The Export Import Bank is a critical component of our export strategy. In a world where nobody had export subsidies, one could have a conversation about whether or not we should have one. But in a world where our competitors have export programs, and we might not, thats putting a burden on our exporters thats just not fair. If youre selling, you know, from washington state, i know aircraft are a big issue, if youre selling aircraft against companies that have export financing, because of programs like the Export Import Bank, and we dont, thats something that you cant make up for just by running a tighter operation. Now, we have discussions going on on an international basis to see whether we can on a global basis lower the export subsidy programs. In that kind of an environment, it would be a different question. But we cant unilaterally put our companies in a position where exporters from other countries have export support, and they dont. So i think the reauthorization of the Export Import Bank is critical. And what do you think that the what would the Administration Like to see as congress were moving towards a period that i think is may 31st or something. We have for a long time advocated a reauthorization that would provide longer term certainty around the program. And i think the sooner its enacted the better, because uncertainty is not a good thing. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, senator. Senator menendez arrived just in the nick of time. Thank you. To secure the next spot. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Mr. Secretary, i want to raise an issue with you that haes huge bipartisan support in the senate. And also, the support of the administration. Which is reforming the Foreign Investment and Real Estate Property act so that foreign Pension Funds can put muchneeded capital into the u. S. Commercial real estate market. And weve talked about this before. And how this equity to the u. S. Can create jobs right here at home. The current tax on Real Estate Investment trusts was due to an administrative action, not a legislative one. And indeed up until treasury issued a notice in 2007, foreign Pension Funds, investing in reits were equally with their counterparts. It seems treasury made this change in the first place. It could also undo this policy, and eliminate a barrier to private infrastructure investment. Im pleased to see that once again, the president agrees with me on the need for reform as illustrated in his budget. So since we all agree this is a bad policy, and treasury clearly has the authority to reverse this ruling, i hope that you would look at taking some sort of action on this. So my question is one, does it make any sense to create obstacles for Foreign Investment in the u. S. , particularly considering our dire need for Infrastructure Investments and will you commit to working with me, and theres a Bipartisan Group of members of this committee and beyond who support this effort. Senator, weve discussed this before, and as you acknowledge, we agree this should be fixed. We believe it needs to be fixed through legislation. I actually hope that in the discussions were having about business tax reform, it provides an opportunity for us to do this in a bipartisan way. And weve obviously put forward a legislative proposal again and i look forward to working with you on it. So youre not going to deal with it administratively obviously, so the question is but you do support the administration yes. Okay. Let me ask you in the same light, one of the main themes in the president s budget is the need for extensive investments in roads bridges, and other critical infrastructure. One of the most effective ways to help local municipalities, and i say this as a former mayor, make these critical investments is the private activity bond program. Unfortunately, the caps on water and Wastewater Infrastructure projects make it extremely difficult for local communities to take advantage of the program for these critical needs. And thats because, for example water projects are often multiyear ventures making it impossible to fit under the annual caps. I have legislation i plan to reintroduce that actually passed through this committee that would move the caps for water and Wastewater Infrastructure projects, and im pleased to see the president s budget included positive reforms in this regard. Would removing the caps help local communities upgrade their antiquated infrastructure . Senator, we did put the new proposal in our budget to try to accomplish the same goal. Im obviously raising the caps would provide more room for the local authorities. We think what weve proposed is similar theory behind it and we would look forward to working together to get something enacted into law to enable local projects to go forward more easily. And finally we have record job growth, and the administration has done i think, economically a great job lowest unemployment, some long period of time private sector job growth for a long period of time deficit as percentage of the gdp probably the lowest in 50 years and a whole host of other positive economic factors, but we still have a stagnant, which you refer to in your opening statement. Longterm Unemployment Rate is still, however, far too high. Leaving millions of americans out of the recovery. Theyre stuck on the sideline and while they do that their skills and networks become out of date which hurts them in trying to get back into the economy. Ive introduced legislation called the better education and skills training for americas work force that would provide a robust tax credit for businesses who pay for training for longterm unemployed workers and would create a competitive pool of tax credits for business clusters who come together to set up Training Programs at Community Colleges. I see the president s initiative on Community Colleges. Do you believe that designing a Job Training Program focused on providing the longterm unemployed with skills in demand would help reduce the disproportionately longterm Unemployed People in our country . Senator, we have, through the policies weve put in the budget, i think embraced very strongly the idea that we need to make sure training is available to help people get into or get back into the work force. Thats where our Community College proposal comes in its where other training proposals come in. There are multiple ways one could accomplish it. We put in our budget the ways that we think would be most effective. But we look forward to working together. Wed like to work with you. I understand and support the president s broader initiative. But how we deal and focus on longterm unemployed is a critical element. Totally agree. If you look at the, you know, kind of potential tpp in the medium term, getting people back in the labor force is not just something thats right for the individual, but its a way to make sure our economy is growing more. Im thrilled to find at least three places we can largely agree. Senator carper . Thank you, sir. Thanks, mr. Chairman. Welcome. Good to see you. I want to start off by thanking you and the administration for working so hard with us last year to find Common Ground on the health insurance. If we can work that out we can work out some of these issues as well. Mr. Secretary, you started off talking about the strength of the economic recovery. Ill acknowledge its not everything we would like but for us, its encouraging. Even by today. Today we received from the department of labor the latest unemployment filings. Averaging right around 280,000. It was 628,000 at the time president obama and Vice President biden were inaugurated. Hopefully it will have a positive effect on wages for a lot of people who havent had much of an increase in wages for a while. One of the things that i sought to do is coming out of the election is to figure out areas we can agree on. You touched on that in your testimony, and in the president s state of the union. My hope is we can move forward on trade, including tpa. My hope is we can move forward on cybersecurity to protect our better protect our sea ports. And comprehensive tax reform. I would like very much to do that. You mentioned the need to do that. Its a tough nut to crack. But so important. Immigration reform we need to take up Immigration Reform that reduces the deficit. It raises the i think the gdp very substantially over the next five, ten years. We ought to just do that. Work force, i like the president s proposals with respect to the Community Colleges, trying to encourage folks to continue their education coming out of high school. The last one i want to mention is transportation. Several of my colleagues mentioned it. And we have jurisdiction over that. Public works is the authorizing committee and were the committee that has to figure out how to pay for these improvements. We very much need to make them. Im intrigued by what the president has proposed, what the administration has proposed. Im not an advocate of repatriating money if we repatriate every ten Years Companies will continue to leave money parked overseas, until we lower it again. Give them a free pass. I dont think thats a very good idea. I think the administrations idea is intriguing. I think it will be difficult to achieve. But im interested in exploring it with you, and my colleagues. Ive been over the last six months i think ive talked with just about everybody on this committee. A lot of republicans in the house, and democrats in the senate and the house. What do you think we ought to do for transportation funding . Ive gotten a bunch of ideas. One is a user fee, 3 cents or 4 cents a year for four years. And that basically is a barebones approach and gives us about 100 billion a year, which is the minimum of what we 100 billion over six years, bare bones of what we need. Second idea thats sort of in talking to my republican colleagues, why dont we open some additional areas for oil or gas exploration. And some of the revenues that could flow from that that could go into the Transportation Trust fund. The president proposed that the areas off of virginia, north carolina, South Carolina and georgia be opened up for exploration. And that could actually marry an administration idea with ideas ive heard from my republican colleagues. I heard from a number of the republican colleagues, and democrats, too, why cant we figure out how to do transportation projects less expensive. Get a better result for less money. D. O. T. Has new ideas to share with us this year. So that might be something the administration and democrats and republicans could agree on. Those are just some of the ideas that ive heard. And i think id like to talk about energy policy. We like to talk about Energy Policies in an all of the above approach. I think there might be an all above more comprehensive approach on transportation funding than i thought a year ago. Your reaction, please. Senator carper, we obviously strongly share the sense of urgency to get a Longterm Service transportation bill enacted. Theres no way to effectively plan infrastructure going six months at a time, or even a year at a time. You need to have the time to plan complicated projects. We put in our budget a proposal that i think has the basis for bipartisan support. We genuinely want to pursue it and we think its the best approach. If that were turn out not to be the approach that could muster bipartisan support, we would Work Together to look at other creative options. But i actually think that there is a, you know, reason to be optimistic that we can get the president s proposal, or a form of it enacted into law. It draws on principles that are shared on both sides. Its in their best interests of the country, good for the economy, it will create good middle class jobs. So im not were going to kind of roll up our sleeves and try and get it done. Okay. Thanks so much. States are beginning to shut down Construction Projects in the spring, and in the summer. Because of the lack of predictability. I think the president s idea has merit. I think its going to be hard to do. The question for us is if were not able to do that for a while, what are we going to do in the meantime. The answer cant be nothing. All right. Thanks so much. Thanks, mr. Chairman. Okay. Lets go to senator carden. Thank you mr. Chairman. And secretary lew thank you for your service. Very much appreciate your longstanding commitment to public service. And the effective job youre doing as secretary of the treasury. I first want to talk about an area i talked to you once before about, and thats our Community Banks. We are still seeing Community Banks in maryland being challenged to be able to survive, not because of their viability individually, but because of the new regulations et cetera. They were not the speculators that brought about the financial collapse. And theyre trying to figure out a way to remain relevant in todays banking world. One area where we could help is during the t. A. R. P. Period, the preferred stock of Community Banks were now held by treasury, and they want to buy back that preferred stocks but there are certain obstacles in the way. I would ask that that get on your radar screen to see if we cant facilitate the viability of Community Banks through considerations through treasury to make it easier to recoup their preferred stock. Senator carden, we share the view that Community Banks play a Critical Role in local economies, and in creating an engine for Small Business growth and local economic activity. We have, in the t. A. R. P. Program, worked with Community Banks, will continue to. We obviously have certain constraints in the t. A. R. P. Program in terms of how we can dispose of assets. But im happy to look into it again. Appreciate it very much. I was very interested in your exchange with senator wyden in regards to the u. S. Harmonizing with the International Community on tax rates and the fact that we have high Corporate Tax rates. I also was interested in the exchange on simplification where youre trying to wyden wants to get the code more simplified, and i agree. I would at least put in a plug that you take a look at the progressive consumption tax that i filed taxpayers, joint taxpayers under 100,000 wouldnt have to file any income tax, and we would have the lowest marginal tax rates in the industrial world. If were going to harmonize lets take a look at where the rest of the oecb countries are receiving their revenues if we want to be competitive. I urge you to take a look at it because i think it would answer some of your questions. I want to get your comment in regards to the administrations position on doing business tax reform. Along with senator thune ill cochair a working group that will be looking at the business tax issues. And we have concern as to how Small Businesses treat it. If you deal just with Corporate Tax rates, then those who have passthrough entities, or use s corporations, would be at a competitive disadvantage if thats all we do. Because of the high individual rates. So i would ask, how can you really just do Corporate Tax reform and be fair to Small Businesses in our country . Senator carden we have always talked about business tax reform, not Corporate Tax reform, because we think its important that when we do business tax reform, we look at Small Businesses as well as the corporate side. We have in our proposal for example, the sexction 179 provision in taking of depreciation. You can take a full deduction in the year you make an investment you dont have to do it over time. Weve done an enormous number of simplifications to make it easier for Small Businesses. I think that we are weve designed provisions that are going to help Small Businesses. Were open to ideas, if there are ideas that come out of the conversations you and senator thune have. We would look forward to working with you. I would just point out that, if you end up in a position where one of the reasons businesses choose to file as individual businesses as opposed to corporations is that its better for them to do. If it becomes advantageous they can also but it changes the current competitive situation and Small Businesses are already challenged today. I understand they can make that choice back and forth. I want to get one last point in, if i might and that is on retirement and savings. Once again progressive consumption tax would help reward savings and retirement. But one of the things that we have learned working with senator portland in the house is that the tax incentives alone arent enough for middle income working families. Thats why employer sponsored plans, when they put money on the table is important. Im just urging you, as you look at your proposals for retirement securities, that we dont have the unintended consequence of a