to benefitting china and Chinese State owned companies which they are severely invested in i would say this, all large Asset Managers buy chinese securities these are global Asset Managers. Im not here to defend or criticize them for that. Its not really relevant to the work we want them to do. What were trying to do is create conditions in which u. S. Workers can keep their jobs or return to them thats what our sole focus is. Were not trying to reach out for other Public Policy objectives or deviate from that. We have laser focus on that. We concluded this company was the right one to be our fiscal agent in this place. Their views on anything else are really not important whats important is that we do everything we can to support the united states. Let me say its important to all of us and thank you for your leadership on this, to support our economy, support jobs and get our economy on track its also important we wake up as americans and we hold china accountable and they dont theyre not allowed to profit because of these investments taxpayers are paid ill follow up with you on these issues i think blackrock and others need to wake up and do they patriotic duty km communist china should not profit off of unleashing this calamity on the world. That should unite all americans even if they work at blackrock senator jones thank you ill follow up i agree we need to hold all people accountable china, the w. H. O. , folks in this administration Everybody Needs to be held accountable if they had deficiencies in what was going on in this pandemic. Secretary mnuchin, let me say i saw recently that the treasury is going to begin issuing debit cards for americans for their direct payments. You will recall that senator cotton and i sent a letter shortly after the passage of the cares act encouraging that i appreciate your willingness to do that. I think it will quickly get money to millions of americans who havent received those direct payments yet. I wanted to ask you about Payroll Protection Program there were some problems with the banks and underserved communities that are not getting their funds. I think we tried to correct that and doing much better. The sba, Inspector General issued a report in the wake of that, at the recommended that the agency start collecting demographic information on who got thoese loans can you commit to work with the sba administrator to making demographic information mandatory for the ppp loans so there is that much needed transparency i can tell you in the forms that the lenders are required, there is demographic information. Weve been advised to make that optional and not mandatory we very much hope people provide that were committed to make sure we serve the underserved communities with the money we have left. Thank you chairman powell, i saw your speech and red your comments, saw the 60 minutes speech. It kind of reminds me that what judge taylor said in to kill a mockingbird in that people will see what they want to see and hear what they want to hear. I p sawsaw a call to action its affecting our minority communities. What being shown is the disparities on so many things. You mentioned how this pandemic can exacerbate the existing gap of wealth and assets and ownership between minorities and even poor people in general. We started with about 40 million poor people and it will get much bigger than that and it will be across racial lines. What can we do to try to narrow the gap to make sure the wealth gap does not get greater as we open back up this economy . Well, the job losses that have been happening have been happen in the Service Economy and in those parts where youre dealing with people. If you look at the Industries Hard hit its nose industri tho. Theres a lot in there its stunning how quickly households get into financial trouble. How little any lower income households have in terms of financial resources. These are longer term problems to deal with for now, it calls on us to do what we can to support the economy. We have 20 some Million People out of work. We want to do everything we can to create a world where they can go back to their jobs or find new jobs thats something all of us as policy makers should be strongly focused on well, thank you for that. It seems to be connected to your comments of also making sure that we keep people until their livelihoods. To keep the unploemployment nums down from our standpoint we have been focused on savori saving livingd saving livelihoods we dont want to give folks incentives to stay on unemployment, we want to give incentives to businesses who open carefully i would encourage you if you have to look at the Paycheck Security Program that senator warner and others will be filing this week so we can give these opportunities. Im assuming that the more opportunities we can give employers who keep people on their payroll with benefits, that would aid in opening up the economy safely and trying to keep us from getting into that long term recession. Would that be fair ill be happy to take a look at your legislation proposal great thank you. I appreciate the opportunity thank you for coming mr. Secretary. Senator moran thank you had i had more time, i would extol the virtues of the secretary and the chairman of their efforts, team and Public Service during this crisis in the absence of that time, i hope you understand the sentiments that sentence expresses. I want to focus, secretary mnuchin, we talked about ppp and seen the consequences, the positive consequences that have come from the program. There are large businesses, main street in which the facilities are being developed to assist but im worried about other businesses i would use an example, not that im lobbying for any company but an example that comes to my mind in kansas is yellow roadway, talking company. Employees almost 30,000 people, it is not Investment Grade it has leverage. It is a company that in the absence of assistance, the jeopardy of its employees are significant. I think theres a lot of companies out there like that. I think theres a number of other companies in kansas like that i want to make certain were doing the things that are necessary to prepare to be of assistance to them i think senator warner earlier indicated that very few of us expect treasury not to have to take losses. There needs to be some risk taking here and i want some kind of insurance that under the before program, before facilities that these kind of companies that are hugely important to the economy can receive some stance with the facilities, treasury and the fed. Secretary mnuchin is there some level of comfort i can have . You have my assurance we will go back and look at that specific company and see what we can do and get back to you i hope its more than that because its not just that company. This is hugely important just to be clear, Companies Like that. As i said before, we want to make sure there are facilities the companies dont fall through the cracks between all the different facility, were trying to do as much as we can within our powers let me suggest to you that timing is of the essence just as it was in ppp. The circumstances Companies Face today and layoff and furloughing employees are present and around the corner i encourage the precipitous but thoughtful action in addressing these circumstances. Let me see if i can get two other questions in one, do we have a time frame, mr. Secretary, for further guidance regarding ppp loan forgiveness . Theres some guidance that came out on loan forgiveness we believe deals with most of the major issues the second question does treasury and sba plan to issue guidance that would allow 5013c to use the size order for ppp eligible were reviewing that request is that something a decision is close to being imminent were going to decide one way or the other whether we can do that yes. Thank you very much thank you mr. Secretary, thank you, mr. Chairman . Thank you you get a gold star for yielding back a minute or so. Final senator is senator smith. Thank you for being here today. Chair powell, youve talked about how we wont be able to solve the economic crisis without solving the Public Health crisis, which i agree with secretary mnuchin, you said we need to reopen the economy in a thoughtful way, which i also agree with it. It seems an important part of being thoughtful is to make sure that americans have Accurate Information about whats going on i have no doubt youll be surprised to hear a lot of us were taken back when a couple of days or so ago we heard President Trump son eric trump acting as a surrogate for his father say this. He said they think, meaning they, the democrat, they are taking away Donald Trumps greatest tool, which is to be able to go into an arena filled with 50,000 people every single time, right. So they will and you watch they will milk it every single day between now and november 3rd and guess what, after november 3rd, coronavirus will magically all of a sudden go away and d disappear and everybody will be able to reopen this is the kind of misinformation that concerns me greatly. Secretary mnuchin, are you aware of any evidence of what eric trump said his assessment is accurate i didnt see erics comments nor do i think in this setting its appropriate for me to comment on it one way or another. I dont think its accurate and i think its exactly the kind of misinformation that is so damaging to our and undermining of our economic approaches and our policy approaches here. Let me ask you, secretary powell, even before the covid19 crisis, many minnesotans were struggling to find an affordable place to live. Last year i spoke with hundreds and hundreds of minnesotans about this challenge, Housing Developers as well they all told us at every part of the housing continuum from housing for Homeless People and support of housing all the way to Work Force Housing that this is a significant problem and a significant affordability challenge. Now we have this this coronavirus challenge i, along with my of my colleagues on this economy have been pushing for support for housing. 11. 5 billio