The will be with the current state of the u. S. Economy. And discuss its regulatory activities. In the last policy report, the chairman provide additional clarity on the plants to normalize Monetary Policy. Including how the size of the Balance Sheet will be driven by Financial Institutions demand for reserves. Since then, they have provided Additional Information and to continue receiving feedback on the Monetary Policy strategy and communication. All of what i look for to hearing an update on. The u. S. Economy is still strong. According to the equal analysis. Unemployment rate remains low at 3. 7 percent. The u. S. Is in his longest expansion of Economic Growth since 1854. According to the National Bureau of economic research. In order to continue this positive economic trajectory, red letters must evaluate the regulatory and supervisory activities for opportunities to tailor regulations and to ensure broad access to a wide variety of Financial Products and services. With respect to regulation, it has been over one year since the enactment of s 2155. As you move forward finalizing certain rules, and consider proposing the woods, i encourage you to consider the following carefully. Simplify capital rules for smaller Financial Institutions while ensuring the maintain significant capital. By setting the leverage ratio at eight percent. Simplifying the role. By eliminating the proposed crime. The overly broad capitol. Other longterm investments and loan creation to improve market liquidity. Harmonized margin requirements for treatment by the cftc. By making a targeted change to your margin rules. To enhance end users to hedge against risk in the marketplace. Examine whether the recent proposal that applies to u. S. Operations of foreign banks is appropriately tailored and the regulations on intermediate Holding Companies should be applied based on the absence of the Holding Company alone rather than the assets of all u. S. Operations. I also encourage you to allow the foreign bank proposal. Exclude transactions from each of the riskbased transactions. Index in the dollarbased threshold in the proposal to grow over time to improve the rules durability. Modernize the Community Reinvestment act. To assure that banks are not ignoring their mandate to serve their entire communities. Should include legal businesses that banks operating in their communities. A bank responded to political pressure or attempting to manage social policy and or companies that it disfavors is not meeting the needs of the entire community. These approaches would promote Economic Growth by assuring the roles are balanced and work for our stakeholders. On a different topic, facebook announced it is partnering with both financial and nonFinancial Institutions to launch a Payment System using the social network. The project has raised many questions among u. S. And global lawmakers. Including about his potential systemic importance. Consumer privacy and data privacy. And more. I am particularly interested in its implications for individuals. The bank of england governor said if it achieves its ambitions, it would be systemically important. As such, it would have to meet the high standards of regulations and consumer protection. And must address issues ranging from antiMoney Laundering to Data Protection through operational resilience. I look forward to hearing more about how in corners with other Global Regulators placed to engage on important regulatory and supervisory matters with facebook throughout and after the projects development. What it depends on several factors, there are some institutions that must be addressed. Fannie mae and freddie mac. We continue to dominate the Mortgage Market and expose taxpayers in the case of an eventual downturn. In late 2017 speech, he publicly referred to them as systemically important. Although my strong preference is for the comprehensive legislation they recently explored for one option for addressing them. It is the Financial StabilityOversight Council to designate them as systemically important Financial Institutions and to subject them to enhanced prudential standards. I appreciate you joining the committee today. To discuss these and many other important issues. Thank you mr. Chairman. Thank you for joining us. The stock market is soaring. Most American Families get the money from the paycheck. Not a statement from the stockbroker. A critical part of your job mr. Chairman is evaluating the economy and those measurements need to take into account workers and not just well. Talk to them who have not had a meaningful race in years. Who wash their Health Premiums rise. Paying off their own Student Loans going up and up. The idea that a stock market rally means more money in their pockets is laughable. The economy has not helped most americans. Executive composition explodes upwards. Workers are more productive. They do not share in the wealth they create. The top one percent have an average net worth of 24 million. The bottom half has about 20,000. Is about 1000 of the wealthiest neighbors. It continues to climb. Mitch mcconnell and donald trump responded a year or so ago but given the wealthiest americans a 2 trillion bonus. Those corporations turned around and funnel the money back to their executives. We are in the midst of the longest economic expansion in modern times beginning around the time this committee decided to rescue the Auto Industry. It is wearing the Interest Rates will provide good paying jobs like the Auto Industry who are not doing better. Auto manufacturing critical to the industrial midwest continue to fall in june. They should ensure that everyone who contributes to their economy also shares in the wealth that they create. Our work has dignity. We need an economy that honors work. Some of the challenges faced in our economy could only be addressed by congress. Millions of americans struggle to pay for prescription drugs. It is increasing at five times the rate of inflation. If the white house looks like a retreat for drug executive companies. The feds cannot fix all these issues on their own. Only congress can. I appreciate mr. Chairman your recent recognition that has the potential to benefit communities that have missed out on prior economic expenses. It means you will take action. Our to continue with policies and increase wages. I have raised concerns about much of the Financial System including the steps to weaken the roles of the largest things. The failure to activate the capital buffer to prepare for the next financial crisis and the lack of action to address risk posed by leveraged 11. Just this week they announced the restructuring overhaul in several businesses cutting 18,000 jobs. Almost 20 percent of its workforce. After several failed turnarounds, the latest effort shows it is too large and complex. It has been mismanaged and the regulator. It is not the only mega bank in that situation. I continue to be concerned that the other regulators are not doing enough. Added new worried today to the list. They have gotten carried away with the on wealth and on power and now attempting to aid the government created their own currencies and Monetary Policy and Payment Systems. In addition to whiskey risky wall street banks we face new wrist from unregulated giant tech companies. With the intent of conducting Monetary Policy on their own terms. We have a duty to serve the American People. This private corporations have no duty to the broader economy or consumers. They are motivated by their own bottom line. Allowing Big Tech Companies to take over the Payment System will position themselves to influence Monetary Policy will be a huge mistake and a threat to our democracy. Too many times when the stock market source and banks make money, regulators have been complicit. As we have seen in the past, Bank Profitability is not a reliable indicator of the banks to health. The stock market is not a reliability of the stock markets performance. I hope this is not another example of the feds taking a pass from their responsibilities. Thinking big wrist with our Financial System. It is your responsibility to use your tools. To protect the Financial System and make our economy work for all americans. Not just wealthy stockholders. Thank you for being here. Thank you chairman for being here with us today. Before i turn the time over, i want to remind our colleagues that we have three votes in 11 00. We obviously not going to get through all the questions for all of the centers in that timeframe. We will try to rotate and keep the hearing going. I would like to rest all of our senators to be careful and Pay Attention to your five minutes time on your questions so that your colleagues can i have the opportunity to ask questions. With that, chairman powell, we look forward to your statement. Please proceed. Thank you very much and good morning. Members of the committee. I am pleased to present the Federal Reserves Monetary Policy report to congress. Let me start by saying that my colleagues and myself strongly support the goals of maximum employment and price stability. We are committed to providing clear explanations about our policies. They have given us an important degree of independence so we can effectively pursue our statutory goes based on objective analysis. We appreciate our independence brings an obligation for transparency. So you and the public can hold us accountable. Today i will review the current Economic Situation and outlook before turning to Monetary Policy. Allows a provided update of our review of our framework. The economy performed recently well over the first half of 2010. The current expansion is in its 11th year. They have been running below the two percent objective and cross currents such as trade tensions have been weighing on Economic Activity and the outlook. The labor market remains healthy. John gant average 172,000 per month from january through june. This number is lower than the average of 223,000 per month last year. About the pace to provide jobs for the workers entering the labor force. Consequently the unemployment rates moved down from 3. 9 percent to 3. 7 percent in june. Close to its lowest level in 50 years. Job openings remain plentiful. Employers are willing to hire workers with fewer skills and train them. As a result, the benefits of a strong job market have been more widely shared. Wage gains have been greater for lower skilled workers. With that said, individuals in some demographic groups continue to face challenges. For example, unemployment rates for africanamericans and hispanics remain well above the rates for whites and asians. The share of the population where the job is higher in urban areas. This gap has widened over the past decade. A box in a monetary report provides a comparison of employment and wage gains over the current expansion for individuals with Different Levels of education. The increase in annual rate of 3. 1 percent in the first 1 45 thousand 19. This strong reading was driven by inventories. The more reliable drivers in the economy are consumer spending. While it was weak in the First Quarter, incoming data shows it has bounced back and running at a solid pace. However, growth in Business Investment seems to have slowed down notably. It appears moderator. The slowdown in the Business Investment reflect concerns about trade tensions. And declined in the First Quarter and appeared to have decreased again in the second quarter. After running close to our two percent objective, overall consumer pricing inflation measured by the 12 month change. And declined early this year instead at 1. 5 percent in may. The 12 month change in inflation which includes food and Energy Prices is to be a better indicator has also come down this year. Is also 1. 6 percent in may. Our outlook. To move back up over time for the committees two percent objective. However, insurgencies have increased in recent months. Economic momentum appears to have slowed down in some Major Economies and that we just could affect the u. S. Economy. , a number of policy issues have yet to be resolved. Including trade developments. There is a risk that the information will be even more persistent than we currently anticipate. There carefully monitoring these developments. Will continue to assess the implications for the Economic Outlook. They also continue to confront important lumbar challenges. Labor force participation is now lower in the United States than in most other nations. As i mentioned their troubling labor market disparities across demographic groups. The relative stagnation of middle and lower incomes and lowerlevel upper mobility for families is also ongoing concerns. In addition, finding ways to boost product growth which leads to rising wages and Living Standards should remain a High National priority. I remain concerned about the longerterm effect of high and rising federal debt which can rescreen private debt and reduce productivity and overall Economic Growth. The vitality of the u. S. Economy will benefit from efforts to address these issues. Against this backdrop, they maintained the target range at 2 1 4 in the first half of this year. In our january march, we stated will be patient as we determined what future adjustments to the right might be appropriate to support our goes a maximum employment and price stability. At the time, we are mindful of the ongoing cross currents. The restrictive evidence that these were moderating. The latest data from china and europe was encouraging. Our stance seemed appropriate. The committees on a strong case for adjusting our policy rates. Since our may meeting, this cross currents every immersed creating greater certainty. Apparent progress on trade turn to greater certainty. Our contacts report heightened concerns over trade development. Growth indicated from around the world have disappointed. So that weakness will continue to affect the u. S. Economy. These concerns may have contributed to the drop in Business Confidence and may have started to show through incoming data. In our june meeting, we indicated that in light of uncertainties and inflation pressures, we will closely monitor the implication of incoming information for the Economic Outlook and whatever is appropriate to sustain the expansion. Many participants saw the case for somewhat more Monetary Policy has strengthened. Since then, it appears that insurgencies around trade tensions and concerns about the Global Economy continued to weigh on the economic output. Inflation pressures remain muted. They have made a number of important decisions this year about our framework. Our plans for completing the reduction of the Security Holdings. In our january meeting we decided to continue to implement Monetary Policy using our current policy regime. We emphasize we are prepared to adjust any of the details for completing Balance Sheet normalization. At our march meeting, we communicated our intention to slow the decline in the Security Holdings and to end the reduction in september. And provides details on these decisions. The report also includes an update on Monetary Policy rules. They rigidly look Monetary Policy rules that recommended level for the federal funds rate based on inflation. I continue to find these helpful. Although using these require careful judgment. We are conducting a public review of our strategy tools and communications. The first review of its kind. Our motivation is to consider ways to improve the current policy framework and best position them to achieve maximum employment and price stability. The review has started with and consultation with a broad range of people through a series of listens events. Will consider questions related to the review at upcoming meetings and will public reports the outcome of our discussions. Thank you and im happy to respond to your questions. I want to