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 p