five minutes. mr. meeks? if mr. meeks is not available, we will move on to mr. scott for five minutes. rep. scott: thank you very much, chairlady. chair powell, ms. yellen, welcome. chair powell, this is to you. the rescue plan, do we now have an opportunity to expand the child tax credit. the irs has put forward a get my payment website, and i believe it can be used in conjunction with the fdic and the private sector to bring more americans

into our banking system using what is known as bank owned, certified safe accounts. but only if it is able to be moved at this moment, when we capture it. currently, the irs get my payment tool is only open for the status checks. but so many are unable to add or change delivery information as they were able to do so with the delivery of the first stimulus check. chairman powell, explain that. don't you agree that this is an opportunity to increase financial inclusion through the use of certified bank owned safe accounts, get my payment?

mr. powell: sir, i would agree with you that greater inclusiveness in the financial system is a goal of the highest priority for us and really for all financial regulators. i am not familiar with the particular practice you are referring to, but i will be happy to look into that and come back to you. rep. scott: ok, please do. there's another one with the treasury department called get my payment. all these things are good, but i appreciate you looking into them as quickly as you can so that if they are there, we need to use them now because so many of our people cannot get the money quickly because they don't have the kind of high standing within our financial system. so when you put these things, like back owned -- bank owned and get my statement, we need to

use them right now. i appreciate you looking into that. secretary yellen, let me move to you. the american rescue plan also included $350 billion in assistance to state and local governments to make up for the lost revenue and to ease the economic impact of the covid-19 pandemic. could you tell me, when can local governments expect treasuries to release guidance on the american rescue plan? sec. yellen: we have to issue guidance quite quickly. i think it's within 60 days and to distribute the funds, and we are working very hard to sort through the issues that we need

to in order to provide clarity about the purpose of the funds and how they can be used. rep. scott: madam chair lady, i am concerned that we have the treasury secretary here and we have the chairman of the federal reserve here, and we passed this bill and put certain things in here to increase the delivery. everybody cannot get this payment through electronic accounts. most of the people that you and i have been very concerned about getting inclusion are not getting these funds as quickly. so i just want to encourage, and i know you'll agree, but i want

to take a moment here. we passed it. it's there. please, please, treasury secretary, please, federal reserve. we need to hurry up. we put these things in place so we could reach those who have been excluded. very quickly, they need the money as quickly as everyone else. thank you, chairwoman? rep. waters: thank you, mr. scott. i now recognize mr. posey for five minutes. rep. posey: we continue to live in a period of uncertainty, but our economy appears poised to recover rapidly as vaccine is given to more and more people. chair powell told us that the

economy could grow by much as 6% this year alone. at the same time, other factors could cloud the horizon, such as our unprecedented level of deficit spending, increases in nominal treasury and print bond yields, the mysterious enthusiasm for raising taxes, and the headlong pursuit of planet change mitigation measures that threatens affordable energy and our recently acquired energy independence. secretary yellen, you recently said that the department of the treasury could stress test change, but you do not believe they would be used for capital requirements or other regulation. if these stress tests have no regulatory purpose, what with the purpose of such stress tests be? sec. yellen: the purpose, maybe we should call it scenario analysis rather than stress test

, it's for financial institutions and further regulators to better understand the risks with climate change -- that climate change poses to financial institutions, and it will help these institutions better manage and understand the risks. rep. posey: are we doing any studies of the risks of solar interactions with our planet? we missed a solar interruption that would have knocked a lot of satellites out and put us in a dark age, or are we checking on natural phenomenon like that as well? mr. powell: since we directly supervise financial institutions, we do supervise for institutions that are in areas of the country that are susceptible to significant

weather problems such as hurricanes or things like that, so we do that, but that's in response to your question, i would say that. rep. posey: how will this be used? a federal infomercial, like the al gore movie, or something like that? how do you plan to utilize this information? mr. powell: many of the large financial institutions are already doing this, and the reason they are doing this is because they trust what the secretary said. it's trying to understand that early risk in science, really, what are the early risks involved in climate change? one way to do that is to run simulations.

there are no regulatory consequences contemplated. it's an exploration and understanding better what the risks are to the core of our financial system, and that's what we feel like is the obligation, to understand that. the financial institutions are actively doing this on their own. it's not something we are forcing them to do at this way. rep. posey: who's doing that right now? give me an example. mr. powell: i am not going to name individual names. many large institutions are trying to understand how climate change is going to affect their business at that time. rep. posey: and are they sharing that information with you? mr. powell: they are sharing that information with the

public. it could have long-term implications for our economy, for our system and the people that we serve, and our obligation is to understand that. it is early days, but we feel like we have a responsibility to start the process of understanding. rep. posey: do you think you will discover revelations that they have missed, or -- mr. powell: i think we have a job, which is to ensure that the institutions we regulate are resilient to the risks they are running. the public will expect that and have every right to expect that over time. we don't have a new mandate. this is consistent with our existing mandate of supervision. it's just the same mandate and a different risk. rep. waters: the gentlemen's time has expired. the gentleman from texas, mr. greene, is recognized for five minutes. rep. greene: thank you, madam

chair. i don't want the historic moment of this hearing to escape us. i am a member of this committee, many secretaries of the treasury and chairs of the fed, and a paradigm shift is taking place. i don't want it to be overlooked. i have heard the statement of the chairperson of the fed and in this statement, he says all addressing progress is being made. he states, we welcome this progress but will not lose sight of the millions of americans who are still hurting, including lower wage workers in the service sectors, african-americans, hispanics, and other minority groups that have been especially hard-hit. then the secretary of the treasury, in her statement, she indicates that since taking

office two months ago, we have been expediting relief to areas of greatest need, for example small businesses, and the smallest small businesses which are disproportionately owned by women and people of color. i understand there is great work still to be done, but i don't want to overlook the fact that people are talking more now about the needs of minorities and women. secretary yellen, you have indicated in a message you presented not so very long ago, when comparing the 1.8 million men in the labor force versus the 2.5 million women, you call this extremely unfair. i am grateful to both of you for understanding that it is now time to move forward on the issues associated with the

wealth gap as it relates to minorities in this country, and especially issues related to women who happen to be more than 50% of the population of the country. this is historic, to see this movement under your leadership, madam chair. i am honored to serve under your leadership. now to secretary yellen. i have a concern. i am concerned about the $10 billion that will go to the state small business credit initiative. i am concerned because when this program was instituted on a previous occasion, we have reauthorized it in the rescue plan, but when it was authorized initially, it went to the state through the agriculture department. in the agriculture department, they had the responsibility and obligation of making sure it move down to the states.

in texas, that probably is not the best way to do business. so i had this consternation about it and my hope is that we will be able to get this to the end users in a much more expeditious way, such as what you have indicated that you've been trying to accomplish. my question is this, madam secretary. will you send up an outline of the timeline for implementation for money in the treasury to go to the coffers of the end users in the $9 billion emergency capital investment program that has come into being under the honorable maxine waters, who had the privilege of working on this program, and the $10 billion state small business credit initiative, which similarly came into existence, and i would add, also, this last one, with the

help of the chairwoman of the diversity and inclusion subcommittee, who helped us to hone this and refine it to the point where we are helping the smallest of small businesses. i am hope we can get such an outline, because i have people who question me daily about when will the money be available for us as end-users to benefit from it? i believe your heart is in the right place, i believe you are working expeditiously, i just want to be able to answer those questions when they are posed to me. again, i thank you and i am grateful for this historic moment, and my hope is that this is only an indication of better things to come. madam chair, i will yield back 16 -- 12 seconds to you. rep. waters: thank you, thank you very much. i now recognize the gentleman from missouri for five minutes.

>> thank you, madam chair, and congratulations to you, secretary yellen, on your new position. it's great to see you again. i have another duty here in congress, which is to be the ranking member on small business. during your opening statement, which i sure was written by your staff, you made some comments with regards to this administration being responsible for the loans that are out there that are being taken by those entities, small businesses, under 20 or 10 employees. i can quote you from my own press release as the ranking member of small business that the loans have been roughly 75% to 80%, 10 employees already, and a little over 90% of 20 employees or less, and for the administration to pause that

ability of small businesses over 20 to have access to the program is actually harmful from a standpoint that if we don't pass the extension of the ppp bill that we passed in the house, the senate now has it, though small businesses are at a disadvantage because they are over 20 and are delayed, and if they don't get their loan in the pipeline soon, the pipeline is not going to get processed and they won't even get the loan process. i would say, please tell your staff to stop politicizing your statement and taking liberties with the facts. mr. powell, we are halfway through this two-year cycle now on cecil and the a, which will end in 2022 nb -- and begin the phase-in.

can you tell us what the fed's review of the data is and if you would consider a more permanent recalibration or revision of the current approach? and if you could unmute, that can be great. mr. powell: we are continuing to look at cecil. i don't have anything for you on that data. i will get a look at it quickly and come back to you. >> that would be great. having deferred it as something you agreed to up front last year in the process, it was something that i think you would probably agree to again this time and is something we need to review for sure, if not give it up altogether. if a delay is something we believe is in the best interest of everybody affected by it. also, mr. powell, chairman powell, at this point, fed data from third quarter 2020 indicates that 51% of the

commercial real estate that is now held by banks, and community banks have a higher concentration of these loans than other lenders. at this point, congress has provided relief from the financial institutions through tdr's and the extension of the foreclosure market. i think it's important to have discussions around this and what will happen when relief ends. can you give us a heads up as to what will have an impact on balance sheets and economic recovery if we take that foreclosure moratorium off? mr. powell: i will look into that for you -- >> sorry. i have really bad allergies today. mr. powell: it's that time of year. we are monitoring cre very carefully, and you are right, it's concentrations arise principally in smaller banks,

and we will have to watch those as we allow those moratoriums to relapse. we don't have anything for you today, but we will be sure to move very, very carefully when we do address that. >> as you know, i'm very concerned about this situation, because as we saw, when we went to an end putatively shut down entire industries, especially in commercial real estate and real estate development areas, it had a devastating effect on not only local economies, but the economy as a whole. i hope you are cautious about this. we talked about this before, with forbearance and allowing businesses to get back on their feet and see what the real loss is before we go in and scorched-earth get rid of all these folks. i appreciate your answer on that. i know you all were doing a good job at working with the banks at

this point, and i ask that you continue to do that. i understand some loans are bad, but if time is given, with the nature of what it is, we can get a lot of moratoriums out without having to go through foreclosure. i appreciate your thoughtfulness and yield back. rep. waters: thank you very much. the gentleman from missouri, mr. cleaver, is recognized for five minutes. rep. cleaver: i do apologize to my constituents and witnesses for not being properly attired, but due to my medical condition, i feel like it would be better for this than to miss the meeting.

-- were on the committee when the tax cuts were approved, the tax cuts and jobs act, i think it was called, and temporarily, the organizers authorized what was called opportunity zones. i became somewhat excited, did not matter whether it was designed by republicans, democrats, or the tampa bay buccaneers -- maybe that'goings too far, but the incentives were designed to encourage private investment in economically distressed areas around the country, and i have become concerned, even though i had great enthusiasm, but i am concerned that the larger promise of this organization has

not been realized. i thought, i believed, i hoped we would have affordable housing , community amenities like grocery stores, drug stores like cvs, it would improve the quality of life in these low income areas. but my dream remains unrealized. now, today, chairman green and i sent a letter. i will say parenthetically that opportunity zones is in ways and means, and there are some parts of this, especially lichens to affordable housing, where opportunity zones could be extremely important. here we are -- we have seen some things that could happen, i think that are extremely unfortunate, and one of those

things, madam secretary, is that we have seen the brookings institution talk about, and one of their reports, and some of the states opportunity zones are covering college campuses locating in areas where over 90% of the residents are students. i'm all for students, but i don't believe the program was designed in the initial proposal for colleges. it was designed first distressed -- for distressed communities. i want to make sure you understand the concerns we have and in the remaining time, could you talk about what economics says about the benefits, if we had this program may be tweaked or redesigned in some way so

that incentives actually help people and what we thought were going to be zones? sec. yellen: i think it's critically important to increase opportunities to provide affordable housing, especially for low income and historically marginalized families, and opportunity zones appropriately structured and contribute to that. there are a number of other tools that we have that can contribute to affordable housing goals, the low income housing tax credit i think is important in serving that purpose, the capital magnet fund can also serve to facilitate investment in affordable housing construction.

this is a top priority for the buying administration. we are certainly open to exploring opportunities at treasury and of course the government to address the affordable housing shortage. we are operating at treasury these programs that will invest in cdfi's and minority depository institutions, but we have a variety of programs and will look forward to working with you to see how we can use the room to address this problem. rep. waters: your time has expired, thank you. the gentleman from michigan is recognized for five minutes. >> thank you, madam chair, and i will try to move through a couple of quick things.

one, secretary yellen, congratulations on your new position and i look forward to continue to work with you, but i have to redo part of an email that i received from a cpa constituents of mine, and this echoes what mr. sherman had to say. extending the filing data was not an option, it was a necessity because of all the things being thrown at us this year. making changes to the 2020 income rules in march? really? it will take software developers two weeks to get this into the software correctly. can you imagine the correspondence the irs is going to create as a result of this and how we are going to have to straighten this out for them because they cannot get their systems changed correctly that quickly. it will be a mess this summer for sure. extending the deadline 530 days is minimal. it should have been until june 15, but we can live with that.

having -- after extending the filing date to may 15 is the most ridiculous thing i have ever heard. how do you think we determine what those estimates should be? through the completion of the prior year return, to have the first quarter estimate due on april 15 without knowing where the prior return ended up is ridiculous. they should have kept the filing date at april 15. i want to know if you are aware of this problem and two, if you are committed to trying to straighten that out and move the date to make it workable? sec. yellen: sorry. i believe the logic of losing the one thing, but not the date -- moving the one thing, but not the date for estimated taxes, it's usually high income taxpayers that file estimated

taxes and if they are able to file by april 15 -- >> let me stop you right there. as a former realtor an independent contractor coming out of college, i was not a high income earner, but i paid orderly taxes. i paid quarterly estimates. there are all kinds of people like that who are small business owners, they are in the middle of trying to keep your restaurant open, like a restaurant owner, restaurant immigrant owner who is in jail right now because she violated the michigan health departments order to shut her restaurant down because she was trying to save her business, but we have a lot of those folks who need to understand what their tax liability is before they are going out and sometimes having to borrow cash to make that first estimate payment, especially those who are in seasonal work, such as construction, landscaping, those kinds of things. i do want to have that

conversation with you and your staff off-line. mr. powell, materially, i want to touch on that. and the fed's involvement in the network rating of the financial system. an interesting quote saying regardless of the nature of any future engagement, we will continue to set regulatory engagements as normal. one, i question why the involvement in that. and two, materiality, doesn't it need to be definable as well as quantitative? chair powell: with the and gss, really regulators, supervisors around the world who are trying to understand together -- >> i know it is. what i need to know in this short amount of time is about materiality. when nobody can define it or come to an agreement on it, how can it be measured and

quantitated? chair powell: we are not trying to measure or quantify something right now. we are trying to understand at a high level what is the nature of the risk that will affect things over time from climate change? >> that might be your goal and objective, that is not the goal and objective of a number of my colleagues who have been talking about this needing to be into the review currently. and, what i am afraid is we are going to get dragged into that. i do want to talk about secretary yellen, a professor and a lifelong educator, do you agree we should send our kids back to school to ensure their educational development? i am concerned about that impact in the future of our economy. sec. yellen: i have concerns about the impact of children not being in school. it is an important objective to reopen this school. as soon as we can. >> my time has expired, i

appreciate the time and i look forward to the other conversation. rep. waters: the gentleman from connecticut is recognized for five minutes. >> thank you madam chairman, thank you to both of you. for appearing. a couple of quick things, chairman powell, i saw with great interest your comments on cryptocurrency out of the fed. you said we would not proceed without support from congress. i appreciate that, i think this jurisdiction over that, i wanted to tip my hat to that testament. i think we should work together, there's quite a bit of education with congress on that important topic. secretary yellen, thank you for all the work you and your people

have done. i would be remiss if i did not urge you about the restaurant revitalization fund. that has been brutally hit over the last year or so. we are hoping those funds become available. i have one question to both of you we have offered, it is undeniable that everywhere we looked today we see the effects of various essential liquidity. this was not true when i was a freshman and own nine. a fiscal policy working against the monetary policy. it is gratifying to see that. everywhere we look, we see the effects of liquidity in the system. the high-yield market, something like 4%. everybody and their brother has a spac. real estate prices are moving

around the country. so, my question is for both of you, this will take a minute and a half or two minutes. we learned in 2008 that trees do not grow to the sky. so, i wonder if you would each take 90 seconds to tell us what you see as the near to medium term risks associated with the inevitable contraction, though we may not know when it comes, i'm liquidity in the system. let me start with the treasury secretary. and then go to the chairman. >> secretary yellen, you may need to unmute. sec. yellen: i think, well i said valuations by historical metrics, also the belief with

vaccinations continuing, the economy will be able to get back on track. i think, asset prices are high. it is important for regulators to make sure that the financial sector can make sure that markets look well and the financial institutions are managing the risks. >> chairman powell, that is a good segue to you. chair powell: monetary policy is appropriate given how far we are from the employment goal and the inflation goal. and, i think the first thing i would point to is the overall

monitoring. we look carefully at financial stability on an ongoing basis. if you look at those, the evidence is kind of mixed. asset prices are a bit high. but, the banking system is highly capitalized. and, funding risk is relatively modest. the remaining category is leveraging by households and businesses. somewhat elevated but nothing like the financial crisis. it is a mixed picture on that. the main thing is to have a resilient financial sector that can withstand the source of destruction that will come. in terms of moving forward, we have said that we would start to taper our assets when we see substantial further progress. towards our goals. when that comes, we will communicate well in advance of the time of tapering. that is what we do, we have

learned over the course of some years now that we need to communicate carefully and move slowly well ahead of time. we will let people know what is coming. that is the best we can do in the transition away from highly accommodated monetary policy. that will transition to a different policy. rep. waters: your time has expired. the gentleman from kentucky is recognized for five minutes. >> secretary yellen, you have created a team within treasury to focus on climate change. you're also the chair of the financial stability oversight council, which is charged with identifying financial risks. i understand changes to weather patterns could pose risks to individual credits or insurance policyholders, but linking hypothetical climate scenarios

to the entire financial system does seem to be highly speculative. on the flipside, i worry that injecting financial climate situations into yield division creates a real risk of driving investment and credit allocation away from job producing industries like fossil industry, an industry that provides 80% of total energy consumed in the united states. and remains the most affordable and reliable source of energy to the american economy. are you incorporating this real risk into your assessments around climate? and how do you plan to deal with disruptions in the labor market, significant disruptions. what about increasing energy prices and decreasing reliability for consumers? is that something we will look at in addition to the context of the climates are? -- the climates are -- the

climate czar? sec. yellen: i believe that can play a role in discussions around financial regulators. you have responsibilities for taking a risk of climate change to the financial institutions that you provide. to coordinate a response using the best available tool. i think that would facilitate data and information, including high-quality financial disclosures. needing to understand climate risks. make sure that climate risks are in light of the assessments.

i don't think that is playing a role in financial institutions, but i think it is important -- >> i would just encourage treasury to consider the role that shifts consumption away to renewables despite the demand for fossil that the impact of that could have on the economy as well. and systemic risk. as opposed to just looking at hypothetical climate scenarios. the pandemic has been especially hard for rural families who do not have broadband connections. and, i am glad that the american rescue plan allows for necessary investments in broadband. but, one of the ongoing problems we have is that infrastructure often goes to areas that already have broadband and get to underserved areas like in my

district. it was disappointing that this committee, in the markup of the american rescue plan, ejected by amended to dedicate funds to rural areas. will you commit treasury to using its authority in the american rescue plan first and foremost an underserved rural areas? sec. yellen: we need to distribute the funds to states localities, territories and based on the requirements. using the funds for broadband, for the state and local funding, is certainly a view. but, we are going to get flexibility with these funds to precisely have it consistent

with the requirements. >> thank you, and i look forward to working with you. i think we can work together on that. final question, with the multi trillion dollar deficit spending bill just past, the problem is the additional spending by this administration on top of it. does the treasury or the federal growth intend to lengthen the majority of interest rates rise? sec. yellen: the treasury has been working on this question and has no current plans to do that. rep. waters: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from illinois is recognized for five minutes. >> thank you madam chair. i would like to probe a little bit deeper on digital

currencies, in particular the need for the participants. both of you are on the record of acknowledging an untraceable digital dollar is not a viable option for the country, because of the ability to be abused for ransomware and so on. is that correct? chair powell: i don't think i am on the record for that but i will go on the record now for it. sec. yellen: nor am i on the record, but i would agree that we need to be very careful about the use of the digital currency. an anonymous currency makes it hard to control. >> so, on the other hand, the

chinese approach to digital currencies that give media unconditional access to transactional information will be equally unacceptable to americans. additional dollar will be crucially dependent on having authentic off -- authentication. for participants to authenticate themselves, as a uniquely traceable individual. it must be backed by a trusted court system, the participants under which it might be unmasked. the digital dollar, if it is to be used internationally, and a digital id system that operates internationally among the free countries of the world, i would like to thank you both for begetting engagement with

authorities and other countries. i was wondering where you see this discussion going as far as a secure digital id across boundaries -- across countries? sec. yellen: i will let chair powell start with this because he is more involved than i am. chair powell: i mean, where we are, is we are engaged in a process of looking at all the technical issues and design issues, which interact with each other. that is one of the most basic ones. in reflecting your earlier question, i don't think that a system that relies entirely on completely private governments,

information about who is actually owning them, the digital dollar, would not be viable. and, the lack of privacy in the chinese system where we could do here. at the same time, there is going to be a balance. they have called for using the two-tiered system in some ways. outside of the central bank, transfers can take place there. we are only beginning to think carefully about these things. it is going to be a careful, detailed and lengthy process of consideration. one we are investing quite a bit in now. and i expect will last a long time. >> secretary yellen, did you have any thoughts on this? the issue is very much in, having to do with one of the things the coronavirus laid bare, simply a list of citizens

of the u.s. and our ability to rapidly distribute funds. a high quality and universal digital id in the u.s. would have made that immeasurably easier. so, this has been an ongoing discussion. there are also specific proposals. you have letters urging both of you to look into this in more detail. simply to receive payments. i was wondering how you so part of this -- this part of the conversation going. sec. yellen: we would be able to

have further conversations with you about how something like this can work. rep. waters: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from texas, mr. williams, recognized for five minutes. >> thank you madame chairman, think about them secretary and chairman powell. this administration's tax plan is becoming clearer each day, we have learned so far is that he was not telling the truth when he told voters that anyone earning less than $400,000 would not have anyone -- any raising taxes. that has been reduced to anyone making $200,000 per year. so democrats can fund their progressive priorities. in addition to tax rates going up, corporate tax rates are expected to be raised. we will no longer have one of the most competitive tax rates

in the world. this will prevent employers from hiring more people and reduce capital to struggling businesses to make the necessary changes to accommodate the new normal after covid-19. chairman powell, can you talk about the correlation between investment and productivity gains and how increasing productivity benefits workers in the economy? chair powell: the way living standards rise over time is increasing productivity. without that, incomes cannot rise. that is tied to investment and also 50 technology. >> thank you. at the beginning of 2020, congressman some of the largest changes to moderate -- to money laundering laws a decade. there were some concerns coming from the business community about the impact this will have on small businesses about

additional regulatory costs. i can tell you, that is averted we do not look forward to. as you start putting that guidance and implementing the law, i hope you will be mindful of this and do all that you can to ensure your businesses will not incur new expense. can you give us a status update on implementing the laundry act of 2020? sec. yellen: yes. the implementation of the anti-money laundering act of 2020 is a top priority. our efforts are well underway. and, we need provisions that involve looking at innovation,

regulatory reform and the like. to be interactively engaged in. this is something that is a high priority, and we are making progress on it. >> chairman powell, in the past, we had talked about workforce participation and the need to get people off of the sidelines and contribute to the economy. in your testimony, it is still notably lower than it was before the pandemic. covid-19 recently extended this until december. i have concerns about how this policy will make it more lucrative to live off of these programs then to find a job. given the enhanced unemployment benefits, shouldn't we be

incentivizing people to get back in the workforce? chair powell: the most important thing is to get people vaccinated. so we can feel safe doing the jobs. >> do you have an answer to that, miss yellen? sec. yellen: i agree with that. some people not working are not doing so because of safety considerations because they have children out of school, studies that have been done about whether or not the additional payments discourage work show pretty clearly that they deserve to do that. in addition, they will be expiring in the fall. >> with my remaining time, we talked about increasing taxes

earlier and i would say that for small business owners, it is simple, if you cut taxes, you increase jobs and if you raise taxes, you cut jobs. i hope people understand that raising taxes on any business is not good for our economy. i yield back my time, ma'am chairman. rep. waters: thank you very much. i now call on the job and from california for five minutes. >> thank you, i appreciate very much this hearing. i also congratulate in the strongest wake secretary yellen. it is quite an honor to have a woman running treasury. it is exciting. deficit spending, when we

democrats are in power. they don't seem term member that when they are. especially their 1.9 trillion dollar giveaway to the wealthiest americans. it has been more now because the wealthiest have made so much money during this pandemic. one of the things i have found so interesting about this particular hearing is we have t wo incredibly intelligent people presenting today, one is a democrat and one is a republican. one was appointed by a democrat, one was appointed by republican. and, yet, they seem to be principled, scientific, speaking about the facts and not crazy things. this is the way it used to be. so, i appreciate it very much. and, again, i cannot tell you how much i have enjoyed

listening to these conversations. i'm sure the secretary and the chairman have differences of opinions as they should. but, it would be done on a factual basis. it would be done intelligently and scientifically. in that spirit, i want to ask about climate change. it seems both of you have the notion that climate change could be a big deal, and it is when you study. one of the long-term investments we need to be looking at with respect to climate change in our economy? either one can go first. sec. yellen: i would start off by saying that climate change, the well-being of humanity. it is a global problem that

demands a global solution. while we need to address climate change at home, we also need to work globally to help other countries. particularly poor countries. with the resources to address it as well. it is the priority of the biden administration. we have rejoined the paris agreements. we have a proposal to invest in sustainable infrastructure and creating new green jobs in the process. we have talked earlier in this hearing about evaluating the risks to businesses and to financial institutions, which

financial institutions are doing and i hope to facilitate sharing best practices. we need to focus on information's about the wrist accompanies. and channel their capital in the right directions. chair powell: we supervise banks and some other institutions to ensure their understanding the risks and managing their interest. that is what we do in climate change, emerging risks. we are looking at it carefully,

we are just in the early stages of considering scenarios. it is an emerging idea, it is not something people are conducting now. we're doing that, and many other things, to get a basic understanding of how the financial system could be resilient and very significant. >> yesterday, in the foreign affairs committee, we talked about climate change being a big deal to them. so again, i am very thankful you are working together. and that you are scientific. rep. waters: thank you very much. the gentleman from arkansas is recognized for five minutes. >> thank you, and let me welcome my good friend jay powell back to the committee. and, what a pleasure to say madam secretary, and welcome

janet yellen back to the committee. it is a pleasure to have you both here. secretary yellen, china, russia, iran, syria, venezuela and myanmar are all subject to sanctions. secretary of state blinken said last week china is committing genocide and president biden recently called vladimir putin a tool. now, they're considering sending billions of dollars to these dictatorships. wouldn't you agree that no strings attached liquidity for a genocidal regine like china runs counter to our national interest? sec. yellen: i believe that our interests involve making the

reserves. so, it is a very difficult time. to take deflationary action that would make recovery more difficult. it is especially important to channel resources to the world's poorest countries. >> i agree completely, it has made available concessions to the world bank. and dollars to facilities for some 80 countries. we jointly certify for us that china will not receive billions of dollars in this no strings attached liquidity? sec. yellen: