society when you have a tight but stable labor market where people are coming in, getting into labor force, getting paid well. in the labor market we had before the biggest wage increases were going to people at the bottom and -- end of the wage spectrum. higher participation is one aspect. ultimately we have the tools that we have, which is essentially to stimulate demand and to control inflation. one of the two big threats to getting back to maximum unemployment is actually high inflation. to get back to where we were at the evidence grows that is going to take some time, and what we need is another long expansion like the ones we have been having over the last 40 years. including the last one, the longest in our recorded history. that is what it would take to get back to the kind of labor market we would like to see, if you have that happen we need to make sure we maintain price stability. >> let's go to edward lawrence, fox. >> thanks for taking the question. i was looking at the census data for estimated monthly changes on sales and what you see are fewer people spending at restaurant

job openings, wages, flows in and out of the labor force, and various parts of the labor force, we'd also tend to look broadly and inclusively at different demographic groups and not just at the headline aggregate numbers. and so that's a judgment for the committee to make. the committee will make a judgment that we've achieved, labor market conditions consistent with maximum employment and it's admittedly a judgment call because it's a range of factors, unlike inflation where we have one number that sort of dominates, it's a broad range of things. so, as i mention in my opening remarks, in my view, we are making rapid progress toward maximum employment, and you see that in, of course, in some of the factors that i mentioned. >> great. thank you. steve. at cnbc. >> thank you, mr. chairman. my question is, it's often said that monetary policy has long and variable lags. how does continuing to buy assets now, even though it's at a slower pace, address the current inflation problem? won't the impact of today's changes, not really have any impact for six months or a year down the road fr

job openings, wages, flows in and out of the labor force and various parts of the labor force.inclusively at different demographic groups, not just at the headline and aggregate numbers. so that's a judgment for the committee to make. the committee will make a judgment we've achieved labor market conditions consistent with maximum employment. when it makes that is it is admittedly a judgment call because it's a range of factors, unlike inflation where we have one number that sort of dominates. it's a broad range of things. so as i mentioned in my opening remarks in my view we are making rapid progress toward maximum employment and you see that in of course, in some of the factors that i mentioned. >> great, thank you. steve at cnbc. reporter: thank you, mr. chairman. my question is if, as often said that monetary policy as long and variable lags. how does continuing to buy assets now, even though at a slower pace address the current inflation problem? won't the impact of today's changes not really have any impact for six months or a year down the road on the current inflation p

related to the pandemic such as caregiving needs and fears of the virus cap some people out of the labor forcepite the strong demand for workers october side job growth of 530,000 and the unemployment rate fell at four.6 percent indicating a rebound in the pace of the labor market improvement there is still ground to cover for labor force participation we expect congress on —- progress to continue it has not fallen equally and then with that joblessness continue to fall disproportionately on african-americans. and pandemic related supply and demand imbalance has contributed to notable price increase. and those that make it difficult for producers to me as strong demand and then also push inflation upward running well above the goal with the price index up 5 percent of the 12 months ending october most forecasters that will move down significantly as supply and demand imbalances it is difficult with the supply constraints that now appears the factor pushes inflation upward well into nextxt year. in addition with the rapid improvement of the labor market it is diminishing and wages rising at a b

related to the pandemic, such as caregiving needs and fears of the virus, kept some people out of the labor force despite strongds demand for workers. nonetheless, october saw job growth of 531,000, and the unemployment rate fell to 4.6%, indicating a rebound in the pace of labor market improvement.%, there is still ground to cover to reach maximum employment for both employment and labor force participation, and we expect progress to continue. the economic downturn has not fallen equally, and those least able to shoulder the burden have been the hardest hit. in particular, despite progress, joblessness continues to fall disproportionately on african americans and hispanics. pandemic-related supply and demand imbalances have contributed to notable price increases in some areas. supply chain problems have made it difficult for producers to meet strong demand, particularly for goods. increases in energy prices and rents are also pushing inflation upward. as a result, overall inflation is running well above our 2% longer-run goal, with the price index for personal consumption expenditures up 5% over

, job openings, wages, flows in and out of the labor force in various parts of the labor force.so tend to look broadly and inclusively at different demographic groups and not just at the headline aggregate numbers. that he is a judgment for the committee to make. the committee will make a judgment that we have achieved labor market conditions consistent with maximum employment when it makes that, it is admittedly a judgment call because it is a range of factors. unlike inflation, where we have one number that sort of dominates. it is a broad range of things. so as i mentioned in my opening remarks, in my view, we are making rapid progress toward maximum employment and you see that in -- of course in some of the factors that i mentioned. >> great thank you. steve at cnbc. >> thank you, mr. chairman my question is, it's often said that monetary poll so has long and variable lags. how does continuing to buy assets now, even though it's at slower pace, address the current inflation problem? won't the impact of today's changes not really have any impact for six months or a year down

when you have a tight, but stable labor market, where people are coming in, they're getting in the labor force, they are getting paid well. in the labor market we had before, we had, the biggest wage increases were going to people at the bottom end of the wage spectrum for the last couple of years and a lot of really desirable aspects of the labor market like that higher participation is one of them and we love to get back there, but again ultimately, we have the tools that we have, which are essentially to stimulate demand, and also to control inflation. really, it might be one of the two big threats to getting back to maximum employment is actually high inflation, because to get back to where we were, the evidence grows that it's going to take sometime, and what we need is another long expansion, like the ones we've been having over the last 40 years. we've had i think three of the four longest in our recorded history, including the last one, which was the longest in our recorded history. that's what it would really take to get back to the kind of labor market we'd like to see and to have th

related to the pandemic, such as caregiving needs and fears of the virus kept people out of the labor force despite strong demand for workers. october saw job growth of 531,000 and the unappointed rate fell to 4.6%, indicating a rebound in the pace of labor market improvement. there is still ground to cover its reach maximum employment and we expect progress to continue. the economic downturn has not fallen equally and those least able to shoulder the burden have been the hardest hit, in particular, joblessness falls particular the hard on african-americans and hispanics. pandemic supply and demand imbalances have led to increased prices. supply chain problems have made it difficult for producers to meet strong demand, ticket lily for goods. increases in energy prices and rents are pushing inflation upwards. as a result, overall inflation is running well above our 2% goal with the price index up 5% ending in october. most forecasters including the fed suggests inflation will move down as supply and meant imbalances of eight. it is difficult to predict the supply constraints, but it appears

in the next few months, the labor force remains constrained in the labor market will uptight.ill continue to accelerate. that will feed into inflationary pressures. as we get further out, i optimistic the labor force will come back. you look at primates participation, it rose 90 basis -- you look at prime age participation, it rose 90 basis points last year. i'm optimistic for the second half of next year and further out. in the near term it is likely to remain constrained given omicron and the pandemic. kailey: i wonder how the buildup of savings plays in. the fact that the consumer has a strong balance sheet has allowed the consumer to keep pace and the wage growth is not where it might need to be in order for consumption to be that strong. as the consumer starts to draw down on those savings from is it going to take a complete removal of that buffer to drive people back to the labor force? matthew: sure. we have excess savings around $2.4 trillion since the pandemic hit. the key point is that is heavily skewed towards the upper part of the income distribution. we have a lar

maintaining your attachment to the labor force. and speaking about it as a bridge as opposed to a different track. -- i have been reading that black women are the biggest group who want to work from home. there has been talk of women who think that the remote environment is better for them because they do not deal with the constant micro-aggressions and hostility they have found in the workplace. do you think about that. >> yeah and it breaks my heart to be honest but it is one of the realities that we have to deal with. everyone i have had the honor and pleasure of working with. bring your challenges and idiosyncrasies to work every day because that israel will -- that is real life and your clients are not martian. when you bring yourself to work that is how we come up with solution because our clients and the things we are dealing with our issues. it worries me. i think all of us have an obligation to make sure that people, regardless of circumstance and what they look like feel like they can be themselves because we will see how

the impact of labor force participation finally coming back.is the strength of the underlying labor market. you look at the market reaction fading that initial disappointment it is spot on, and that is the bigger message. tom, i do not think this report changes anything from the fed with regard to the labor market. it is the crosscurrents between the headline in the underlying components. i think the underlying components are much stronger. jonathan: we have to talk about the fed. let's discuss their forecast. next year they have unemployment at 3.8%. we're almost there, 4.2%. how much of an adjustment we need to see in a couple of weeks? jeffrey: we could certainly city adjustments come down as they keep pace with how rapidly the labor market is improving. i think they are closer on the jobs front than the other forecast, which is the big topic, their inflation forecast. i think that will be the driver into december 15. and of course the other big story, the elephant in the room, this report does not have any of the covid omicron issues we sti

we continue to see labor force participation be lower than we would like. one of the reasons why the unemployment rate has been low and has been coming down is because we have not seen as many people return to the labor market. i expect that will continue to rise over the next year. i think that if we see the kinds of numbers we saw in october, in november, and moving forward, we will easily get back to the kind of pre-pandemic labor market, including absorbing new population growth and return of people to the labor force by the end of 2022. romaine: there was a lot of talk after powell's testimony earlier this week about full employment, the last leg the fed is looking for in order to start raising rates. has been a lot of debate as to what we are going to consider full employment. how we look at it overall from an economic perspective -- we saw in the most recent monthly jobs report growing disparities between black workers and white workers, between women and men, as well as other minority groups. how does that factor into the data? elise: i think that i

and these childcare provisions and those that should serve to boost labor force participation we lagmost other developed countries and research suggest our failure to provide adequate childcare and paid family leave is an important contributor. >> change the subject for one second. so with the safe banking act which is allowing financial institutions to provide financial services with the cannabis industry and those that serve the cannabis industry and you may know that we passed big bipartisan votes out of this committee last cycle and this cycle to amend the national defense authorization act. that is just to remind you where we are. in october cassidy college the senior counsel of the irs noted a special type of collection challenge the irs undertakes with tax collection from cannabis related businesses forced to operate cash only. over $50 million in taxes went on unassessed because of unique issues around the cannabis industry. madame secretary, do you agree these businesses were simply allowed to access the banking system and didn't have to transact business only in cash would

the rise in labor force participation.have been waiting for a pickup if labor supply it is a key part of our outlook for the economy for next year, is that labor supply is indeed going to start to pick up. that means there is more room for the labor market to run. we into tau the labor force participation rate break out of the sticky range it was in over the summer we just broke out of the 84% range. we also had expanding hours. we had wages that remained robust in aggregate, if you look at the income that was generated by the labor market with stronger hours and stronger wages, even though we created fewer jobs last month we actually created more labor market income than we did in october where we had almost twice the pace of grob job growh a lot of interesting mix of data points in there. when you look through the top line number it was quite a solid report. >> labor participation rate i find particularly interesting because for so long we have been asking, where are the workers? there are all of these job openings, and

when you have a tight but stable labor market where people are coming in, they're getting into the labor force, they're getting paid well. in the labor market we had before we had the biggest wage increases were going to people at the bottom end of the wage spectrum for the last couple of years. there were just a lot of really desirable aspects for the labor market higher participation is one of them, and we'd love to get back there. but, again, ultimately, we have the tools that we have, which are essentially to stimulate demand, and also to control inflation. i mean, really, it might be one of the two big threats to getting back to maximum employment is actually high inflation. because to get back to where we were, the evidence grows that it's going to take some time and what we need is another long expansion like the ones we've been having over the last 40 years. we've had i think three of the four longest in our recorded history, including the last one, which was the longest in our recorded history that's what it would really take to get back to the kind of labor market we'd like to see. a

forced labor was listed by the u.s. holocaust memorial museum in its november, 2021 report finding the chinese government had committed crimes against humanity in xinjiang. the uighur force labor prevention act prohibits imports from xinjiang to the u.s. by creating a rebuttable presumption that all goods produced in the region are made with forced labor unless u.s. customs and border protection certifies by clear and convincing evidence that goods were not produced with forced labor. mr. speaker, in two months the chinese government will host a winter olympics in the middle of a genocide. this is unconscionable. we ask the international olympic committee to postpone and move the games. they refused. i stead the i.o.c. maybe a chinese company implicated in xinjiang slave labor its official sports wear uniform supplier. i'm pleased that the biden administration has decided not to send american diplomats to the olympics. but congress needs to do its part by passing this bill before the olympics start. we must take a clear,

and because ofuss the pandemic substantial number of workers have not returned to the labor force. because they are concerned about the health consequences of working in face-to-faceng type jobs, and probably also because of childcare concerns. concerns. >> i do want to give you the floor to talk about the revenue provisions. >> of the gentleman from ohio, mr. gonzalez is recognized for five minutes. >> thank you to both for being with us today and congratulations on your appointment. earlier you said when supply and demand to get out of balance you can have inflation and it has accelerated while we still have supply chain bottlenecks. >> the demand has been strong and has also shifted away from services and towards goods which has created huge problems more than the aggregate level of demand. >> the american rescue plan which is a partisan bill increased demand which you testified to. you didn't do anything to alleviate the supply issues? >> it didn't have substantial impacts. >> this is my frustration for a year or year plus we negotiated in good faith legislation to be targeted

that shows you that companies are really eager to keep their existing labor force in place.ber i look at in this report is the unemployment rate, which dropped to 1.3%. this is the number of people who are getting unemployment insurance as a percentage of the labor force. this is just .1% lower or higher than the lowest level before the pandemic. that tells us we are good to hit 3.5% unemployment rate pretty soon. in fact, the bar is so low for that that even with moderate improvements in jobs, we will hit 3.5% by the middle of next year. kailey: i should correct myself i said that was one of the lowest in decades, but we did get the 188 handle earlier in the month. we look at jobless claims continue to trend lower. the unemployment rate, 3.5 is what we are looking at, yet you are still seeing low participation. are we starting to understand that structural changes in this labor market when you can have not as many people seeking jobs and unemployment benefits simultaneously? yelena: i think we are going to see continued slightest dish in the participation rate recovery, unf

there are some horrible findings among the statistics reform. doug's $147.00 camps have forced labor factories inside or near the potential to say which is which means that we suspect that they are involved in force labor and read it also find that $42.00 camps have crew material located with thing tension on the truth, we have shared this findings with the independent investigators from a ready for asia, for example, and by confirmed some of the materials located in actually city. and we did also find that there is a few cam who as, which is located next to an atomic laboratory in room to city. and we therefore suspect that those camps might have connections with 4th organ harvesting. so this is what i presented at the tribe, you know, that's really shocking material that i want to share something with my, my john, this is from global times, which is a state china paper publication. they described this yreka tribunal as a fall fits being staged in the west. what do you make of that reaction moment, john? china's response to this tribunal and other international actions. so campaigns

tough new legislation that puts the onus on businesses to prove that their sourcing is clear of force labor and china has target is it's muslim minority, weaker population through a series of internment camps, forced labor programs, and intense surveillance, more than a 1000000 wiggers are believed to have been detained. and yet for companies getting out of business in the region carries its own perils and u. s. chip maker intel issued an apology last week after informing suppliers in china. that would not do business and change on the announcement has had caused an uproar across the country. and meanwhile, the upcoming winter olympics. and paging is putting further pressure on businesses . but from another angle. western human rights groups criticize us companies sponsoring the events, including air b and b, coca cola and general electric i from wellness. i'm john by dexter roberts. he's a journalist and senior fellow with the atlanta council. he's author of the missed the myth of a chinese capitalism. dexter is good to have you on the show. let's start with since time this debut plan for

here is marco rubio with what he's hoping to do legally in the united states regarding force labor. have a listen havoc. after months of working on this and negotiation or having to play a little hard mall, my weaker force labor prevention act is, is going to become law. it's a common centreville that says if you make things in, she's young, then you need to prove that there is no slave labor involved in making it before you can bring that stuff into the united states. in other words, the proof is now on businesses dot the burdens on them to show that they opt, that they are not operating using these work camps. and if you can't prove it, then your product doesn't in the united states, it's that simple. so i hope an urge president biden to sign the bill into law immediately. it's time to end our economic addiction to china, and that starts by cracking down on slave labor. joe, i'll go ahead and yesterday at the house and senate finally made an agreement on the language of the of the, of this bill. and i can't wait for it to be passed completely. and that's only the 1st step. the most

i think the fact that people are coming back into the labor force is an encouraging sign and i think always been how do we get people back in the labor market the longer they're out of the labor market, the harder to come back in. i think it's a good sign that we're seeing more people come back into the labor force. we still have a ways to go and i do worry that we might end up with a permanently lower labor force given kind of the trends with older workers leaving the labor force in higher numbers so we'll see how it develops but at this point, it looks good >> like jay powell, you're concerned about inflation at this point you say those inflation expectations once they start to get baked in are hard to shut down what do you think happens next >> exactly, so i think we have to take this seriously, we're seeing that small businesses are reporting that they expect to raise prices in the next three months surveys say people -- consumers expect inflation of about 5% in the next year. once that starts to hold, it could end up causing a drag on the economy, so i think the fed is in a bit o

prove that god's imported from china -- goods importefrom china were not produced with false labor -- forcedlso includes sanctions against individuals alleged to be responsible. china has been accused of human rights abuses. the region isome to many muslim uighur populations. there have been allegations of forced labor, possibly genocide. last year, the bbc published an investigation based on new research -- showing china was forcing hundreds of thousands of minorities, including uighurs, and to manual labor. ny big u.s. companies such as coca-cola, nike, and apple will be affected by the law. they criticized it. we have reports from new york. reporter: the white house was initially not in support of this new law that was being worked out by congress. but eventually, pretty much late in the game, we heard from the white house they were in fact going to support this rule. it was something that congress really put together. it was something they had pushed through. gotta pass through -- got it passed through the house and senate with only one congressional leader actually not voting in favor f

there is only one number i care about in every job number i care from now through 2022, and that is labor force participation rate. this is one of the most important economic data points over the next six months. if we can get labor supply back into the economy, we will see less wage pressure, less inflationary concern, and we can start growing this economy. today's report, i know the headline wasn't good, questions about the underlying component, but this is good news because we see that labor force participation rate rise. it is that number that will be far more important to the outlook to the fed and markets than just generally whether we are missing by 100k. jonathan: bob michele? bob: francis is right, terrific report. you married that with the ism services index that came out, and that showed respondents showing there is still a labor shortage, and business is as good as it's ever been. this is a very healthy economy. jonathan: i has them 69 handle. krishna, your reaction? krishna: both bob and francis are making the right point. the economy is in fantastic shape right now. the key word i

most people would consider to be full employment, but it also happened when we saw big increase in labor forceticipation rate. so it is a lot of cross currents, you have to look deep into the data by my sense is it signifies the job market is strong. >> and labor participation rate going up means that people are finally coming in from the sidelines where they've been for 18 months? >> yeah, that is exactly right. so alisyn, during the pandemic, lots of people left the labor force for a lot of different reasons. illness, taking care of ill people and we need to get those folks back into the labor force and taking the unfilled job positions and today's numbers suggest that that process is underway. that people are now starting to come back in and taking those positions. that will help ease some of the labor shortages and normalize the economy. >> let's talk about the influence of another set of numbers. the new daily cases now above 100,000 per day for the first time in two months. the influence of those numbers, the now presence of omicron here in the u.s., how fears of that and the winter surg

you know, we have to expand the labor force.have to rely more on community colleges, more on high schools, frankly, be willing to hire fox who have been formerly incarcerated, dropped out of the workforps, or maybe don't have a four-year college degree we have to train them, help them get the skills they need to be effective. i am not, you know, diminishing the level of difficulty, but we are up for it. i'm actually incredibly excited to see the results >> finally, madam scaecretary, o were beginning to see signs of improving supply chains. since then, a lot of data shows better time, less backlog, lower shipping rates do you think this is for real? >> absolutely. truthfully, i talked to companies' ceos every single day, from the biggest to the smallers companies, and they are telling me they see it, it's for real they're telling me the stocks will be -- excuse me, the shelves will be stocked for christmas. the wait times are down, the crunch is easing, the ports are moving more smoothly so it is really on the administration, wo

at the same time, we see that a large number of workers, their participation in the labor force has declinedd it hasn't yet gotten back up to normal levels. in some cases it is because there were early retirements, and the pandemic did result in, unfortunately, a large death toll. but i think there are still many people who, especially low income workers, who don't feel confident about the health consequences of working, especially in face-to-face type jobs, so those people are still out of the labor force, and i think as we get greater control over the pandemic, the supply of workers will increase as those people come back to work. rep. waters: the gentleman from north carolina, mr. mchenry, the wrecking matter of the committee -- the ranking number of the committee, is now recognized. rep. mchenry: those in september and july, ask you about this. the fed incorporates new spending from the fiscal house, from congress and the white house, into projections, and the effects of your monetary decisions with the knowns of fiscal policy. a lot depends on the details. certainly you incorporate that

we also know that a third are people of what we call the shadow labor force.don't report looking for a job, so not officially unemployed, but they want a job. as covid receipts -- many are siding covid from keeping them out of the labor force. childcare is an issue. schools are not reliably open, childcare centers. it is hard for caretakers to go back full-time. covid is part of the mix but it will take time. joe: in our remaining moment, i wonder if you anticipate the president will announce his nominees to fill the open seats on the fed in the next couple of days? sec. rouse: this is an important decision by the president and he wants to make a considered decision. i have nothing for you on that today. joe: would you be prepared if he asked you to fill one of those seats? sec. rouse: i have a fabulous job, thank you. joe: appreciate your time being here. we will have a lot to talk about in the new year as we find our way through 2022. we would love to stay in touch with you on that. sec. rouse: delighted. joe: from here in the nation's capital, that is cecil

>> the difference boils down to labor force participation and we have not seen this rebound of participationhat many people were expecting around labor day on the unemployment benefits expired and a lot of the schools reopen for in person learning. it simply did not happen, and normally if you are creating jobs at a pace of 150,000 to 200,000 per month that is enough to keep the unemployment rate stable. we are talking about easily doubling that. until we start to see that rebound of participation which, for the reasons that we think are underlying that, that is something that will be resolved during the winter months with a new variant on the rampage and case counts picking up dramatically even before the variant was discovered. i think those same inhibiting factors will remain present through the winter months meaning that weeks are set we could see a gap lower in the unemployment rate. we could see a lot of forecasting pointing to a re-handle on unemployment. i would not be surprised that if over the next quarter or so we see really a dramatic decline in unemployment which puts that much

labor force participation, slightly different measurement, its way down and that means your people areking or even looking for jobs. so that's the picture on one side of the labor market. and yet, this is the truly bizarre part, we are simultaneously experiencing a serious labor shortage. we have a shortage of labor and neglect of labor simultaneously. in some places, businesses have shut down because they can't find employees, as you well know if you live here. so again at the very same moment, we have both too many workers and also to fewer workers. that does not make sense. how can that possibly be happening? and again, we are going to be honest and tell you we are not entirely sure how it's happening. no one is entirely sure. but we can tell you it's definitely not natural. this is not how markets are supposed to work. this is not a good sign. if you are running the country and you would be responsible person, you'd be concerned about a trend like this but the leaders don't seem especially concerned. a professor of economics at michigan state university, cook has advised joe biden'

that breaking toil forced labor stress in industrial injury. corporal punishment. oh no. words with which we are all familiar. are you certain that the world you live in abolished slavery long ago with this is boon bought the one business show you care the for demit number and your board. and i'm rachel evans, in washington coming out of ever grant gets the label of restrictive default for the 1st time from a major credit rating agency after it's 30 day grace period comes to annette. well, that's got what it could mean for the embattled company, plus the drama surrounding the north stream to pipeline continue from europe all the way to the us. we'll tell you which leaders are begging germany if you cancel or not to give rely to the project that has been years in the making then in wage and has hit the digital sphere as online prices search to a record high. in november, we'll discuss the new wave of inflating hitting consumers during the holiday season . we got a lot in store started. we lead the program with an update in the chinese real estate saga. both china ev

made with forced labor, but this takes it a step further by issuing a blanket sanction or a blanket proclamation that all goods coming from that region are made with forced labor. it puts the burden of proof on the companies in a different way than status quo before the bill was signed into law. >> intel is an interesting case study because they have walked back trying to make it clear that what they are doing is only to ensure regulatory compliance. it is not an ethical or moral stance. it doesn't look good to either side when there is the perceived backtracking. >> that's a great point. just to reiterate quickly that -- the intel situation. they made a statement that they were going to start pulling back from the region because of the forced labor issue. they got criticism from the chinese government that. they apologized and they are in a unique situation in that they're trying to expand in the u.s. and europe. there also trying to expand in china. you saw the statement where they apologized or took back some of their rhetoric. that largely in the business world landed with some i

in sion, jain and sledge force labor is rife which beijing denies. adrian's ends is a senior fellow in china's studies with the victims of communism. memorial foundation, he says, action on the issue of important goods made using force. labor is long leverage. you some voices say that the, by the end, ministration has some interest to delay this. some voices also say that the state department is interested in a more targeted approach rather than a blanket ban of goods mate and change young that create a rebuttable presumption that companies basically have to say if we want to import anything made from january 1st, have to prove that it's not made with forced labor, which is actually the proper way to tackle this. companies have long tried to look the other way. they were not sure what to do about this because dependence on change, your cotton is huge. it's very hard to divest from it companies now or gradually realizing the problem is not going anywhere. and they will have to look for a tentative supply chains. and i believe that has started because companies realize, sooner or later t

the interest in our country is about the human rights aspect but also the forced labor piece of it. when president jean -- president xi jinping brings these people into the forced labor camps and is separating them from families and taking other drastic action he is also engaging in forced labor. that is something that we cannot have our businesses compete with. so, from a moral standpoint, a value standpoint, the legislation is very important and, from a trade standpoint, essential as well. the big event for yesterday was the debt limit. to lift the debt limit. it is always so interesting to me that the republicans vote against lifting the debt limit, the ceiling of the debt limit. millions of jobs lost. trillions of dollars of household wealth down the drain. and again, the cause -- the cost , you have a car loan, a credit card bill, a school loan, any interest you are paying on a loan will be increased. we did not lift the debt ceiling -- if we did not lift the debt ceiling -- the constitution says the faith in credit of the u.s. should not be questioned. discussions of it a few y

thing is that that would be true of individuals below the median, and we know that, in fact, female labor force anticipation for low income, and low income households is less than female labor for gestation and in the higher income assets so go slightly the other way. >> can use a little bit more about that? that's interesting. >> gap. part of it is because the lower income households have individuals with lower levels of education, and so their ability to get better jobs and to be more sort of motivated to work and to earn income is somewhat less than for the higher income individuals. we have enormously wide inequality of earnings in the u.s. and we have enormously wide inequality of family income. so at the lower end are disproportionately single mom's with kids, okay? and at the higher in our disproportionately couples that have high levels of education. so in fact, you know, i don't buy into the premise of the question and, in fact, the facts don't seem to lend any credibility to it. i think the person who asked it will probably think no, no, no, i can rephrase it so you understand what i'

it signals that america will not tolerate forced labor and products made from forced labor shall not enter the american marketplace. in 2021, for any country to realize or utilize forced labor systemically and to oppress and exploit its population is unconscionable, unacceptable, and indeed, un-american. and we cannot and will not stand idly by. this legislation is critical to showing that we are putting human rights at the center of our foreign and economic policy. and so i support this bill, and i look forward to continuing to work. i want to thank mr. barr. i know mr. mccaul and my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for going forward and speaking up and i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new york reserves. the gentleman from kentucky is recognized. mr. barr: thank you, mr. speaker. i want to thank the chairman of the house foreign affairs committee, my good friend from new york, mr. meeks, for his leadership and helping support this legislation, bringing it to the house floor. i want to thank the gentleman from massachusetts for his lea

and that labor force participation rate remain stubbornly low. and that's something that share power brought up in the press conference as saying as being problematic. and de la, you brought up an interesting point because he did mentioned that he mentioned the labor shortage. he mentioned that their wages are going up, but he doesn't see that those will make prices go up. but how can i really say that? i mean, that's where i get confused as to what he's saying. i'm like, there is no way that wages don't go up. you add more money to the economy the same way the federal reserve has and prices won't continue to write. yeah, no, there was. you could tell that he was struggling with certain questions and the idea of wage inflation is certainly one of the, one of the trickier situations, especially when it comes to small businesses in america. it makes it very, very difficult to hire people in this environment. and again i, i stubbornly go back to the idea of fiscal stimulus making the situation that much worse. and we're talking about potentially pou

in the united states particularly on the lower wage end of the labor force who are saying i'm reallyand i think that this could be a fundamental, you know, it's overused all the time. the inflection point. i think this is an inflection point in terms of labor relations in america. >> i hope so because i think that it was very much out of balance. you also have the role of social media in this particular moment, a tiktok activist sort of created code in this kellogg strike. what do you think about the engagement of social media folks, people on reddit and tiktok to support the workers in these cases? >> hugely important. it is a new factor, and a lot of companies, a lot of management are kind of scratching their heads. you know, we didn't think consumers and others out there, particularly young people, would be that interested, but it turns out that if you look at the country as a whole, 65% of americans now approve labor unions. this is a new high, record high even though a record low percentage of americans are actually in unions because there has been so much union opposition by co