i look forward to your testimony. >> thank you, senator crapo. to reserve time for questions, opening statements will be limited to the chair and ranking member. i would like to remind my colleagues that the record will be open for the next seven days for additional statements and materials. i'd like to welcome chair yellen. dr. yellen is serving her first term as chair of the board of governors of the fastball system. she was sworn into office earlier this month. before that dr. yellen served as vice chair and member of the board of governors of the federal reserve system. she was also previously chair of the council of economic advisors. chair yellen, please begin your testimony. >> chairman johnson, senator crapo and other members of the committee, i'm pleased to present the federal reserve semi annual monetary policy report to the congress. in my remarks today, i will discuss the current economic situation and outlook before turning to monetary policy. i will conclude with an update on our continuing work on regulatory reform. first, let me a

[laughter] >> -- what johnson and crapo produce.because i do think some of us have proposed, i have proposed a transition plan out of the conservatorships where fannie and freddy actually do survive, and they become the first of the private guarantors who play in the new system so as to insure we actually have some private guarantors to play in the new system. but i totally agree with the notion that the government should be providing the guarantee at arm's length for a pee be, build -- for a fee, building a reserve fund trying to protect taxpayers against loss. i think that's clearly something that went wrong in the last period. i also think the government if it's going to allow and take, allow private capital to take the first loss, it has to regulate that capital and make sure it has adequate capital to absorb the first loss, something that fannie and freddie did not have. so i think there, i don't think they're going to -- >> what about an obligation to serve the broad spectrum of, you know, making sure that working class americ

so it may be true that we give jonathan crapo -- johnson-crapo what most people's a represents a legal bill the fact that it isn't going anywhere doesn't change the nature of the house and its prospective such that when you go to conference you're going to end up with a bill which after all the work you did to get affordably right and johnson-crapo cannot be improved by going to a house that has a pass act as sort of their leading example or idea of what the housing finance system of the future would be. you would end up with a compromise in which he come right back with a compromised bill that is less accessible than the current housing market which by the way the conventional market is mostly refinancing. it's a big refinance bill because it's not funding mortgage purchases for the american household, for the american population. it goes back to the original question which is it's not just a matter of what to do. it's the urgency of getting it done. i do agree with one thing jim said which is the idea that the new director mel watt shoulda members of congress to forget what is the re

i look forward to your testimony. >> thank you, senator crapo. to reserve time for questions, opening statements will be limited to the chair and ranking member. i would like to remind my colleagues that the record will be open for the next seven days for additional statements and materials. i'd like to welcome chair yellen. dr. yellen is serving her first term as chair of the board of governors of the fastball system. she was sworn into office earlier this month. before that dr. yellen served as vice chair and member of the board of governors of the federal reserve system. she was also previously chair of the council of economic advisors. chair yellen, please begin your testimony. >> chairman johnson, senator crapo and other members of the committee, i'm pleased to present the federal reserve semi annual monetary policy report to the congress. in my remarks today, i will discuss the current economic situation and outlook before turning to monetary policy. i will conclude with an update on our continuing work on regulatory reform. first, let me a

we heard concerns from republican senator mike crapo. he is worried about the multiple agencies involved going forward. they have created an inter-agency group to coordinate the efforts, but they do have a lot of work ahead in terms of. frank dachshund. frank liquidity frank liquidity rules and security roles, and elizabeth warren wondered if it is all enough. -- jamie dimon got a raise after he negotiated $17 billion to pay off for activities that were illegal that he presided over. i'm not quite sure how this is a deterrent for other ceo's. >> i will not comment on the specifics of that case, other than to make the point that i do not know whether it will be a deterrent. reiteratedh warren her push for a 21st-century glass-steagall rule, saying there are too many banks that are too big to fail. hughes, thank you. we have breaking news on the sac case. su keenan has details. sa capitolc, the insider trading trial, the jury has a verdict, an unusually quick return for a verdict. we are still waiting to hear what it is, the case of the le

and the ranking member, senator crapo.nd i think they, together with, the chief of staff, and others have really been working very well together and i think that chairman johnson and senator crapo deserve a lot of credit for the effort to now try to put things together. i don't know that i'm going to try to handicap the legislation but i would say this is one place in washington, d.c. right now where there is some serious bipartisan work going on. and i think that there is a recognition among a lot of people that we have to end too big to fail in housing, and that having a perpetual, you know, perpetuating the system we have right now is not something that is acceptable and that we need to have a reformed system that doesn't have taxpayers on the hook as it would be now if something were to go wrong, that is real private sector capital in front, in other words, means that other people other than the american taxpayer are taking the risk, as it should be. so you don't have a system like we did in the past where it was heads

. >> senator crapo mentioned the foreign banks and so forth. will you as a regulator make sure that the foreign banks comply with their capital standards just like our banks have to if they're doing business in the united states of america? >> yes. we have said that foreign banking organizations that have over $50 billion in size will have to form intermediate holding companies and to organize their activities other than branch and agency activities in an intermediate holding company that will be subject to the same regulations as u.s.-based banking organizations. that's the essence of the proposal that we finalized, we finalized two weeks ago. >> thank you. my time is up. >> senator schumer. >> thank you and thank you, chair yellen. you're off to a great start as far as i'm concerned. i want to make one brief comment. i know some of the colleagues on my side of the ail express amazement -- some of the very same senators and congress members who blocked all further needed investments in infrastructure and other things that used to have broad bi

really been working very well together and i think that chairman johnson and senator creepo deserv crapo. i don't know that i'm going to try to legislate -- but this is one place in washington, d.c. right now where there is some serious bipartisan work going on, and i think that there is a recognition from a lot of people that we have to end too big to fail on housing. and that, you know, having a perpetual perpetuating system we have right now is not something that is acceptable and we need to have a reformed system that doesn't have taxpayers on the hook as it would be now if something were to go wrong that such private-sector capital in front, in other words, that means that other people and the american taxpayers are taking the risk as it should be treated so you don't have a system like we did in the past where it was the investors win, tails, the taxpayers lose. now you want this to be a system where there is real competition and a real ability to measure the risk and price things correctly. i think the challenge is to have a system that does reform. the current system that ends fa

in the new system envisioned by the bipartisan policy center, corker-warn orer, i think crapo-johnson, the delaney-carney bill that's been introduced in the house, the notion is you're going to have a new government guarantor called, you know, the federal mortgage insurance corporation, and then you'll have private parties taking first loss in front of the government guaranteement and -- guarantee. and the question is, so the question is a policy matter, and as a financial stability matter, does it really make sense to have a whole bunch of people competing for that first loss guarantor position? aren't they just going to drive credit standards down to try to make their capital go further, and respect we just -- isn't competition going to introduce, ultimately, instability back into the system and undercapitalization to the system? so wouldn't we with better off saying, okay, we're going to have a government guarantor that provides a guarantee that allows a 30-year fixed rate mortgage to survive? and we're going to have a private company regulated as a public utility with a fixed rate

i want to thank my colleagues in the senate, senator crapo and risch and my colleague from south dakota, for also helping with this, because this certainly -- and north dakota, should i say, both states were very, very big on these pulse crops, and certainly helped to make sure that this state staye- make sure that this stayed in the conference report. please vote for a bill that will really help our economy, that will really help us tackle that growing middle class around the world and keep america putting great products on those market shelves and helping create more jobs in the united states. i thank the president. i yield the floor. ms. stabenow: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from michigan. ms. stabenow: mr. president, first i have 10 unanimous consent requests for committees to meet during today's session of the senate. they have the approval of the majority and the minority leaders. i would ask unanimous consent that these requests be agreed to and that these requests be printed in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. stabenow: i would ask

. >> now, will -- senator crapo mentioned the foreign banks and so forth.foreign banks comply with their capital standards just like our banks have to if they are doing business in the united states of america? >> yes. we have said that foreign banking organizations that have over $50 billion of -- in size will have to form intermediate holding companies and to organize their activities other than branch and agency activities in an intermediate holding company that will be subject to the same regulations as u.s.-based banking organizations. that's the essence of the proposal that we finalized -- we finalized two weeks ago.ago. >> thank you. my time is up. >> senator schumer. >> thank you. and thank you, chair yellen. you're off to a great start, as far as i'm concerned. i just want to make one brief comment. i know that some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle express amazement that the fed would take extraordinary measures to boost growth. but if congress had been done more on the fiscal side to deal with the damage the economy suffered, the fe