mr. chairman. >> senator menendez. >> thank you mr. chairman.ssets such as the dollar another currency. and then this only provides the illusion of stability for stable coin investors. our market participants able to verify their portfolio holdings backing of stable coins they invest in? >> so those are provided statements some of those that have self audited statements on their holdings. or to set the standards. >> look at the rose are just able coin with the promise of the 121 backing with the dollar and instead bloomberg found many are backed by risky loans so it seems that transparency is the quarters and on —- in the cornerstone in those areas of the financial system. how does treasury intend to increase transparency with market participant to have the backing of the stable coins to have a true understanding of those associated? >> yes that pwg report shows the important element. and i would mention however that transparency and disclosure are not sufficient. but then to the investor so that showing more displeasure through transparency. >>

mr. jeremy. >> senator menendez from new jersey is recognized from his office. i believe. senator warner is recognized from virginia from his office. >> think it mr. chairman you caught me a little bit quicker there. i appreciate again having this hearing mr. chairman it's an issue i think we all need to learn a little more about i have got a twofold question. one is, i'm going to reiterate a bu in the ranking member, can we check on a real-time basis that there is sufficient backing on the stable coins? and let's assume for a moment there is but i would like to get to the reiteration of that from the undersecretary. but the bigger question i have is assuming theirs is backing and you've got potentially billions and billions of assets having that one -- one at matching, how is there a viable business model here for stable coins unless they are charging exorbitant amounts of fees and other add on costs. the idea behind oftentimes stable coins is there is less restriction. you can transfer these resources from commerce to currencies that may be unstable and second and third w

menendez bill. and then in the house, mr. meeks' bill from his committee. they are on a similar path. there are those, some on the republican side, who would like to have the preemptive -- have these sanctions first. where i come down in keeping with the guidance from my committee chair, mr. meeks, the -- and the administration, i think it's very important for us to use the sanctions. it's the rush -- if the russians strike. it's important because it's where leverage is at maximum. if we do this, then we strike. it is where most of our allies are on this. that is a very important part of this, how we work jointly on it. and that is why -- that is why i support using sanctions if they invade. reporter: how about -- how drastic do we want sanctions? are you in favor of taking them out of the swiss financial system? what do you see? speaker pelosi: well, the committee -- i think they have to be much more forceful than they have been because we're talking about an invasion of a country. we're talking about nato -- nato countries being at risk if the russians succeed in ukraine. so this is

next is senator menendez. >> thank you, mr. chairman. across the congress we all talk about the provider shortages the nation is facing especially mental health providers that are available for black and latino communities and the pandemic has taken a disproportionate toll and the provider shortage has only grown more dire. more dedicated support for a larger and more diverse pediatric workforce is critical, i believe, to address children's mental health needs now and into the future. dr. benton, what are three things this committee can do to address the recruitment, training, retention and professional development of a diverse clinical and nonclinical workforce? >> thank you for that question, senator, and it's one of the issues i struggle with every day as a training director and as a physician. some of the things we could do now is developing pipelines at a much younger age. so in my testimony i mentioned the fifth graders interviewing me about why did i become a child psychiatrist and i was pleased they were asking these questions in

. >> thank you, senator toomey, and joining us from his office is senator menendez from new jersey. >> thank you, mr. chairman. there's a massive racial ohm ownership gap in the country, which is a serious problem, because owning a home the key to building generational wealth and reducing wealth inequality overall. the white home ownership is 74.4%, compared to 43.1% for african americans, and 48.4% for hispanics. so what are some of the barriers to minority home ownership and how do large land ownership contribute? >> what we discovered through the analysis of the land conservancy is lending disparities are very real. we're finding that majority/minority neighborhoods do not have access to credit, and we still see red lining going on in those neighborhoods, and we see disturbing trends where black borrowers are getting less opportunity of mortgage capital than white income barrowers, and it's clear as stated, you know, in some of our low income areas, there's no opportunity for homeowner as it has become a investor-dominated market. there's few to no mortgages being written in some parts of our com

senator menendez from new jersey. >> thank you, mr. chairman. there is a massive racial homeownership gap in this country which is a serious problem because owning a home is a key to building intergenerational wealth and reduce racial wealth inequality overall. according to the census bureau data white homeownership is 74.4% compared to about 43.1% for african-americans and 48.4% for hispanics. so, ms. martin mr. wallace what are some of the barriers to minority homeownership? how do large commercial landlords mitigate or exacerbate these obstacles? >> yes hello. i can respond to that. but we have discovered in northeast ohio through the analysis done by frank ford who is the chair is that lending disparities are real. that majority minority neighborhoods do not have equal access. we twice very disturbing trends were black borrows even lhigh end black borrowers have less of an opportunity of getting a mortgage capitol than even moderate income white borrowers. so frank's research is very startling in that. it is very clear as stated, some of our

mr. chair. i yield. >> thank you. senator menendez. >> i am about to acknowledge the hard-working employees of the irs, many who have been working tirelessly since the pandemic, almost two years ago next month, and we want to thank them for their dedication to the american taxpayers. but during the 2022 taxpayer filing system, tens of millions of taxpayers have been forced to wait extraordinary periods of time for the irs to perform the most basic of functions, processing their returns, and issuing their refunds, and that's why my office has continued to receive calls about these issues each and every day, we have had thousands of calls since the pandemic began. the irs touches more americans than any other entities, private or public. ms. lewis, i worked with the cpa to send two letters to the irs last month asking them to halt the selections or delay the selections, and streamline those that were impacted by covid-19, and provide penalty relief for taxpayers who paid at least 70% of their taxes due for the 2022, 2021 tax years and e

i have had a couple of conversations with chairman menendez over on the senate foreign relations side and i know that mrce and i'm determined that hopefully we can come together on a resolution from the united states congress, both house and senate, saying that we are locked in with our nato and european allies and our allies in ukraine. >> obviously, this is a focus and an intense time for your work and your expertise, but i wonder how much you hear from your constituents about this issue and what the engagement is like in your view from the american people. >> well, i'm getting calls now as this seems to be more urgent, and from a number of my constituents, just trying to get my viewpoints and my thoughts because the truth of the matter is, if russia continues with its ways, they will -- all the world will suffer initially. we talk about the price of gas and other things, disruption from the global supply chain will continue, so we got to be focused on that and understand that, try to explain to them, should we try to -- sure. surely i let them know that the administration has done a fantastic job by

and i'm only moving on because we need to see if we can get senator menendez andpo senar brown and senator cortez masco. >> thank you mr. chairman. >> we are going to see what we can do to get things out. >> in early childhood visiting program is. evidence-based program, that supports pregnant women and young families. the multiyear support is critical to having young people start with their lives healthier and better prepare for early childhood learning and also parents with connecting to community based how can we further support this program so more young people are starting off on a strong with young parents including pregnant and parenting foster youth the digital means of support. >> i appreciate the question to support families. it is essential. we have more and more evidence that these programs making a big difference, not just an immediate setting but years dowo the line. anything that i do to work with you to support these efforts, i would be happy to do. i would find one of thefo challenges is when the programs are funded that many communities who s do do not know about them so they don't avail themselves of

mr. chairman. sen. wyden: thank you, senator cantwell. the northwest will be united in this effort. i believe senator menendez will be next. senator menendez, are you out there online? sen. menendez: [no audio] sen. wyden: we may have lost senator menendez. senator portman is next. sen. portman: i appreciate the testimony and the fact that you are in the trenches doing great work every day with our young people. dr. hoover, you talked about telehealth and i want to make sure we are focused on broad, behavioral health and specifically substance abuse. intimated telehealth is one of the few silver linings in a dark cloud of covid. with regard to subsequence -- substance abuse treatment, there has been improvement. dr. hoover: i would agree with that. an opioid crisis has brought tension that has been exacerbated during covid. the funding provided by the federal government to states and communities to support the opioid crisis has been tremendous and there has been an improvement in care with improvements in tele-mental health. sen. portman: we have to continue to have reimbursement under medicaid and medicare for substance a

menendez and brown and in before. we will see what we can do. >> thank you mr. chairman. the maternal instinct of early childhood home is evidence-based program that supports pregnant women and young families the multiyear support is critical to have their lives healthier to benefit childhood learning it also has parents through mental health screenings to communicate community-based resources. so how can we further support the program so more young people are starting off on a strong fitting and young parents including pregnant and parenting frustrated have an additional means of support? >> i appreciate the question and i do agree these early intervention programs that support families are absolutely essential. we have more and more evidence these types of programs make a difference for years down the line. anything that i can do to work with you to support these efforts, i would be happy to do. i find it one of the challenges even when programs are funded so they don't avail themselves to what technical assistance is available to implement those programs. but these are

mr. menendez: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from new jersey. mr. nendez: madam president, for nearly 30 years first as a member of the house foreign affairs committee and to this day as chairman of the senate foreign relations committee, i've had the privilege of engaging in the most pressing foreign policy of national security issues facing our nation. and while we are rightly focused on the crisis unfolding around ukraine, we must not lose sight of how dangerously close iran is to becoming a nuclear arms state. for we know that a nuclear armed iran would pose an unacceptable threat to u.s. national security interests, to our allies in europe and to overall stability in the middle east. as someone who has followed iran's nuclear ambition for the better part of three decades, i'm here today to raise concerns about the current round of negotiations over the joint comprehensive plan of action and iran's dangerously and rapidly escalating nuclear program that has put it on the brink of having enough material for a nuclear weapon. three to four weeks, a

mr. menendez: mr. president. come to the floor today to voice my strong support for four highly qualified nominees we are soon to vote on, dr. amy gutmann to be the u.s. ambassador to germany. mr. scott nathan to be the chief executive officer of the u.s. international development finance corporation. miss lisa carty to be the u.s. representative to the u.s. economic and social council. and miss chantale yokmin wong to be the united states director of the asian development bank. they're all highly qualified. i'll speak for a minute or two on dr. gutmann and mr. nathan in particular. our partnership with european allies is ever more critical as we attempt to deter further russian escalation and aggressive behavior towards ukraine. germany is key to this effort. absolutely critical to the work we need to do to prevent vladimir putin from furthering his aims to reclaim a sphere of influence and destabilize europe. so while it was beyond irresponsible for some of our republican colleagues to bottle up dr. gutmann's n