you may remember her from that eye-opening hearing of the house education and workforce committee, just weeks after 10/7, facing down the presidents of penn, harvard, and m.i.t. [applause] she grilled these leaders. and interrogated them in the public interest. because not one of these individuals was willing to state, unambiguously, that it is wrong to call for the genocide of the jewish people on their campuses. because of the spotlight she helped shine on these institutions, two of those university presidents subsequently resigned. [applause]

you also may remember our next speaker for another hearing, in which she probed the bewildering ambiguity of the president of my alma mater, northwestern university, in the face of indisputable anti-semitism on that campus. she waved a copy of adl's campus anti-semitism report card, asking how an f was acceptable for one of the most prestigious universities in america? [applause] in both cases, congress worked closely with adl, and with her and her team specifically, behind the scenes, sharing information, alerting them to problems, and doing what we could do together to beat back anti-semitism. let me tell you, from personal

experience, she may have been one of the busiest people on capitol hill, but she answers every text. she replies to every email. and she takes every call, and always listens with an open mind. and once confirmed by the u.s. senate, she will take that commitment and tenacity to the united nations, a place with a long history of anti-israel bias and anti-semitism. [applause] this woman, she is fearless. she is ferocious. she is a fighter. and she is a friend to our community. she is exactly what we need to bring some common sense to a u.n. system that seems to specialize in nonsense. ladies and gentlemen, it is my honor to welcome to our state here at never is now, the u.s. representative for new york's

21st congressional district, the former fourth ranking republican in the u.s. house of representative's and our next u.s. ambassador to the united nations, congresswoman elise stefanik. [applause] ♪ rep. stefanik: thank you. thank you so much. first, thank you to adl for your tremendous leadership on combating anti-semitism. and a special thanks to jonathan greenblatt for the invitation to speak today, and or your work with congress on this critical issue. never again is now. that is the reason we are all here today. to ensure that these words are actually acted upon. on october 7, and in the 513

days since, we have seen anti-semitic atrocities that we never thought would happen in our lifetimes, both at home and abroad. the worst massacre of jews since the holocaust, and open celebration of those heinous acts of terrorism in our streets and on our college campuses. enough is enough. from capitals to campuses, we have watched too many with the power to act do nothing. but there is hope. in the famous words of holocaust survivor and jewish advocate simon wiesenthal, who dedicated his life to ensuring the horrors of the holocaust are never forgotten, he said, "for evil to flourish, it only requires good men to do nothing." under president trump, america refuses to do nothing. [applause] i, as a leader in the united

states congress, in the next u.s. ambassador to the united nations, refused to do nothing. -- refuse to do nothing. [applause] you see, for me, israel and the jewish people hold a very special place in my heart, which has fueled my deep dedication and my deep held commitment to ensuring the evils of anti-semitism are extinguished. as a young girl from upstate new york, i grew up with many jewish friends. i joined many families over the years for shabbat dinners. as a harvard student, i went with friends to events at harvard hillel. throughout my life, the importance of the state of israel was clear. a shining beacon of freedom and

civilization in the middle east and intrinsically entwined with the success of america. i've had the privilege to visit israel many times throughout my life, both before and during my time in congress. and each and every time, i have been truly moved by israel and her spirit. today, it is more important than ever that the united states of america shows moral leadership and stands with israel and the jewish people. [applause] under president trump, there will be no daylight when it comes to the united states' support for israel. there is a reason that prime minister netanyahu calls him, quote, "the best friend that israel has ever had." we know here today that the horrors of october 7 changed

everything. it made crystal clear that this fight is not just israel's fight alone but the west's fight, a fight against the evil of hamas, a war between good and people, civilization and barbarity. we will not and must not rest until every single hostages returned home and hamas terrorists are eradicated from the face of the earth. [applause] and we must remind ourselves what happened in our own country after this horrific day. in the aftermath of the bloodies t day for the jewish since the holocaust and the days since, we saw our, quote, "most elite universities" utterly failed there jewish students. the world saw, in what is now the most viewed congressional

testimony in history, with over one billion views, we saw the moral rot of america's higher education. and i want to take you directly into that committee room. after seeing the skyrocketing rise in anti-semitism, including at my own college alma mater, i encouraged the education and workforce committee chairwoman that we needed to hold a hearing with university presidents of m.i.t., penn, and harvard, to hold them accountable. as the first number of my immediate family to have the opportunity to graduate from college, it was a real witch or meet to have the opportunity to attend harvard. it was never perfect, but when i attended, i could have never imagined what the campus would turn into or tolerate nearly 20 years later. so we held a hearing to demand answers and accountability. but instead, we were met with weak and morally bankrupt

university leaders who evaded our questions and refused to answer direct questions with direct answers. and that question -- it was only in the final moments that the clip that went viral happened. the media and the majority of the attendees had largely left the hearing when i decided to ask an incredible he simple question. and it was not a political question. it was a moral one. and it was not one of my prepared questions but one i had written down in pencil probably five minutes before, because i thought it would force them to answer correctly. and that simple moral question was this -- does calling for the genocide of jews violate your university's code of conduct? and one after the other after the other said, quote, it depends on the context. in the world heard --

and the world heard. at that time, i had no idea the earthquake that question would set off in american higher education. it was truly the question and horrific answer heard around the world. the reality is, everyday americans, like my wonderful constituents, they know without hesitation that the answer to that question is an easy one. it is yes, and it certainly does not depend on the context. [applause] in a matter of weeks and months, and additional hearings, university presidents from harvard, penn, columbia, and more were forced to resign. five down and so many to go. [applause] now here we are today. just look at the actions of barnard college's so-called

leadership last week. on the same day that the world was mourning the murders of babies by hamas terrorists, pro-hamas terrorist sympathizers took over barnard college's campus building, spewing anti-semitic and anti-israel hate, assaulting a staff member and sending them to the hospital. meanwhile, barnard's so-called leadership held off on calling on the law enforcement stationed outside, instead offering up a meeting with the college president to negotiate. this is not leadership. as jewish students -- [applause] as jewish students at barnard and colleges and universities around the nation fear for their lives and safety, college leaders continue to pander to the pro-hamas demands. to the jewish students listening in here today, do not relent or give in.

america and the force of a trump administration are behind you, and we will not stop fighting. [applause] president trump has made clear the importance of this issue. in his first month in office, he signed a historic executive order to combat anti-semitism on our campuses and streets, using every tool the government has. any foreign student participating in these anti-semitic acts must a stripped of their visas and immediately deported. [applause] [cheers] president trump's administration has also already initiated civil rights investigations of these hotbeds of campus anti-semitism, including at columbia and northwestern. [applause] and i know the incoming secretary of education, linda

mcmahon, attorney general pam bondi, and their teams will hold these universities accountable for their failures. and the adl's work, helping expose the rot on higher ed campuses has been invaluable to these efforts. [applause] and i am honored to join president trump in this fight, earning his nomination to serve in his cabinets as the next u.s. ambassador to the united nations. [applause] we know the united nations is indeed a deep den of anti-semitism, infected with the same rampant anti-israel and anti-american hate and moral rot that has polluted america's higher education system, especially since the barbaric hamas attacks of october 7, the

u.n. has continuously betrayed israel, betraying american the process, acting instead as an apologist for iran and iran's terrorist proxies. under president trump, as ambassador to the days of popping up organizations that run counter to our interests are long gone. we will no longer fund terrorism, anti-semitism, and anti-israel hate. that stops immediately. [applause] and i am so proud that president trump has the strongest record of any american president when it comes to standing with israel , from moving the u.s. embassy to its right will place, israel 's capital of jerusalem, to negotiating the historic abraham accords, the greatest stride towards peace normalization in more than a quarter-century. to aligning u.s. central command with israel, a change that fostered daily communications

with the idf, joint exercises, and crucial coordination with british and arab partners that helped defend against the unprecedented iranian attacks against israel last year. [applause] and i believe, and i believe it is quite obvious to the world, if president trump had remained in office, october 7 would never have happened. [boos] he has brought his pro israel to the white house. and in just a month, the world has watched as president trump reasserts america first, peace through strength foreign policy. only 12 hours after his reelection, hamas terrorists called for an immediate end to the war, direct result of president trump's restoration of america strength to the world stage. innocent hostages taken by hamas terrorists have been returned home. as president trump promised, all

hell if they were not brought back. we will continue to work until every hostage comes back home and is returned home. [applause] importantly, we restored maximum pressure on iran and imposed sanctions on the illegitimate international criminal court, which is targeting israel with anti-semitic attacks. and at the united nations, we took the decisive action to defund unra, the per hamas terrorist front group who committed atrocities on october 7. and i can promise you this, as the united states ambassador to the united nations, we are not only going to defund unra, we must totally dismantle it. [applause] and as we approach the 50th anniversary of ambassador

moynahan's historic opposition to the united nations' disgraceful zionism is racism resolution, the time has come to bring about change. we must redirect the course of history away from the anti-semitism and the anti-israel bias that ambassador moynahan described as, quote, "a great evil that has been loosed upon the world." everyday americans understand the need to support israel's fight about the same per hamas sympathizers, who chant "death to israel" also chant "de

god bless you. thank you to the abl. god bless israel and d bless the united states of america. thank you very much. >> on tuesy,he senate foreign relations committee considers christopher land to be hap sretary of state, michael regan is to be deputy seety of state for management of resources, and matthew whitaker to be u.s. ambaad to nato. watch the confirmation hearg live at 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span3, c-span now, or online at c-span.org. >> tuesday night, watch c-span's coverage of president trump's address the congress, the first of his second term and less than two months since taking office. live coverage begins at 8:00 p.m. eastern with a preview of the evening from capitol hill, followed by the president's speech at 9:00 p.m. eastern,

then watch the democratic response after the speech. we will take your calls and get reaction on social media. on c-span2, watch a simulcast of the evening's coverage and reaction from lawmakers. watch president trump's address to congress live tuesday beginning at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span, simulcast live on c-span2, or on c-span now, our free mobile video app. also online at c-span.org. c-span. bringing you your democracy unfiltered. >> president's nominees to be the consumer financial protection bureau and federal housing finance agency, council of economic advisers and the bureau of industry and security testified at the confirmation hearing, responding to questions about housing affordability and supply, semiconductor technology, and the impact of tariffs. the trump administration is downsizing many federal agencies, including the consumer financial protection bureau. the senate banking committee

hearing is about two hours, 10 minutes. if confirmed, you will help our nation get back on the path to prosperity. as we reflect on the past four years, we must acknowledge the severe damage created by the biden administration's reckless spending. it is hard for me to forget as a kid with my brother growing up in poverty in a single-parent household watching my mother trying to make every dollar count. she did the best she could with what she had.

inflation is especially cruel to communities like that when i grew up in. no one should have to make a choice between putting food on the table and keeping the lights on. during joe biden's time in office, prices rose by over 20%. energy by 34%, transportation, 31%. groceries, 22%. i refuse to accept the last four years will be the next four years. unlike his predecessor, president trump understands what it takes to create a blue-collar comeback and i'm excited about that. each nominee will play a critical role in rebuilding the economy, restoring confidence in our financial system, and ensuring american families can thrive once again. the council of economic advisers serves as the white house chief advisers and a think tank

providing the president with the data-driven guidance on policy decisions. dr. stephen myron is an accomplished economist with a strong record of advocating for fiscal responsibility and progrowth policies. he will play an instrument of role in helping president trump rebuild america's economy. mr. kessler. the department of congress -- commerce's mission is to greet opportunity for all communities. unfortunately, under president biden we saw china rapidly advance in developing advanced technologies that support military capabilities, distort global markets, and a road competitiveness of u.s. companies --erode competitiveness of u.s. companies. -- ensuring the u.s. leads in the next generation technologies. let's talk about housing.

under president biden the dream of homeownership became unaffordable for millions and millions of americans. fhfa plays a crucial role overseeing fannie mae, freddie mac, and the federal homeland bank, entities that significantly influence the was housing finance market. these institutions not only impact mortgage rates and housing affordability, but also provide central liquidity -- essential liquidity ensuring a stable supply of funds for home loans. william pulled the is a businessman with a deep understanding of the housing market. his insight and passion for people serve him well in leading the fhfa's efforts to address the broken housing system. finally, the the cfpb was

allegedly created to protect american consumers but under biden it overstepped his authority, burden businesses with excessive politically driven regulation, and drove up costs for consumers. the cfpb has become a tool for progressive overreach making it harder for banks and lenders to serve their communities. jonathan mcnerney has the expertise needed to rein in the cfpb's excesses and make sure the agency works for consumers, not against them. today's hearing is not just about these four nominees, it's about the future of our economy and the direction of our country. we have an opportunity to undo the failures of the past four years and usher in a golden era of american prosperity. that begins by confirming these well qualified individuals who will stand up for the american families, american workers, and

for small businesses. thank you. ranking member warren. sen. warren: thank sen. warren: thank you, mr. chairman. thank you for scheduling today's hearing to hear from these important nominees. i wish that you had structured these hearings to give us more time to ask questions. with only one round of questions, you've given us an average of 75 seconds per nominee, for positions that have critical responsibilities over housing, consumer protection, and our economic and national security. so we're just going to have to focus on the overview. donald trump promised on day one, those are his words, promised on day one, repeated over and over when he was running for president that he would lower costs on day one. now that he's been sworn in, grocery prices are up, inflation has gone up, and people are worried that elon musk and his doge hackers are messing with their medicare benefits and

social security checks. one month in, and donald trump has done nothing, nothing to actually help families. but billionaires, they're doing great. we need people in this administration who are willing to focus on lowering costs for american families. now, this committee has jurisdiction over the enforcement of consumer financial laws and the consumer financial protection bureau. we should be having an entire hearing focused on how president trump and elon musk are trying to sideline the cfpb to make it easier to scam and cheat people out of their hard-earned money. senate democrats held a forum about this just two days ago, and the devastating effect that this con will have on families. on february 7, mr. musk woke up and tweeted cfpb, r. p.

and soon after that, president trump, doge, and acting cfpb director russ vought shut down the whole operation, sending employees home, stopping enforcement activities, and preventing the agency from doing its job to help consumers. over the weekend, news broke that cfpb had been told to abandon its headquarters. the president's actions are illegal, and they will do extraordinary damage to hard-working americans. since its founding, the cfpb has returned over $21 billion directly to consumers. it's helped service members who have been ripped off by unscrupulous lenders. it's helped borrowers whose student loans services treated them unfairly. it's helped families that have been scammed. and it's helped thousands of americans that have been charged extortion fees by big banks and other financial service providers.

nobody is helped by shutting down the agency, except big banks, con men, and rip-off artists. oh, and billionaires like mr. musk, who is trying to start a new x money feature on his social media platform. by eliminating the cfpb, he would take the financial cop off the beat. congress created the cfpb, and no one, not donald trump, not co-president musk and donald trump, no one except congress can shut it down. but instead of having a hearing on this subject, we have the cfpb director nominee, mr. mckernan, he will be squeezed in among four nominees, and we will have 75 seconds to ask him what he thinks his job will be if he is confirmed as cfpb director, while trump and musk try to kill the agency.

we will also hear from mr. pulte, the nominee for director of the federal housing finance agency, or faha. i've got some real concerns that president trump's plans for our housing finance system will raise housing costs for american families and that mr. pulte, if confirmed, will be the one to carry out the plans. it oversees fannie mae and freddie mac, which helps make sure families can afford mortgages. fhfa have helped run these companies, but now a group of trump's billionaire friends are pushing to privatize fannie and freddie so they can make bill i don't understand of dollars for themselves -- make billions of dollars for themselves, and in the process, jack up costs for people trying to buy a home. this could end up as another trump administration giveaway for his cronies, great billionaires, terrible for hard-working people. we also have mr. kessler, who's been nominated to a key national

security position, responsible for administering and enforcing export controls that are critical for advancing our economic and national security. and we have mr. moran, nominated to serve as the president's chief economic advisor, responsible for formulating objective analysis on tax policies, tariffs and more. now, i can stretch my five minutes in only so many directions, so i'll be submitting many questions for the record, as i'm sure many of my colleagues will be doing, both democrats and republicans. and i trust we will not bring anyone to the committee for a vote until those questions have been absenced in full. -- have been answered in fumble i look forward to hearing from all of you today and appreciate you having this hearing. chair scott: thank you, ma'am. i will now swear in the nominees. will you all please stand and raise your right hand.

do you swear is or affirm that the testimony that you are about to give is the truth, the home truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you god? do you agree to appear and testify before any committee of the united states senate? you may sit down. thank you. your written statements will be made part of the record in its entirety. please keep your oral comments to five minutes. dr. myron, you are now recognized. dr. myron: thank you for the very kind introduction. ranking member warren, distinguished members of the committee, it is an honor i never expected to be here today as president trump's nominee to lead his council of economic advisors. if i earn your support, i will give my utmost to the american people, just as you do. i would like to thank president trump for putting his trust in

me and my partner, our son, my parents, and the rest of our families for their love and support. i grew up in rockland county, a suburb of new york city, mostly inhabited by working class people who labored tirelessly to make ends meet on behalf of their families. rockland is filled with tradesmen and women, honest people, whose work ethic and political priorities i absorbed in my youth. when i think of the hard working americans who make this country the greatest nation on earth, i think of those folks, my friends and neighbors n. my family, the call to national service is deep and strong. my grandfather served in the african theater of the second world war, and then worked for four decades as a postman. my parents were both civil servants, who met each other as employees in the social security administration. closer to my age, i have three cousins serving in the army and navy. i know it is a privilege and an honor to work on behalf of the american people. i began my studies of economics at boston university and then continued them across the river at harvard. i completed my doctorate under the supervision of marty feldstein, who was himself

serving under round reagan. he invented the field of public economics. every time i went to him with a research idea, he would say now pretend i'm a senator and explain it to me again and tell me why i should care. that disciplinedded me into thinking ideas should only matter to economists if they matter to you. which is another way of saying ideas should only matter if they matter to your constituents. it was, frankly, one of the most useful things ever said to me. although marty passed a few years ago, i hope i don't disappoint him or your constituents now. after graduate school, i entered the investment profession, in which i spent my career, other than my time in public service. my first real job was with a team of currency investors in new york. nothing will disabuse you of 30% of a ph.d. faster than having your nose bloodied in currency markets, which swung around wildly for reasons a trained economist would laugh at. working in markets gave me a suspects of reality that too many academics lack. people joke that academia perceives one funeral at a time because there's little to discourage them from holding on

to bad ideas. in markets, if you persist in remaining wrong, you can blow up your career, your portfolio, your firm. that discipline has helped me shed bad ideas more quickly than i otherwise other than. in 2010, i saw how china's currency manipulation wreaked havoc across the industrial base and stole jobs. appreciating the negative effects on the economy required rejecting a number of the common models of international trade, but academics would take years to accept the china shock. at that time, some former classmates despised my concerns as silly, but from its peak almost a half century ago, the united states has lost over a third of its manufacturing workforce and too many communities reliant upon those jobs were ravaged. the human suffering involved in such losses is enormous. the experience of an economics profession determined to ignore china's predatory behavior shaped my political outlook. economists too often disregard national security without pausing to consider that our ability to import would become limited should a war or something like an academy would

break out. reality demands that we prepare to defend ourselves should the need arrive, and we need manufacturing capacity to do so. my view is that reindustrializing america is imperative not only for economic reasons, but for national security. economists must accept that we are a nation with an economy, not merely an economy with a nation. to reindustrialize, policy must focus on making the united states the best place on earth to do business. anyone considering creating jobs, opening a factory, or innovating should think that america is the obvious place to do it. how can we accomplish that? my view is there are five critical steps. first, slash regulations that make it difficult, expensive, and slow to build and hire. if it takes many years and great cost to attain the permits necessary to open a factory, firms will look abroad. further, every regulation is a compliance burden that inflights the cost of doing business. if only big businesses can afford compliance costs, we'll be left with only big businesses, which entails less competition and dynamism and higher prices.

second, we need to continue reforming and cutting taxes that workers and proprietors keep more of the money they earn. third, use tariffs directed by distortions in terms of trade that stem from other countries' tariffs and barriers to trade, as well as from our production of reserve assets. our national security and economic dynamism depend on being treated fairly by other countries who have access to our markets and ensuring that our supply chains are resilient. fourth, we need to invest in skilling up the workforce for modern manufacturing. finally, we need to engage in defense-be driven federal policy to activity used for modern national security. such policies gave us many of the critical technologies of the 20th century, the internet, radar, sonar, gps, and created downless jobs. the president has promised to usher america into a new golden age, and he has the right policy ideas and the mandate from the american people to do it. if confirmed, it will be my job to help him. every policy i've proposed will have this agenda in mind. to make progress, we'll need advice from all of to you make

sure we are as responsive as we can be to voters' concerns. i welcome your input not just today, but if confirmed, for as long as i may hold this position. thank you, and i look forward to your questions. chair scott: mr. kessler, please proceed. mr. kessler: thank you, chairman scott, ranking member warren, members of the committee. i'm honored to appear before you today as president trump's nominee to serve as the undersecretary of commerce for industry and security. i'm deeply grateful to president trump for nominating me to this important position, and i'd like to thank both the president and secretary of commerce howard lutnick for their support and confidence. i'd like to take a moment to acknowledge my family members who are here with me today. my wife bethany, my two daughters, diana and lucy, and my parents, linda and craig. i had the privilege of serving in president trump's first administration as the assistant secretary of commerce for enforcement and compliance.

after being confirmed unanimously by the senate. during my time as assistant secretary, i was at the center of the trump administration's aggressive actions to make trade fair and reciprocal. i worked to enforce the trade laws, monitor foreign compliance with trade agreements, and renegotiate international trade pacts that had grown outdated. i was proud to help level the playing field for american businesses, workers, farmers, and ranchers who were injured by unfair trade. after my government service, i returned to private practice as an international trade lawyer. in that role, i've advised clients on today's dynamic geopolitical environment and the changing landscape of international trade and investment rules, including strategic advice on reducing exposure to china and diversifying and strengthening supply chains. the united states relationship with china and other adversaries is more complex today than ever.

america's position as the world's economic and technological superpower is under constant and ever increasing threat. china's catching up in many cutting-edge areas of technology, including artificial intelligence, quantum computing, hyper sonics, aerospace, advanced manufacturing, and others. the united states must respond and must respond with vision and strength, and i hope to be a part of that response. the department of commerce's bureau of industry and security or bis is critical for keeping america safe, secure, and prosperous and ensuring that we meet the challenges of the 21st century. congress has recognized this and has given the isp powerful legal authorities. the 2018 bipartisan export control reform act gave bis a broad mandate to protect critical technologies and prevent their export and diversion to america's competitors and adversaries.

bis has been working to fulfill this mandate, but it must do much more. bis must adapt and keep pace with our adversaries who are ever more sophisticated. if confirmed, i will seek to fully utilize the tools that congress has given bis, including both in administering and enforcing export controls. we need strong enforcement to deter noncompliance and to ensure that the rules accomplish their intended purpose. and at the same time, it is important for bis to pursue a balanced approach and avoid unduly burdening or penalizing american companies and workers with overly complex rules. i am also mindful that diplomacy and international cooperation are an important element of effective export controls. it's critical to engage with america's partners and allies around the world to defend and promote america's technological leadership.

beyond export controls, bis is also charged with administering other national security laws, including the information and communications technology services rule and associated regulations, section 232 of the trade expansion act of 1962, and parts of the defense production act. if confirmed, i will seek to use the full array of legal authorities available to bis to help keep america strong, secure, and prosperous. finally, if confirmed, i hope to work closely with all of you the members of the committee, and with congress as a whole toen sure that the bis is as effective and successful as possible. thank you. thank you very much for considering my nomination, and i look forward to answering your questions. chair scott: thank you. mr. pulte, please proceed. mr. pulte: thank you. thank you for the honor of being here before you today as

president trump's nominee for director of the federal housing finance agency. i am grateful for this opportunity to share my vision for the future of our country's housing finance system. first i want to thank those of you who have met with me. housing and safety and soundness of the housing market is a bipartisan issue, and i firmly believe that we must work together to address the severe housing challenges that our country faces. i'm grateful for my incredible wife, diana pulte, for her support, and to our three wonderful children. i would like to acknowledge my parents, mark and noreen, and my stepmother, julie. i especially want to thank president trump for entrusting me with this nomination and for president trump's commitment to restoring the american dream of homeownership. my connection to housing began at a young age. while many children spent their weekend at sporting events, i spent my weekend on home building job sites with my father and my grandfather. from the ground up, i learned

every aspect of housing, whether it was cleaning job sites, assisting in construction, or helping sell homes. from an early age i developed a deep passion for homeownership and putting a roof over people's heads. this passion remains my driving force today, and it would guide my work if confirmed as fhfa director. after working for others, i founded my own firm to invest in and manage small businesses. over years i've led multiple conditions and managed thousands of people. these leadership experiences taught me that strong, effective leadership is essential for success and that is a lesson that i intend to carry forward at fhfa if confirmed. subsequently, i joined my grandfather's company, pulte homes, during a difficult period when poor management was threatening its future. i stepped in and worked with dedicated partners to revitalize the company. today pulte homes is more than three times the size from when i stepped in, and our efforts have ensured that the company continues to provide housing for hundreds of thousands of

americans. i have seen firsthand the devastating consequences of bad policy on housing and the economy. in 2008, the housing crash nearly destroyed our family's housing, our legacy family, our family's legacy housing company. in 2020, as director of pulte homes, i witnessed how covid-19 placed an enormous stress on the housing finance system. if confirmed, my number one mission will be to strengthen and safeguard the housing finance system. safe and sound housing markets are the foundation of american homeownership. additionally, we must ensure that the limited home inventory in this country goes to americans. under president trump's leadership in his first term, americans were able to realize the american dream of homeownership through fannie mae and freddie mac. and to that end, while their conservatorship should not be indefinite, any exit from conservatorship must be carefully planned to ensure the

safety and soundness of the housing market without upward pressure on mortgage rates. in a nation where i have been given so much, i am committed to giving back. over the years i've contradicted millions of dollars to families facing foreclosure and other critical needs, including but not limited to keeping people's utilities on, and helping pay people's monthly mortgage payments to prevent foreclosure. during covid, i launched bailout humans, part of twitter philanthropy, to deliver real relief to families at risk of losing their home. i also started the nonprofit with democrats and republicans to remove dangerous buildings in underserved communities. our efforts to remove blight lowered crime, arson, and drug activity. i believe all families should have the opportunity to raise their children in safe neighborhoods and safe homes. president trump is a builder. and under president trump's leadership we will usher in the golden age of homeownership. it is time to begin building again in america.

we stand at a pivotal moment in history, and i promise to approach this role with humility, dedication, and a commitment to president trump's vision for this nation, ensuring that the dream of own ownership becomes a reality for as many americans as possible. thank you for your consideration, and i look forward to your questions. chair scott: thank you, sir. mr. mckernan. mr. mckernan: thank you, mr. chairman, ranking members, and members of the committee to appear before you today t. is a profound honor to be nominated by president trump for this position, and i welcome this opportunity to advance the president's pro-growth agenda and his work to enhance excellence and accountability in government. my wife is here with me today. seven years ago we met here on the hill when we were both starting out as congressional staffers. today we have two little ones, two little boys, and a third on the way. together she and i hope to instill in our children a shared love of this great country. i'm also support today by my

parents, patrick and victoria. they're here from east tennessee, and my mother-in-law, my brother and his wife. i am forever grateful for their love and support. over the last two years, i have served as a member of the fdic's board of directors. during that eventful time, the fdic navigated the second, third, and fourth largest bank failures in its history and the ensuing market stress, and an outside investigation led by the acting comptroller, the launch of an effort to transform the fdic's work place and several significant, sometimes contentious, rule makings. i'm proud of my work at the fdic to establish a culture of actual accountability. before the fdic, i held staff roles in the senate, department of the treasury, fhfa, and even a short detail to the cfpb, all focused on the mortgage market, one of the key markets supervised by the cfpb. through that work i developed a

detailed understanding of how the mortgage market, and so the consumer protection laws that apply to it. before public service, i spent more than nine years as a private lawyer, or a lawyer in private practice focused on banking and consumer financial laws. that work included overseeing large teams investigating compliance issues, complex consumer companies. my legal career started just as the 2008 financial crisis was beginning. watching that crisis unfold left me with an enduring conviction that we must have a financia announcer: you can watch this program in its entirety if you go to our upset. we going to taking a live now to a south texas weigler spacex is planning to launch the eighth test flight of its target -- starship market. >> and we added some additional holes. that helps to keep the added pressure as humanly possible. >> for the next generation of ship, we are running the

algorithm. we're going to try and do the next best possible thing and delete some of the unnecessary space. so that ship will be using after three engines which will let us reduce the added volume and limit the joints. what you are seeing take place with these changes is the core of our test program. weeks -- we fly hardware in a real-world environment. we learn from the data. we make upgrades and then we fly again. ultimately we fly to learn and we're learning a lot. >> for today's flight test, we are going to be attempting to do everything we did not get to do on flight seven. we're still looking we're still looking to get her first reentry with this updated version. also intentionally trying to express it to gather real-world data and wear the does work with the vehicle's batteries are. don't be surprised if it is not a smooth landing. it is going to start with lift off. the 33 after engines on a super heavy igniting. lifting both it and starship

into its ascent and is going to power is all the way into hot staging. >> yeah, those engines on that ship will ignite while the ship is still attached to the booster. this will create that stage of separation that we see there. second stage will continue to go on its way. the booster will make a flip and come back here to the watchtower just behind dan and i for hopefully what we will see the third of abuse to catch. >> meanwhile, the ship continues its ascent and gets into its supportable place in space. we are also going to do a relight. before we get to ship. >> troubleshoot. >> and the ship will continue through and make its entry phase. that lasts for a few minutes. >> and we heard that an operator

-- so they are troubleshooting one issue as we continue to move through. we'll get some more details on what caused the old and if we started to we sent to a new teaser or we are still loading on the vehicle. so essentially putting that hold in means that if we get through everything and we hit that three minus 42nd mark, we will hold there and we need to clear the issue if we have not cleared it at some points the next 20 minutes. >> , for those who are unfamiliar, that period is an opportunity to troubleshoot a like a contaminants. we do have little bit of leeway. continuing on with today's plan, that ship will be making a soft splashdown in the indian ocean as we have seen before. we are launching at 5:45 p.m. today. this evening at lunch will allow us to have the confuse of the ship as it makes its splashdown. so good news. >> it is a lot on the ship office today. we are hyper focused on putting all those real-world limits of

the starship. we want to be able to prepare to return ship to launch site and catch it. a lot of these recent upgrades are just made to enable that to actually happen. expected seven permit a huge block of upgrades to the upper stage to add more capability to starship. at with flight and today, we are hoping to get through. if you -- a full flight, starting us off the forward flaps got a redesign. they shrink in size and shifted toward the top of the vehicle and away from the heat shield. and that will significantly reduce their exposure to reentry heating. also, by making starship 2 meters taller, we ended up at 25% more propeller volume. along with pop culture upgrades such as vacuum and check think other than that feed lines, new fuel feline system for it after packing engines propulsion module. >> yeah, that ship got bit color. i'm sure that will allow us to

fly those younger nations. we are not planning on stretching it a whole lot more beyond this for future ones. but then once we are flying the next version a lot, it will go. just like that previous flight, a lot of house have been purposely removed as, again, we are trying to stress test all of the multiple areas in the missing talent to. those towels are omitted in strategic locations including critical areas like those things and over the flap seals as we use the flight to just really push those boundaries. in addition to that, we have some metallic toss again that are being tested including one on the right in this animation that has some active cooling, built in. >> the vehicles avionics also underwent a complete redesign with things like fully cooperated starling terminals combining starling, global navigation and rf communications. you can see that location there on your screen. and on the sides of the vehicle, a nonstructural versions of the ship's catch fittings are installed to test the thermal performance along with a smooth

and to put an edge on one section of the talent plan to address hotspots that we observed string cite six. >> and once more, we're back at testing some radar sensors on this fair catch arms. we did the last flight. which we are doing it again as we look for some additional ways to measure the distance between the arms of the vehicle, catching the ship is going to be pretty different from catching the booster. it does that is a live right before. so your antennas are rapidly reorient. and so having extra sensors, you are adding extra layers of control while the ship and tara talk to each other for a catch's neck and into the first starship .4 starling exterminators. they are similar in size to our next generation starling the satellites. with unparalleled payload capacity and full reusability starship will be able to deploy more advanced the 3,000 so let's which will revolutionize global connectivity with starling all over again. >> each one of those starling v3 launches on the starship is

going to at about 60 terabits of capacity to the solid network to give you some context. that is about 20 times the capacity of what we are adding with every launch in a file file cannot right now. that is going to help us expand starling's network, expand its impact as we expand that access around the world. and eventually beyond. and starbucks him laters, they are going to be on the same trajectory. we expect them to the rise as they and then the atmosphere in the starship's trajectory itself looks very similar to our last several flights. in the indian ocean. on top of all of that, we're going to reload a single after engine. we're trying to get get they do a on in space parker-briones. you're going to need this for the orbit prints when you're doing orbital orbital missions and eventually when we are doing missions, we are on our way to more specs like you said earlier, dan, it does starship's

play. but one of the hallmarks of the starship flights are the incredible views that we get throughout the flight courtesy of starling. every day. every day we are working to expand the starling network both on earth and in space. for how all this connectedness to. mission, let's head back to chris. >> thanks, kate and it enables us to bring a lot of those unprecedented views from space and on earth. i. i love all -- those views wrapping around starship drink reentry. sent thank you to eric starling teams to enable the amazing views in the information we get. in addition to the dozens of cameras on starship itself as you see on your screen here, we also have mobile starling, camera kits deployed in the middle of the indian ocean. as you are seeing from a previous flight. starling also allows us to connect our aerial cinematography units on the ground at starbase and another strategic camera spots. that is all part of how it comes to get to help us to the incredible story of starship posts on and off the planet. so thanks to starling, starship

is now capable of streaming more than 120 megabits per second of with him high definition video and telemetry through every phase of flight. not only provides those incredible views of reentry for all of us but also the infallible engineering data to help our engineers rapidly integrate across all systems of starship and that stream data will be put to good use with more than 30 cameras that are on the vehicle for today's flight. starling is at the world's largest satellite constellation operating in lower orbit to deliver high-speed broadband internet. this provides tonight access to people around the world, many of whom have never had connectivity before. starling is serving more than 125 countries, territories, and other markets and has more than 5 million active customers and counting. to meet the growing global demand, spacex recently expanded its factory at bastrop texas and introduce starling mini as well as an upgrade --

updated version. here's a are first never look inside our brand-new facility. >> here's an interesting stat where the odds of being struck by lightning our apartment and in 15,000. and we make 15,000 dishes a day. if the odds are the same parts of being struck, it is almost guaranteed to happen one time. to have a very intense focus on quality. >> we are in texas at the starling manufacturing site just about 20 miles east of downtown austin. the main function is to produce our standard kits, we are producing 15,080. straight out of the factory. they come in. raw aluminum comes in and we can make those into the starling tickets and then ship them right out to customers parker harms. alexandra: when you manufacture it in house, but that means is

you are very motivated to quickly innovate and iterate so that you can rapidly go through the process. our previous generation of the production plant was maxed out in terms of capability. and the demand for starling has kept growing. so when we sat down to design this factory and dispersion, we were really forcing ourselves to innovate. ♪ the future of this factory is growth. we are in the middle of constructing an extension to a current that we think a current effak we are going to add over a million square feet over the course of this year. and allow us to continue to insourced more of our manufacturing processes. so he could to lead to go from our materials to those within the walls of this factory. i can't understate the hard work of all the employees at this factory will help make this a reality. less than two years ago, this is

an epting building and over the last 20 months, we put a factory from scratch. we got from producing their kits to over 7,000 a week and we have gone from their employees to over a thousand. john: and it is incredible to see all of the text that will -- chris: and it is incredible to see all of the tech that will help millions of people. a lot of good things to come from our facility. and what we are to put the infrastructure that enables us to do all these amazing things, you probably have seen some changes recently around starbase. coming online this year, is the second cover at starbase. in this tablet has redesign stop -- chopsticks and is meant to accommodate the next generation. it will have a redesigned launch met and diverted system to be rapidly reasonable to understand hundreds of lunches at a time. over at the production site down the road, we are building a new integration and refurbishment

facility called getting up a and it will allow us to process more starships at the same time over our current mega base. but to pay is not just for texas. if that were not exciting enough, we are also further expanding starship operations into florida bring production and launch capabilities to space coast. as a starship flight testing department at large cadence continues to pick up pace at starbase in texas gets over in florida, we are building a getting up a as well. cagr. will extend 380 feet tall and will provide about 46.5 million cubic feet of processing space and about 815,000 square feet of workspace. as environmental impact statement continued for potential starship launches and fights from both launch complex 39 at kennedy space center and launch complex 37 at cape canaveral space force station, we plan to complete the starship ranch but at pad 39 this year. and pending the completion of an

event must do we do spacex intends to conduct the first starship paunch from florida from launch pad 39 and a later this year. we are also interested in enabling starship launches from slick 37. and as part of this process, spacex has been given a limited right of entry for at 37 to conduct further due diligence at the site in order to move forward with the environmental impacts study that is being led by the department of the air force. ultimately, we will have production integration refurbishment and launch facilities in both florida and texas driving the needed flight to help make humanity a multi-planetary civilization and i could talk about this stuff for literally hours on end but we've got a starship to watch so how are things looking 11 minutes before lunch here? kate: it is cool that we are getting close to go time. quick update on a range and weather for the range, the area around the pad has been well cleared. this includes the night air and sea space.

so all is clear on the range friend. that also applies to over in the indian ocean, it has been cleared as well. for ships reentry. we are making a/-- soft splashdown. just the bluey cams are out there. whether we have a 35% chance of violating the weather much -- excuse me, the weather constraints, so it is not perfect but it is not bad. visibility also not so awesome. we can see the terror here and we are 2 miles away from the onset. but visibility around the equator it might be a little challenging. kate: 10-4 you can see we are almost unloading the ship and on tuesday. if you tuned in and heard earlier, we did hear talk about a flight controller. does not matter all that means if we will not be able to pass to -- d- 42nd mark. they think they've got the problem and figure out. it was an issue on the booster.

we think we will be cleared by about 30 miles in two minutes mark. and we will be able to go right through that d- 40. hopefully. so problems continuing, we are not holding anything yet. and we are expected to issue to clear before we get is that c- 40 mark. this morning, though, we did all of the usual checkouts along the navigation systems. did all of our booster and ship tank pages and got them ready and chilled out in the past which you can see. all of the cry over. kate: it is chilling. dan: it is pretty chilly out there. oh, we just hit a flat checked out. we also do a big check out on the chopsticks arms as well. we are going to continue loading proper for about another six minutes. we are going to close ship at about four minutes and 20 seconds before lunch, stripped just at about 30 seconds later. so we have had at least one issue that we are still living -- working on the back wall.

we are waiting for that to clear. and we are looking good. kate: bottom line, things are looking good for the ghost left off here. it looks like eight minutes and 49 seconds. so everything is looking green so far. try to get, before we get any closer to the floor, i need to shamelessly plug starbase. on one of the people who work here soon to be the newest city in texas. starbase. we are one of the largest employers in the area. we are always hiring. visit spacex.com/careers. it is a future we can all be excited about. come work here. back to our regularly scheduled program. kate: we are coming up to eight minutes until left off. as we mentioned before, flight controllers are already on council. they are located in error and, astral launch control center, about 6 miles away from the pad. table soon be moving here with us to start factory.

so a lot of excitement about that. certainly grown. dan: and general ask that's check are under eight minutes away. we are tracking an issue with booster and expecting that to clear. still looking good for a large. speaking of booster, let's talk about -- kate: absolutely. dan: robotic arms. super heavy ahead of five. we also use those to catch. it means we don't have any landing lights in the booster. we can throw more payload into space. kate: and after tuesday, super heavy, it will return to the onset the same exact launch site that it lifted off from to slow the vehicle down. we see playback from a previous which a catch i believe that was our first booster catch and we vehicle slow down. it will catch the booster. dan: and just like the last few times literally thousands of different vehicle, they have to be met before we bring a booster back and try to catch it.

we need healthy systems on the watchtower and we need that final manual command from the mission's mission's flight director for the day. if that man is not said before we finish the blues back. or if any of those automated health checks kick us out of the booster takes it to a landing burner in a soft splashdown. kate: we have set a multiple times before. it still holds true today. we accept no compromises when it comes to ensuring the safety of the public and our team and the upward trend will only take place if the conditions are right. and there are many of them. so there's a chance that we may not get to catch their interest fail. dan: and one aspect is the audible sonic boom in the area around the return of a location that happens is the booster is slowing down from supersonic speeds. it is similar to sonic booms that were heard, and the return and letting up nasa space shuttle for anyone that was in florida for those. kate: sonic booms like these are unique to vehicles returning

from space at one of the hallmarks of the systems like @foxnewsnight and falcon heavy vehicles. the general impact to those in this writing area of a sonic boom is the -- basically a brief to like noise. i have heard sonic booms before. i got to the expense of my first starship sonic boom on flight seventh and i can confirm it is pretty fun to experience. [crackling noise] dan: as someone who has heard sonic booms, they are a hallmark

and what a way to announce the returning space vehicles return for reuse. here in california as you can imagine, the excitement is growing here the crowd is growing. kate mentioned our flight controllers in ad astra in texas, in hawthorne, we have controllers on council in mission control and helping those themes in texas monitor starship's various systems including the avionics and those three months after engines that were built right here in the hawthorne. with four minutes and 30 seconds to go, dan and kate, how are we looking for a lunch today? dan: we are still looking good. we are just about fully topped out on propellant. on both vehicles, the closer is going to be coming out in about a minute on ship and in about 30 seconds later on the booster. we are still here at chatter in the background about the booster issue that we are tracking. we may still be able to track -- pass the whole.

but we have several minutes that we can hang out there and work to just kind of trouble shoot those final issues before we get the go. once we are fully loaded on prop, which is coming up soon, we have, just shy of 11 million pounds of liquid oxygen, liquid methane on both of those cheeses. and then once we are done, we are going to hear the grout lines do what is called pushback. so all of that propeller gets pushed out of the slides back to the tanks are clearing path for launch. kate: in the next few minutes, the patent system will perform a final allotment, the automated flight safety system will be armed and thrust vector control or tbc checkouts will be performed as we said if we do need to hold, it would come at that c- 42nd mark. that is the apartment and the countdown where we can pause to wait for final checkouts where pressure isolation or if we need to continue to work through that issue. so want to be passed to the 42nd mark, a number of things are going to happen quite quickly.

the ground span and ignition systems, up to fight pressure put the ship is going to go on to internal power. and after that, the quick disconnect or cutie on the pocket is removed in preparation for protection shortly after the zero. and as we -- once we do pass that, we still have the ability to recycle the account under certain conditions back to the c- 40 seconds and hold there, to assess what happened and if we can proceed again to t0. but that is only in certain situations. >> we are just about 2 1/2 minutes away. we do have a couple of things like if we hit c- 10 seconds and you see and you see water start flowing out of the deflector, that is a reason for us to scrub for the day is that is when it is turned on and it does not turn up and we will have to be for the tanks on both of the order and their proper form. our team has gotten really, really good at refilling some really quick. so we can be position for about

a 24-hour recycle if we need to. two -- kate: speaking of things -- dan: i'm sorry, we are coming up just under two minutes away. now he one week might hold at that c- 42nd mark while they talked through a couple troubleshooting six. we can hold it there for several minutes even with all prop fully loaded on the vehicle before we can release the hold and decide to move forward. all right, less than a minute and a half away. keep your eye on the clock. look for t-minus 40. we may hold there. is not a rocket launch unless you are talking nonstop in the background before you liftoff. kate: we have an opportunity to

hold there for several minutes. this is you need to starship. we don't have disability on falcon. dan: as we are 50 seconds away, we are going to hold at two minus 40. the clock to pause when we hit c- 40 as they finish troubleshooting and then we will let you know as soon as we are starting to hear more and if the clock is going to do -- when that clock is going to start rolling. holding at t-minus 40. the team is talking in the background troubleshooting. we can hang out here for a couple minutes. and it sounds like we cleared the issue of the booster. we are now holding for a late-breaking issue. so they are talking to that right now. kate: you mentioned things that

we have conquered at. it is incredible to think that we just stepped this vehicle early this morning and we are already, you know, through problems and problems is pretty much complete and ready to go. it is very slim down time line. dan: this by far will be our fastest. we stacked the thing for the first time ever for these vehicles less than 24 hours ago. we really want to get to any point where we can you know, fly rapidly, fly as quickly as possible and so this is definitely a case to push that forward. kate: absolutely. and she disposed to come back for a successful landing, you are talking about the rapid part of our. reusability. is boosted mayfly on a future starship flight if we are able to catch it and bring it back on line. so for those of you that have recently joined us, we have pause at t-minus 40 seconds.

just to process and work through a problem that popped up in the counter and we are holding here as the teams troubleshoot it. we believe that we have put in a solution and we will be able to proceed but we have some chatter on some doors indicating that we are holding here for a few more seconds. this is a great opportunity for the teams -- this is unique on starship. we don't have disability on falcon to hold here. partially because there's -- there's just so much -- propeller that it takes longer for it to cool down with the amount of volume. but this t-minus 42nd hold is pretty cool because basically everything that would have been a scrub is actually just an opportunity to hold here at work through it. i should say many things not everything.

we are working through an issue now but we can also pause here to -- for final checkouts or completion of pressurization to get up to fight levels that kind of thing. so it is a nice feature to allow the team to wait for final checkouts are assessed final prop levels or engine health and that kind of stuff. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2025] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

[silence] dan: if you are tuning in, we

are holding at the gate. we cleared an issue on the booster that we were working up until the whole. we are still working one on ship and the team is to continue to discuss in the background. we can hold here for several more minutes. if we are not able to resolve the issue or find a workaround, then we would have to essentially scrub the standdown doors and stand down for the day. if that does happen, we can go as early as tomorrow. but that clearly depends on what work we might need to do to fix any issues. so just obviously stay tuned. but right now, we are a little over five minutes into this whole today. we have got a couple more minutes that we can hold at t-minus 40 before we have to kick out essentially looking at a lot of those propellant temperatures on both vehicles. we want those to stay in pretty specific ranges for engine start up and things like that. does with the gently drives we can hold at t-minus 40. so still hanging out as soon as we hear an update on that ship, we will let you know.

it is starting to sound like we might have a decision will soon. -- real soon. you see the clock rolling. it is time to go for march. [cheers and applause] so 30 seconds ago, -- oh. and we just heard a hold. psych. the kick out to the t-minus 40 hold.

all right, so as we started counting back down, we did trip a few holes automatically from the booster itself. so we are now going to hang out here again at t-minus 40. they have got a couple more troubleshooting steps that they can take before getting to that. we can start counting down again. if not, we could always upload and try again on either tomorrow or another day. right now, we are not done for the day yet. still holding at t-minus 40

seconds and as soon as we start seeing that clock move, you will not if we are going to go for a large attempt today or if we just try another day. keep listening in and we will have an update shortly. all right, and we are going to offload for today.

we started counting down again. and it is not something we can change with small convenings, after weeks. so we are going to offload our prop and then try again another day. so we are able to fully take the vehicle. we were not able to lift off today. just because we don't go to the does not mean we are not going to go tomorrow at one of the days coming up. so we are going to start offloading all of that propellant all the -- on the booster and that ship as we talked earlier. we can go as soon as 24 hours later. we won't know that for sure until we dig into everything that kicked us out of our attempt to do. some of aresti just keep an eye on all of our updates. so we are expecting could be about 24 hours. but we will definitely let people know. kate: yeah, so we want to thank everybody for turning in. in forces, we would have liked to liftoff today. announcer: you have been watching it live coverage. we turn now to escotto program. we join it in progress. >> and giving.

i would just refer. look at the cfpb and you look at the staffing and rightsizing. i would go back again to the inspector general -- 30 seconds. the inspector general concluded after the signature bank collapse that one of the reasons that the fdic screwed up and delays of supervisory activities was because there were shortfalls in terms of personality agency. i hope you take that lesson from the oig at fdic at your current job before you go willy-nilly and look for the -- and look at the workforce at the cfpb and bring the chainsaw approach. with that. sen. rounds: senator kennedy. sen. kennedy: the biden administration allowed borrowers

to take out bigger mortgages than they can afford, didn't it? mr. pulte: i do think that we need to make sure -- sen. kennedy: did it allow them to take out bigger mortgages than they can afford or not? mr. pulte: sometimes people take out mortgages that they cannot afford. sen. kennedy: in fact, 64% of the fha borrowers exceeded the 43% debt to income ratio, didn't they? mr. pulte: i would believe that to be true. sen. kennedy: in fact the fha loan portfolio is bigger today than it was before the 2008 housing crisis. isn't it? mr. pulte: i would believe that to be true but fha would be under hud. sen. kennedy: and when people are a more money than they can afford, many times they default, is that true?

mr. pulte: that is true. sen. kennedy: i am not just picking on fha but fannie mae and freddie mac have done this. mr. pulte: yes. sen. kennedy: normally when people borrow too much money, they default. but under the biden administration, they implemented a program where if you are about to default, the taxpayers will pay your mortgage, isn't that correct? mr. pulte: do you have a specific policy that you are referencing? sen. kennedy: the fa -- the fha implemented a proof -- a program that pays mortgage servicers to make payments for them. mr. pulte: i not familiar with that. sen. kennedy: you need to be. you need to be. they takes taxpayer money and they give it to people and it is added to the principal of their home without accruing interest,

so that a lot of these folks now have homes on which they owe more money than the home is worth. you are not familiar with that? mr. pulte: i am familiar with that concept. sen. kennedy: is it a fact that the fha made 500 56,841 incentive payments last year? sen. rounds: i am not familiar with that -- with that statistic. that would be under my friend and colleague, scott turner. sen. kennedy: and fannie mae and freddie mac did the same thing. mr. pulte: they probably did. sen. kennedy: we have a house of cards. it is worse than it was before the 2008 housing crisis. you have the federal government adopting a policy -- do not worry about how much you make, we will loan you all you need to buy a home. and then when folks get in trouble, the federal government says do not worry about it, we will make your payments for you.

so, you will not default. re: -- or you will not have to sell your home. that is one of the reasons that housing prices are so high, isn't it? mr. pulte: in many ways. sen. kennedy: are you going to fix that. mr. pulte: i am going to work very strongly. sen. kennedy: is that a yes or no? mr. pulte: i will absolutely work on that issue, i promise. sen. kennedy: i mean, this is absurd. now i want everybody who can afford it to own a home. mr. pulte: yes. sen. kennedy: but if you start giving away money and giving away homes, we are going to have another housing crisis. and the numbers are worse today as a result of the biden administration then they wore -- than they were in 2008. mr. pulte: i am not sure which numbers you are referring to? sen. kennedy: the accurate numbers. mr. pulte: the last four years have been challenging. sen. kennedy: i appreciate. but do not start talking like a

bureaucrat. you are not confirmed yet. we have a problem and you have to address it. mr. pulte: yes and i will be laser focused on this issue. sen. kennedy: i cannot see that far. dr. miran. one of the best ways to get down prices is to deregulate, isn't it? dr. miran: i do agree that regulations prevent production. and if we can remove regulation we can get production. sen. kennedy: i am hoping that you and vought will focus on the regulation. now, i know that everybody is talking about doge and immigration and the war in ukraine and the super bowl, but, meanwhile, people are still suffering from high prices.

very predictable, because when you have inflation and you get it down, that is disinflation. but the hh ices still remain. it is not president trump's fault, that is the way it works. we can make those prices go down but we have to go into a recession, wouldn't we? that is one way, isn't it? i have 30 seconds. that is one way, isn't it. dr. miran: yes. sen. kennedy: but you let warner go on like he was wild as a march air. sen. rounds: i am still letting you go on. now you have 47 seconds. sen. kennedy: one of the ways to get prices down is to start deregulating. dr. miran: that is a much better way. sen. kennedy: i am hoping the white house will get you and vought to focus on it. dr. miran: removing barriers to the bit -- to the ability of firms to produce will let them present -- produce more stuff at

lower prices. sen. kennedy: my work is done and with that, senator cortez masto. sen. cortez masto: thank you for your willingness to do this at this point in time and it is important that we have people that understand the background experience of the agency that is needed but you also have the experience. and welcome to all of your family members that have to sit through this. let me start with you. i want to put it back where we got off the rails for a minute and i saw you struggling and rightfully so. let us talk about the agency that you are actually nominated for which is the federal housing finance agency. not fha which you have no control over. i appreciate you trying to answer. i do know this, and thank you for meeting with me because we had a great conversation. we talked about the fact that under the federal housing finance agency there was a comprehensive review of the

federal home loan banks and this is something that i have been following and is important for me in my state because we have a housing pricing -- crisis especially affordable workforce housing. i am curious now, if you have had the chance to review it and which look at the material you prepared. i believe strongly that we need to follow the law and thank yod meeting with you. the state of nevada has been important to our family. the legacy company built over 10,000 homes so we very much appreciated meeting with you and think highly of your staff. with regard to some of the things we talk about i was able to look at the material you prepared. i believe strongly that we need to follow the law and the statute as it relates to the federal home loan banks. this is what i talked about with senator warren when we were in her office. will the statute and the law be followed? as it relates to federal home loan banks, a lot of people

forget about them because they are so focused on fannie mae and freddie mac. i would work with you on that and i look forward to doing that. sen. cortez masto: do you support requiring the federal home loan banks require more than 20% of their net income for affordable housing and community development? mr. pulte: i know this is something that you and your staff feel passionate about and i will work with you on it. as it pertains i will follow the law and statute. and be open-minded with anything including ideas on this matter. in terms of the question i would like the benefit of getting inside the organization first and give you a better answer. sen. cortez masto: thank you. again, i appreciate the opportunity to talk with you. let me ask you a couple of questions. unfortunately, in nevada we rank second in financial fraud and a high percentage are seniors. and i know that i have concerns

about the cfpb actually closing down the office of financial protection for older americans. my question would be would you commit to restoring that office, and ensuring that the office is adequately staffed and meeting the legislative and regulatory requirements of the law so we can protect or lure americans? mr. mckernan: you are right around unique risk posed to elderly americans on the consumer side. as they age they are more likely to accumulate medical debt that subjects them to aggressive tactics. and some issues around cognitive decline that could make it from -- problematic to resolve those issues. they must resolve those issues and devote enforcement and courtney with the other agencies. as you point out there is a statutory responsibility to maintain this office helping to do that ordination.

consistent with what i said, i will follow the law that includes performing each of the statutory assigned responsibilities and one of them is this office. sen. cortez masto: so if the administration says to fire you will disagree with them because a loss as it has to be staffed and resources to seniors? mr. mckernan: we will make sure we have that office to perform its function. sen. cortez masto: the law also requires a consumer bureau to maintain confidentiality of information obtained from people and companies that it supervises and supports. what would you do to ensure that people who should not have access to private, supervisory information and to have conflict of interest, what would you do to ensure they are prevented from accessing it? mr. mckernan: we will implement our policy to protect the security of that information. another thing that is important on this note is, i would like to take a close look at how much information that the cfpb still

has on its servers and whether that is necessary. there has been a lot of focus on the issue and we need to focus on risk external and internal. we should also be thinking about the risk that china and another adversary get a hold of the information. sen. cortez masto: do you believe that the consumer bureau should continue to regulate payment platforms? mr. mckernan: i will execute on the responsibility to monitor risks under all of the consumer financial laws in the banking system and outside the banking system. sen. cortez masto: do you believe that one company with a payment platforms should be allowed to access confidential information from the cfpb of its competitors? mr. mckernan: i do not know the nature of any such issue. sen. cortez masto: the answer should be no. that is pretty and -- easy to answer. that is my concern. you do not need to study it, it is easy to answer. and the question will be and this is what we talked about. and for all of you, what we are

looking for, every single one, i have talked about following the law and that is what i am hoping that you do. and not a rubberstamp to an administration that thinks they have -- they have the ability to disregard the law and ignore congress and the agencies that we have created and shut them down to the detriment of the people in this country. i am hopeful that you guys are standing guard and you are doing just that. >> i will give you a chance to respond. senator hagerty. sen. hagerty: thank you, i would like to acknowledge the presence of a fine tennessean. we have a panel of highly qualified nominees in particular i would like to recognize a native of a volunteer state who dedicated much of his life to president service. americans have voiced the desire for american leadership that reflects the values of all americans spread across a the country, not just power centers

on the coast. his up ringing and resume brings me confidence that the cfpb will be in the hands of the leader who brings good. i will come back to you but i would like to start art -- start out with you. the fha insures that its regulated entities serve as reliable sources of liquidity and funding for housing finance and community investment. if you are confirmed, how will you carry out the mission of making housing more affordable for all americans? mr. pulte: what a great question. and very nice meeting with you and spending time with you. i think you are correct. first and foremost we need a safe and sound market. we saw what happened in the housing crisis and eventually nobody was able to afford anything. the other thing is that we need to figure out where we can eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse. i look forward to looking at that and seeing where we can

identify things and what have you. we can make sure that we are looking at different opportunities to appraise homes properly or manufactured homes. they are very well built structures. and if confirmed as fhfa director i think there are great opportunities between my friend and colleague at hud as well as on the mortgage side. there are a lot of exciting things we could do and i look forward to working with you. sen. hagerty: and a lot of the issues and hurdles that you will find half to do with regulations that get in the way and impair the function of the market and increased costs on builders and impact in a negative way the available supply. i look forward to working with you on that respect as well. i really want to just emphasize that your private-sector insight on these matters is rare and much needed in washington. i understand the need for policy experts like the fhfa, but we

also need leaders with business backgrounds who deeply understand the industries that they interact with. and i think that you have got a deep experience that could really lend a lot to the agency. i would like to ask you broadly, what are the most valuable leadership lessons that you have learned in your time in the housing industry and how would you apply those? mr. pulte: i would say that first and foremost i would like to go into the agency as well as understanding with fannie and freddie mac exactly the talent that we have. i understand that there is quite a lot of talent. i was fortunate enough to be raised by my father and grandfather. i learned from my grandfather's company that built over 800,000 homes across america. senator, there are a lot of lessons i learned in housing and managing true people -- managing people and how to treat people. it is with that same spirit and dedication, housing is in my

blood and i look forward in bringing that into the agency if confirmed and ensuring has many americans as possible can have the american dream. costs are so out of control that this needs to be fixed. sen. hagerty: i look forward to seeing your energy, and i look forward to your inspiration in an agency that we want to see function well. i want to come back to you. dodd frank established an undemocratic and flawed funding structure for the cfpb. it is important to clarify the statutory authorities. acting director vought has requested no funds for the federal reserve for the coming fiscal quarter because the current balance is excessive. in your view, did the acting director break the law? mr. mckernan: thank you for the very kind words and i do appreciate that. we are going to have to let the courts decide that, but i do not see a legal issue. sen. hagerty: nor do i to confirm, the cfpb has sole discretion to

assess the needs of the bureau and make funding requests accordingly, so long as it abides by statutory provided funding caps is that correct? mr. mckernan: yes. sen. hagerty: so the acting director is not doing anything unlawful or unusual but exercising the authorities given to him by the democrats who architected dodd frank and the funding structure in the first phase. there is a glaring double standard, progressives are gleeful when a democrat administration appoints a director who unaccountably advances their agenda and spends an eye watering amount of money. and then when americans entrust a republican administration and a republican director to lead the agency they panic and complained that the bureau is being operated unaccountably, even though both are operating under the exact same scrub -- structure. for years i have lead proposals to bring greater accountability to the cfpb.

if their true concerns i urge my colleagues to work with me on real structural reforms. otherwise these cries of low -- of rogue leadership will fall on deaf years. i hope that we will have an opportunity to find a way forward on a bipartisan basis to address the concern. thank you. chair scott: senator warnock. sen. warnock:, congress created the consumer pride -- the consumer protection bureau in the wake of the financial crisis, during which americans saw wall street bankers get bailed out while millions of working folks lost their jobs, their homes, their retirements, their life savings. that is the situation out of which the cfpb emerged. thank you. i enjoyed our meeting yesterday. good to meet you. i want to follow-up on our discussion about the trump administration's efforts to dismantle the cfpb. the agency you have been nominated to run.

president trump has said the cfpb is "a very important thing to get rid of." yes or no, do you agree on that point? mr. mckernan: as i have said, it is a product of statute and that is a question of elected officials. sen. warnock: yes or no, you agree it is a good thing to get rid of. mr. mckernan: i think the elected officials decide questions like that. i execute on the law. sen. warnock: you have raised your hand to run the agency and i think you ought to know if it is a good thing to get rid of. mr. mckernan: i think that consumer protection is a good thing and it is a critical thing. a federal consumer protection role as a good thing and that is what i learned from my experience in a 2008 financial crisis. we need a system that works for everyday americans. sen. warnock: i will take that as you agree with the president that we do not need the cfpb, we need consumer protection but not the cfpb is that your answer?

mr. mckernan: we need strong consumer protection. sen. warnock: so president trump and elon musk have gotten rid of the cfpb, which is why the question is so urgent and the bureau has seen dozens of employees fired and told not to engage in the core supervisory or examiner -- examination duties and have even had the physical headquarters closed and locked. i think that is a clear message if someone closes down the office that you have been nominated to run. with the cfpb effectively eliminated, how on earth do you plan to lead a shell agency that has been gutted? mr. mckernan: i am not aware of the situation with the staffing and resources. what i would point to is what the administration has set in the filings and some of the litigation ongoing and they have said that we are going to have a cfpb that is streamlined and efficient. and i am quoting i think from

the brief, and a predicate of that is that there will be a cfpb. this is a question for elected officials. my job is to follow the law and execute on my mandate. sen. warnock: in the last three months alone, the cfpb has received more than 80,000 complaints from georgians with the bureau currently seeking resolution to more than 40,000 of those complaints. with the cfpb shuttered by president trump and elon musk, what is your plan to ensure that the bureau resolves those 40,000 pending replaying from those constituents in georgia? mr. mckernan: like i said, the consumer complaints function is statutorily required and that is intent 21 -- in 1021c, so my mandate is to confirm that. sen. warnock: thank you very much. when we met in my office, we discussed the issue of appraisal

bias and the disturbing trend of homes with black or latino residents being systematically valued less then homes with white residents. this is pretty well documented. and you know, this is discrimination that denies these families of wealth and home equity that they have worked hard to earn. this is real money. this is the value of the most important asset that people have, literally to have the appraisal depend on who opens the door is unconscionable. we agree that the home appraisal bias is economic data and you are a proponent of transparency and publicizing such data. do you still believe that? mr. pulte: my recollection is that i would like to get inside of the agency and understand what specific data you are looking at. generally speaking, i am in favor of all economic data being looked at before saying whether

or not something should be released. having said that, transparency is a hallmark of what i have done. as it take -- pertains to appraisals especially with the populations you talk about, my experience in detroit is relevant. i understand the issue and i would look forward to working with you if confirmed. sen. warnock: under the biden administration the federal housing finance agency helped lead a working group to address appraisal bias and provide more public data to shine a light on the problem. should fhfa continue to play a role in upper -- in addressing appraisal bias as a yes or no answer. mr. pulte: if confirmed i look forward to working with you on that issue. sen. warnock: it is good to hear your answer. i want to make sure that i respect the time. when secretary turner sat in my office he said that he expressed genuine interest in learning more about appraisal bias.

on his first day as secretary he deleted all public facing information about the previous work to tackle appraisal bias. if confirmed to lead fhfa, will you commit to maintaining all data publications and other materials concerning appraisal bias on the agency's publicly facing website? mr. pulte: i would like the benefit of getting inside of the agency and i would like to work with you on this and your staff on this. i know this is something you are passionate about. our legacy company is based in georgia and i would love to take you up on your offer to visit 3:42 am your church. i would like to work with you on this and i would love the benefit of being inside the organization before giving you definitive answers one way or another. chair scott: senator -- who is next? chair scott: senator banks? sen. bennet:'s -- sen. banks: i will start with you because you were such a great tie.

your background is perfect. you might know that under the biden administration they enacted some policies i think were a bad signal for working class families. let me talk about one of them. under the biden administration they change the formula for the loan level price adjustment fee that screwed families with good credit scores to subsidize more families with bad credit scores. what message does that send to people who work hard and pay their bills on time. what message with that policy have sent to them? mr. pulte: loan level price adjustment pricing is what i view it to be i believe should

be priced on risk. having said that it is something i would like the benefit of it confirmed going into the agency and understanding the data inside the agency before i give you a definitive answer on what should be done. generally i believe pricing should be done on risk. that is how we avoid another 2008 housing crisis because we have to ensure the safety and soundness of the housing market. sen. banks: on the way out the door the biden administration ended the policy. i hope we never allow something like that to happen again. it is a bad signal to send a hard-working families who do the right thing that they would be punished for it. i appreciate your commitment to look at that and make sure we do not bring back bad policies like that. dr. mckernan -- dr. miran, enjoyed our visit in my office. this week apple announced plans to invest 500 billion dollars in the united states, creating over

20,000 jobs, especially in advanced manufacturing. what role do you think the president's tariff policies played in that announcement? dr. miran: i very much appreciated the opportunity to discuss these issues in your office. i think the president's policies played a large role in such an announcement. the president has been clear he will not stand for asymmetric trade relationships when we give unfettered market access to our consumers and do not reciprocate. he made clear he will stand up for american workers. his willingness to do so is incentivizing not only investments to the united states from companies like apple but 's also other countries making concessions on national security and trade even preemptively. sen. banks: why do you think so many economists tell us the opposite, that tariffs will cost us jobs in the u.s.

and yet this announcement proves the opposite? dr. miran: i think the reason why most economists you tariffs as being unhelpful is because of a quirk of the modeling mythology where they assume trade deficits balance out to zero over the long term. that is not happened in recent decades. if we review the history of tariffs we see that in the 19th century the average tariff rate was in excess of 40% for the latter half of the 19th century. the average rate for all imports was in excess of 30%. this was a period of extraordinary economic transformation. even after world war ii the tariff rate was in excess of 30%, very strong economic growth. it was not until the 1970's where we get to the period of low tariffs and coincidently that coincided with reduction in

growth rates. i do not want to claim correlation is causation but nevertheless historical record is very clear that the american economic story has seen periods of high tariff rates coincide with extraordinary economic success. there is nothing in the historical record that would say it is impossible to have a fabulous economy with high tariffs. sen. banks: those jobs will go to china or the united states because president trump and these policies are coming to the united states. really quickly, mr. kessler communist china has built too many weapons using stolen american technology and bis overseas export controls which are supposed to stop the pla from getting their hands on sensitive technologies like by weapons and cutting edge chips. career bureaucrats have rubberstamped deals for decades and sent some of our most important technology to china. what can you do to stop that?

mr. kessler: i will not rubberstamped deals like that and i will make sure we scrutinize any requests along those lines carefully and make sure every action we take is consistent with our national security priorities. sen. banks: look forward to working with you. i yield back. chair scott: senator smith. sen. smith: thanks to ranking member warren and chair scott and all of our panelists and i appreciate you being here and your families. i will start with mr. mckernan and get to mr. pulte if i have time. the trump administration and republicans in congress have repeatedly attacked the cfpb and challenged its legitimacy, branding it as a rogue partisan agency that is out of control. president trump and republican colleagues and even you have said the cfpb faces a crisis of legitimacy and yet it seems to me this crisis is caused by

people all the way up to the president undermining the legitimacy of the cfpb and declaring it is not legitimate. this is a bit like an arsonist starting a fire and yelling fire. you are in and on position. -- you are in an unenviable position, nominated to lead the agency your bosses say should be killed off. elon musk says the agency should rest in peace. it bothered me you cannot say straight up returning $21 billion stolen from american consumers, you cannot say that is a good thing. you think requiring $80 million in illegal overdraft fees to be refunded to service members and veterans was a rogue action or partisan action that was something the cfpb accomplished? mr. mckernan: i'm not sure which action you are pointing to. sen. smith: the cfpb required a million dollars and illegal overdraft fees to be refunded to

service members and veterans. mr. mckernan: if they were illegal overdraft fees they needed to be refunded. sen. smith: yesterday you and i spoke about wells fargo. the cfpb required them to compensate consumers for the harm they incurred when their houses had been foreclosed upon and vehicles repossessed. was that a rope action or a partisan action? mr. mckernan: if there was illegal conduct -- sen. smith: you cannot say you trust the cfpb had the correct finding? mr. mckernan: on that case i have not looked at both sides. sen. smith: when we spoke yesterday you told me -- i asked about the many lawsuits pending before the cfpb and what you thought would happen to them and you ensured me you would review the lawsuits. we are just learning that the cfpb just dropped a bunch of

lawsuits, including the one against capital one, which was for ripping off consumers to the tune of $2 billion by steering consumers or customers to lower interest-bearing accounts. during this hearing elon musk or russell vote -- or russell vought or whoever is in charge is saying they will drop these lawsuits. how do you respond? this makes me question who will really be in charge of the cfpb if this is what is happening while your nomination is being considered? mr. mckernan: i am not sure i understood the question. sen. smith: my question is who is going to be in charge? mr. mckernan: if i'm am confirmed i am the director. sen. smith: it is not clear to me because at the moment we are talking about you taking on this responsibility russell vought and others are dismissing lawsuits you just told me you would have the opportunity to review before they were dismissed. mr. pulte, i want to follow up on the conversation you and i

had about the rising cost of housing, i appreciated our conversation. a big driver of this is the cost of insurance caused by extreme weather events. all of these terrible storms in minnesota. working families are struggling to manage a 40% increase in home rates and minnesota is lucky compared to other states like california and florida where hundreds of thousands of homeowners have been dropped from their insurance. this is putting a huge financial risk on families. could you talk about how you think the rising cost of home insurance and the lack of insurance availability, what impact that has unaffordability? mr. pulte: that is a great question. in the state of minnesota we have mutual friends in our family legacy business has done a lot of work in minnesota and you've done a lot of good things in minnesota as it relates to affordable housing. with regard to your question, the fhfa is somewhat limited in terms of its jurisdiction. i will make a general commented

that the cost of insurance is insane in this country and to the extent fhfa can play any part in thoughtfully reducing insurance costs, which i'm not sure it is within our jurisdiction, but it is something i would love to learn from you on and work with you on if confirmed. sen. smith: i think the thing we have to understand is this is a real threat and has a significant impact on the trillions of dollars in mortgages that fhfa is responsible for. there is a systemic risk that could have a significant impact on the financial stability of our country. i know this is a issue of bipartisan interest. my republican colleagues as well as democrats are worried about this. i want to note for the record that 1st street, a leading climate risk modeling organization has showed real estate values could be reduced

by $1.4 trillion over the next 30 years due to this unaccounted for risk. this is something you have to address in your role. thank you. chair scott: senator kim? sen. kim: mr. kessler, i would like to chat with you and go in deeper on some of the issues that have come up today. i would like to start by asking if you support using export controls to deny china access to advanced tooting chips -- to advanced computing chips they want to use to fulfill their ai ambitions? mr. kessler: generally yes. sen. kim: what i would like to get a sense of now is how do we go about doing that with regards to what we have seen about the proliferation of these chips? the previous administration move forward with an ai diffusion rule and i want to get your reaction. is that the right way to go about trying to address this

challenge? mr. kessler: thank you for the question. it is important to make sure the united states maintains and expands its dominance of ai technology and other technologies of strategic significance. it is important to make sure bis as an agency moves quickly enough to keep pace with our competitors and our adversaries. it is important to consult with technical experts constantly to make sure the rules are keeping up as the technology evolves. we cannot risk having a cumbersome rulemaking process or bureaucracies slow us down when we are talking about something of national security significance. sen. kim: just to pull on this a little bit more because i heard from our european partners and other partners that it makes it more difficult for them to act if certain nations are in tier one and some are in tier two.

i want to get your take on that as well as other companies. there is a question we learn from the challenges we faced with 5g and huawei about how quickly we can get market penetration and allow american businesses to be able to succeed. i wanted to ask more specifically if you think this ai diffusion rule will make it harder for us to get that market penetration or be able to work with partners around the world? mr. kessler: i think the rule you are referring to was intended to address a real problem and the problem is how do we prevent china and its proxies from accessing the most advanced american technologies wherever they are located in the world, whether the united states or outside the united states. i'm not sure the ai diffusion rule that ended up being issued

under the biden administration six days before the end of the administration which never came into effect during the biden administration, i'm not sure this role was done thoughtfully, was done as well as it could have been. it is a very complex and bureaucratic rule. that is one of the things i would like to review when i go in. the identification of the problem was largely correct but i am not sure this is the right solution. sen. kim: i appreciate that. i am also trying to think through this and i cannot say i have all of the answers. i have some concerns and i have some thoughts. this is so important. our ability to dominate the innovation of the future is so critical. i worry because i see a lot of what i see as knee-jerk reactions from this administration so far and other aspects of what happened

previously and i ask if you are confirmed that we can work together along with others on this committee to be thoughtful about this because it is so important we reach out to our partners, reach out to industry and get this right because i think this will set the tone for the next 20 or 30 years if not later. i want your commitment that is something you can work with me on? mr. kessler: absolutely and i agree. sen. kim: i want to switch gears. do you think bis has enough staff? mr. kessler: here's how i think about staffing. it is important to make sure bis or any agency uses the resources that it has efficiently and intelligently, that the agency is structured well to fulfill its mission. it is also important to make sure any agency has adequate resources, that it has the resources, that it has the appropriations and manpower it needs. in the case of bis is a relatively small agency compared

to others within commerce. if i am confirmed i will review that and look at how -- whether it has enough resources. sen. kim: i want to end on this. i understand the pressures you are under with regards to how this administration has been but i believe you have told staff before you support increasing staff. there are only a few hundred staff. it requires staffing as well as resources. the annual budget of bis is only about 1/5 of one patriot missile battery in a play such a critical role to our national security. i ask that you stand up for bis because it is so important for everyone. chair scott: senator mccormick? sen. mccormick: thank you senator, ranking member, good to see this panel.

mr. pressler -- mr. kessler, let me start with you. controls prevent vital resources from lump -- from falling into the hands of our adversaries. in 2005 i took on the role you've been nominated for and at that time export controls were becoming a war -- a more well-known tool for advancing strategic interest and i advocated for restrictions on china's ability to establish sensitive technologies because of the rising power of china and it represented a generational challenge. we made incremental progress but a laissez-faire approach to controls leads to end now in terms of cutting off supplied to china. how will you prioritize taking on the ccp in this existential race for economic and

technological advantage? mr. kessler: thanks for the question and the conversation yesterday. you left big shoes to fill and i look forward to learning from you about how to do this job effectively. you said it well. the priority for bis must be and i will be laser focused on how to keep sensitive technologies, sensitive goods, software out of the hands of american adversaries including china. on day one i am going to review with the staff the whole structure of the organization and the decision-making processes and make sure the agency is built to meet that challenge. sen. mccormick: senator kim just mentioned of the constraints on resources. as you know well bis is unique in that it has an enforcement

arm. how have you thought about the resources or technology or have you thought about the resource that could be added on the enforcement side to be able to fulfill. mr. kessler: that is something i will immediately start to learn about when i get into office. i am concerned on the enforcement side -- right now it is 150 or 250 people in export enforcement responsible for enforcing the rules around the world and i question whether that is adequate, whether a ratio of one person to one country is adequate. sen. mccormick: mr. pulte, good to see you again as well.

as we spoke during the 2008 financial crisis, i was the under secretary of the treasury where i participated in countless meetings on the global ripple effects of the u.s. housing market collapse. fhfa now serves in a dubious role in many ways, a dual role as conservatory and regulator of fannie and freddie. as a conservator one of fhfa's many jobs is to preserve assets. as a regulator it must respect the safety and the soundness of the gse's. how do you see that relationship and tension between those roles and the risk if those toaster responsibilities are not managed well? mr. kessler: what a great question -- mr. pulte: what a great question. i very much enjoyed our conversation and it is great to talk business with a former businessman. i think the conservatorship and the regulatory aspect are equally important.

the regulatory aspect of the job is absently critical because if we allow for another 2008 housing crisis we just cannot let that happen. i can assure you i will wake up every day and be thinking about how we make sure on the conservatorship side and on the regulatory side we do not have that happen again. to that point if there were ever an exit from conservatorship i think it would have to be extremely thoughtful to make sure it was carefully planned and there would be no disruption to the safety and soundness of the market. sen. mccormick: i will try to squeeze in one more question about cfpb. under your leadership you will have responsibility for conducting robust cost-benefit analysis with each regulatory action. can you describe how that cost-benefit analysis will work? mr. mckernan: you are absolutely right. by statute the cfpb is required to consider cost and benefits.

the key thing is we do this based on the actual risks we see and make sure that is data-driven and does things with the unintended consequences. sen. mccormick: thank you. chair scott: next will be senator van hollen. sen. van hollen: thank you all for being here for the nomination hearing. mr. mckernan, it is good to see you. we work together when senator toomey was the chair on north korea sanctions. obviously the cfpb is a different issue and i found it particularly twisted when the richest man in the world elon musk tweeted out that he wanted to bury the cfpb and brag about it. he has a tombstone. this is the richest man celebrating going after a bureau that has returned billions of

dollars to consumers, including millions of dollars to marylanders who were cheated by fraudsters. i assume you disagree with elon musk, right? mr. mckernan: my role is to follow the law and execute on the mission. these are questions for our elected officials. sen. van hollen: elon musk is not an elected official. he weighed in. i am asking what your view is. it is hard to believe someone will take their mandate seriously at the cfpb if they believe the cfpb should not exist. this is a pretty simple question. do you agree with elon musk that we should bury the cfpb? mr. mckernan: let me tell you why i take the mandate seriously. sen. van hollen: this was a yes or no question. let me move on. russ vought is the current acting director at cfpb. mr. mckernan: that is correct. sen. van hollen: here is what russ vote -- what russ vought said about federal employees. "when they wake up in the

morning we want them to not want to go to work because they are increasingly viewed as the villains." you agree with that statement about federal employees? mr. mckernan: i don't know the context but my point is i take my mandate seriously. sen. van hollen: that was another clear yes or no question whether you agree with the statement that on its face seems outrageous. would you agree with this? this is what russ vought did with respect to cfpb. he put the overwhelming number of employees on and ministry of leave and told them not to work. you are aware of that? mr. mckernan: i am not aware of the specifics. i know there are exceptions. sen. van hollen: this is the new story at the time, 1700 employees told to stop work immediately. my question is this.

is it efficient to tell workers to stop working when you are continuing to pay those workers? is that efficient? mr. mckernan: i am not where of the circumstances. i know there are exceptions. my application will not have gotten through. sen. van hollen: you have been nominated for this position and you're telling me you're not aware of the stop work order issued by the current -- mr. mckernan: i am aware of it. i'm not aware of the exceptions. sen. van hollen: overwhelmingly they have been told not to continue to pursue consumer claims on behalf of the american people. don't do your job. they are still being paid. i would like to see them be paid and do their job. i think that is what the american people would like to see. let me ask you with respect to the standard for firing federal employees. you've been a federal employee at least in congress. in the federal government and the executive branch you can

fire someone for poor performance or misconduct. are you aware of that standard? mr. mckernan: at a high level. i have not on the employment log related aspects. sen. van hollen: you will be in charge of this agency. would you agree we should not be firing people who are complying with existing standards of employment? mr. mckernan: if they are in compliance with the law that would be a condition but i think there are ways to right size the efficiency of an organization. sen. van hollen: let me turn to mr. kessler because you just responded he would work to make sure we do not export sensitive technologies to our adversaries. would you include russia as an adversary? mr. kessler: russia currently? i think the united states relationship with russia is dynamic but russia is an adversary now. sen. van hollen: would you agree russia was the aggressor in attacking ukraine? mr. kessler: that is an issue outside my remit. sen.

van hollen: the reason i ask is because i have in my hand the russia export controls from the bureau you hope to lead. this is the department of commerce bureau of industry and security has implement today's series of stringent export controls that restrict russia's access to technologies and other items it needs to sustain its brutal attack on ukraine. do you agree they launched a brutal attack on ukraine? mr. kessler: what i believe is a series of aggressive export controls were imposed following the war. sen. van hollen: this is a pretty straightforward question. a lot of us were absently shocked to see the united states side with russia and north korea against a u.n. general assembly resolution condemning russia's aggression in ukraine. will you agree to keep the export controls on russia so long as it is waging war against ukraine? mr. kessler: i think my mandate if i am confirmed will be to make sure export controls

support the national security and foreign policy objectives of the united states but my job and not be to set those objectives. it is important to make sure export controls remain in tune with the broader foreign policy objectives. sen. van hollen: this is why i ask you if you viewed russia as the aggressor and the fact you cannot answer that question suggests it would not keep in place the existing provisions we have or i guess -- maybe we will wait to hear. i will drop it there. thank you mr. chairman. chair scott: senator alsobrooks? sen. alsobrooks: thank you mr. chairman to ranking member warren for hosting today's hearing. i would like to begin with mr. pulte to say it is good to see you again and i enjoyed meeting with you and during our meeting you spoke about your efforts to remove flight -- to remove blight in detroit and talked about how partnerships between

the governments and the nonprofit sector were working to make that happen. this is of interest to me because we are working similarly in baltimore. i wonder what you believe the federal government's role be in addressing urban blight and if so would you use your role at fhfa to address our shared interest in advancing the goal of revitalizing communities through blight. i very much enjoyed meeting with you. as it relates to blight removal it is traditionally under the role of hud, so that would be my colleague, scott turner. having said that, i agree with you and i would bring that spirit that i did when i was doing the nonprofit blight removal to fhfa in terms of fannie mac and freddie may to restore the american dream for all americans. i can tell you that while i

might not necessarily be in charge of blight funds, it'll be that same spirit and dedication to making sure people have safe neighborhoods, homes and can access the american dream. sen. alsobrooks: so you believe the federal government does have a role in eliminating blight? mr. pulte: as -- some of this stuff is in the hud jurisdiction but the hud does have blight funds, just not in the purview of fhfa. sen. alsobrooks: let me go to another question. tens of thousands of federal workers in my state and across the country are facing mortgage insecurity, because of this administration's mass layoffs and terminations. the fhfa has forbearance authority, and that authority they can help borrowers facing potential difficulties. can -- and fhfa used this during the covid pandemic for example. if confirmed would you make sure that all federal employees with

loans backed by government guarantees can still access forbearance without penalty? mr. pulte: thank you for the question and you are right. the fhfa has exercised that authority at times. if confirmed, i will absolutely look into that issue. i'm not familiar about what the size of the impact has or will be but would love to learn from you and hear what your constituents are saying and would be happy to meet with you to learn more about it. sen. alsobrooks: you do support federal employees having access to that program? mr. pulte: i support all americans having access to the american dream and i've spent my philanthropic career, to the extent that when i started making money, i spent a lot of time and money giving to people to avoid foreclosure. i believe foreclosure is terrible and we should do everything we can to make sure that people can afford them -- afford their mortgages. sen. alsobrooks: mr. mckernan, this week a maryland veteran shared her story of why the cfpb

matters. she served in iraq. she served her country as a veteran only to return home to spend over a year trying to resolve a car purchase scam she was involved in. after contacting the cfpb, her problem was resolved within eight days. one year without the cfpb and eight days with the cfpb. simply put, do you support maintaining funding for cfpb? mr. mckernan: as i've said, cfpb is a product or statute. it is a question for our elected leaders. i will say that i am committed to executing the statutory responsible of these assigned to him -- responsibilities assigned to me. sen. alsobrooks: do you support this is important to maintain funding? that is an answer -- that is a question you can answer. mr. mckernan: if we are going to have the cfpb as presently constituted, we will need funding to perform our statutory

responsibilities. sen. alsobrooks: mr. kessler, do you agree that removing all or most of the controls from an adversary -- we agree no matter what anyone says, russia, north korea and iran are adversaries. do you agree that targeting russia while russian troops are still in ukraine would be harmful to u.s. interests? mr. kessler: as i mentioned, my responsibility would be to make sure that export controls -- the statutory mandate for me would be to ensure that export controls support the foreign-policy and national security interests of the united states. it's not going to be up to me to determine what those interests are. that is part of the broader government discussion. for some of the countries you mentioned, the u.s. relationship with them seems constant, and unfriendly over

time. for some of the united states relationships, they are in flux. whatever happens with our relationships, on going to make sure that export controls support american interests and american foreign policy. sen. alsobrooks: thank you. chair scott: ranking member. ranking member warren: mr. mckernan, while you've been sitting here and talking about the importance of following the law, we get the news that the cfpb is dropping lawsuits against companies that are cheating american families or alleged to be cheating american families. they will not go forward in court. it seems to me the timing of that announcement is designed to embarrass you, and show exactly who is in charge of this agency right now, elon musk and his little band of hackers.

i appreciate all of your happy talk about following the law, but i think we all know what's going on, and that is elon musk is determined to shut down this agency even though he has no legal authority to do that, and we all understand whether you want to admit that returning $21 billion to families is a good thing. the rest of us understand that the failure to do that is going to hurt american families all across this country. thank you mr. chairman. chair scott: that was the ranking member's closing comments. once we start closing comments, we do not allow senators to have q&a. we are going to allow a senator to ask some questions but in the future, just know that we are pretty consistent. >> getting an ultrasound, it took longer than we thought. trying to figure out our son's

height and weight. president trump claims the chips act was a handout and since coming into office he has frozen chips act funding and is planning to fire a large number of career staff that work on maintaining the u.s. semiconductor advance. however the chips act is not a government handout. it is a strategic investment that many of us worked on. preliminary estimates suggest the chips act has timidly did nearly 400 billion dollars in private investment in the united states and arizona is a leader with about $200 billion. what are your views on the chips act and how would you advise the president on the issue? mr. muran: thank you for the question. i regret that we didn't get a chance to discuss this in your office but i agree it is an important issue.

the council of economic advisers exists to provide the president with economic data, analysis and policies. things relating to items like semiconductors are out of the purview of the council of economic advisers. if confirmed i will give the president the best economic advice i can give him. sen. gallego: you said it is outside the purview? mr. muran: yes. i am not a semiconductor expert. sen. gallego: but you are an expert on macro and micro economic policies that could be set and you understand what a heavy and important investment the chips act can be to our entire economic situation. correct? mr. muran: the role of ceach is to provide the president with analysis. i understand semiconductors are important for a number of industries but that granularity of industrial policy is outside the purview of the council. sen.

gallego: mr. kessler, you helped issue the exclusions request process. -- was neither transparent nor objective. if confirmed, do you commit to complying with all oversight requests from the commerce department inspector general and congress, particularly regarding these kinds of tariffs because it does affect a lot of us in our home states. mr. kessler: i commit to complying with all valid requests. sen. gallego: mr. pulte, good to meet you. i thank you for texting me. you have previously stated that regulation cuts are needed to increase housing supply which i agree with and speaking to builders, developers and homeowners, i could see a remake of our regulations that add costs to the developers which are then passed on to the consumers and homebuyers.

which regulations do you think need to be changed to support increasing the supply of housing? mr. pulte: great question and congratulations on your baby. we love the state of arizona. they've been very good to our family over the years. hot except in the winter. the thing on the supply of homes, the number one issue as far as i am concerned. we don't have a demand problem, we have a supply problem. one of the things i talked with senator warren about was manufactured homes. it is a tremendous opportunity. some of that has to do with hud and we can work with scott turner on that. in terms of designating things as hud approved. but also on the mortgage side of things because it is one thing if you have a home but you also need the mortgage. if confirmed i look forward to digging in, getting in and figuring out, are there ways we can up the supply and whether that is looking at appraisals or what have you, making sure we

can use some of these creative ideas with manufactured homes to increase the supply in our country which will in part in addition to things president trump is doing, lower or make costs for purchasing a home more affordable. sen. gallego: some manufactured homes are not hud approved and if they are not, it is harder for them to get a mortgage. is that the line of thinking you are going down? mr. pulte: in some cases that can be true. i'd like the benefit of understanding fhfa, what type of data they have been looking at to make sure i give you an informed answer but generally speaking, manufactured homes are very well-built, in some cases better than site built homes. h. i think all of these things need to be explored because we have a housing supply problem in this country and we need to fix it. sen. gallego: and that first starter home is the most important for you to get going in terms of the lifetime of that person to have housing because they use that to get their first

home and they sell that to get their dunk -- down payment for the next mortgage and on and on. thank you mr. chairman. chair scott: yes sir. that concludes the question and answer portion of today's hearing. prior to adjourning i have some final housekeeping announcements. let me just thank the four of you for taking the time to be here before us today. thank you for your willingness to serve the greatest nation on the planet and i look forward to giving you an opportunity to respond to senator questions. senators have until tomorrow at noon, to submit the questions. i think you may have a few. ranking member warren: many. chair scott: i had a feeling. and for our witnesses, please respond by monday, march 3, by noon to the written questions you receive in order to facilitate this committee

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