[Senate Hearing 113-539]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 113-539
NOMINATIONS OF D. NATHAN SHEETS,
RAMIN TOLOUI, AND MARIA CANCIAN
=======================================================================
HEARING
before the
COMMITTEE ON FINANCE
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
on the
NOMINATIONS OF
D. NATHAN SHEETS, TO BE UNDER SECRETARY FOR INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS,
DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY; RAMIN TOLOUI, TO BE ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR
INTERNATIONAL FINANCE, DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY; AND MARIA CANCIAN,
TO BE ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR CHILDREN AND FAMILIES, DEPARTMENT OF
HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
__________
JUNE 25, 2014
__________
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Printed for the use of the Committee on Finance
_______________
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
92-749-PDF WASHINGTON : 2014
_______________________________________________________________
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Publishing Office
Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512-1800; DC area (202) 512-1800
Fax: (202) 512-2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20402-0001
COMMITTEE ON FINANCE
RON WYDEN, Oregon, Chairman
JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER IV, West ORRIN G. HATCH, Utah
Virginia CHUCK GRASSLEY, Iowa
CHARLES E. SCHUMER, New York MIKE CRAPO, Idaho
DEBBIE STABENOW, Michigan PAT ROBERTS, Kansas
MARIA CANTWELL, Washington MICHAEL B. ENZI, Wyoming
BILL NELSON, Florida JOHN CORNYN, Texas
ROBERT MENENDEZ, New Jersey JOHN THUNE, South Dakota
THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware RICHARD BURR, North Carolina
BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, Maryland JOHNNY ISAKSON, Georgia
SHERROD BROWN, Ohio ROB PORTMAN, Ohio
MICHAEL F. BENNET, Colorado PATRICK J. TOOMEY, Pennsylvania
ROBERT P. CASEY, Jr., Pennsylvania
MARK R. WARNER, Virginia
Joshua Sheinkman, Staff Director
Chris Campbell, Republican Staff Director
(ii)
C O N T E N T S
__________
OPENING STATEMENTS
Page
Wyden, Hon. Ron, a U.S. Senator from Oregon, chairman, Committee
on Finance..................................................... 1
Hatch, Hon. Orrin G., a U.S. Senator from Utah................... 3
ADMINISTRATION NOMINEES
Sheets, D. Nathan, Ph.D.,nominated to be Under Secretary for
International Affairs, Department of the Treasury, Washington,
DC............................................................. 6
Toloui, Ramin,nominated to be Assistant Secretary for
International Finance, Department of the Treasury, Washington,
DC............................................................. 7
Cancian, Maria, Ph.D.,nominated to be Assistant Secretary for
Children and Families, Department of Health and Human Services,
Washington, DC................................................. 8
ALPHABETICAL LISTING AND APPENDIX MATERIAL
Cancian, Maria, Ph.D.:
Testimony.................................................... 8
Prepared statement........................................... 15
Biographical information..................................... 17
Responses to questions from committee members................ 40
Hatch, Hon. Orrin G.:
Opening statement............................................ 3
Prepared statement........................................... 42
Sheets, D. Nathan, Ph.D.:
Testimony.................................................... 6
Prepared statement........................................... 45
Biographical information..................................... 47
Responses to questions from committee members................ 61
Toloui, Ramin:
Testimony.................................................... 7
Prepared statement........................................... 72
Biographical information..................................... 74
Wyden, Hon. Ron:
Opening statement............................................ 1
Prepared statement........................................... 86
(iii)
NOMINATIONS OF D. NATHAN SHEETS,
TO BE UNDER SECRETARY FOR
INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, DEPARTMENT
OF THE TREASURY; RAMIN TOLOUI,
TO BE ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR
INTERNATIONAL FINANCE, DEPARTMENT
OF THE TREASURY; AND MARIA CANCIAN,
TO BE ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR
CHILDREN AND FAMILIES, DEPARTMENT
OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
----------
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25, 2014
U.S. Senate,
Committee on Finance,
Washington, DC.
The hearing was convened, pursuant to notice, at 10:10
a.m., in room SD-215, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Ron
Wyden (chairman of the committee) presiding.
Present: Senator Hatch.
Also present: Democratic Staff: Joshua Sheinkman, Staff
Director; Anderson Heiman, International Competitiveness and
Innovation Advisor; Michael Evans, General Counsel; Jocelyn
Moore, Deputy Staff Director; Jayme White, Chief International
Competitiveness and Innovation Advisor; Laura Berntsen, Senior
Human Services Advisor; and Lisa Pearlman, International Trade
Counsel. Republican Staff: Everett Eissenstat, Chief
International Trade Counsel; Becky Shipp, Health Policy
Advisor; Rebecca Eubank, International Trade Analyst; Jeff
Wrase, Chief Economist; Nicholas Wyatt, Tax and Nominations
Professional Staff Member; and Chris Campbell, Staff Director.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. RON WYDEN, A U.S. SENATOR FROM
OREGON, CHAIRMAN, COMMITTEE ON FINANCE
The Chairman. The Finance Committee will come to order.
This morning the Finance Committee is considering three
nominees for key posts in the administration: Dr. Nathan
Sheets, Mr. Ramin Toloui, and Dr. Maria Cancian. Each of these
nominees brings years of experience and skills that will be
essential if they take on these new roles.
Nathan Sheets has been nominated to be the Under Secretary
for International Affairs at the Treasury Department. In this
role, Dr. Sheets will be one of America's chief economic
diplomats, representing the United States in high-level
discussions to develop the rules of the road that are going to
shape the global economy. Working closely with Dr. Sheets will
be Mr. Ramin Toloui, nominated to be Deputy Under Secretary for
International Finance at the Treasury Department.
These two individuals obviously face a challenging task.
Our country sits in the middle of a complex international
economic system, one that operates across longer distances and
at a faster pace than ever before. New technologies have opened
up more opportunities to bring Americans into the economic
winner's circle, but, as the global economy becomes more
interconnected, our workers and our businesses too often see
their competitors gaining at their expense.
So, what Americans expect of these nominees in particular
is to lead the charge for our country to develop the rules and
the relationships with other nations that ensure that America
can compete on a level playing field with our major trading
partners. If confirmed, their work is going to be vital to
ensuring the U.S. economy can support the ambitions of our
citizens to live the American dream by supporting their
families, buying a house, and educating their children.
Under the best conditions, this is going to be a tough job.
But the world is still reeling from the international financial
crisis. This has left our global economy out of balance in a
major way, and that imbalance is a cause for concern in the
United States.
Economists have been sounding the warning bell for years
that some of our larger trading partners continue to manipulate
their currencies and drag their feet on reforms. Currency
manipulation makes it harder for the United States to produce
good-paying jobs and ship our goods overseas.
Take China as an example. China's currency policies
artificially make their own products cheaper and U.S. products
more expensive. That is unfair competition, and it puts
American jobs at risk.
In these conditions, it is especially important to have
smart, capable people at Treasury, people who can help find a
way to end currency manipulation and other harmful practices
that have been documented for years, to work in close
consultation with the Congress so Americans from across the
country can know that their concerns are being heard, and to
develop the rules and relationships necessary to stabilize the
international economic system and establish a path for long-
term growth in our country.
A brief look at their backgrounds makes it clear that these
two nominees are up to the task.
Dr. Sheets served for 18 years at the Federal Reserve,
including during the financial crisis. And, if confirmed, Mr.
Toloui will be returning to the Treasury Department after a
long and distinguished career serving there in a number of
roles.
Both individuals have spent time in the public and private
sectors, learning the nuts and bolts of international finance.
By working with high-level officials from across the globe,
they know what it takes to forge common ground and to foster
cooperation on these difficult issues.
Also with us today is Dr. Maria Cancian, nominated to be
Assistant Secretary for Children and Families at the Department
of Health and Human Services. As the leader of this agency, Dr.
Cancian would oversee a range of programs and initiatives that
are vital to America's most vulnerable individuals, including
the foster care system, TANF, and child support programs.
It is no secret that these programs could use an overhaul.
They are not delivering the outcomes they should for those
families that need them most. Americans deserve safety net
programs that are going to break the cycle of poverty and give
our people a more sure footing to climb the economic ladder in
our country.
If confirmed, Dr. Cancian would bring a wealth of knowledge
and experience to this position. She comes from both academia
and the public sector and has worked to ensure that
policymakers pursue solutions aimed squarely at giving parents
the resources they need to get by. Given the unique challenges
facing working families today, her laser-like focus and years
of experience ought to serve the Department well.
I thank all of the nominees for joining us today and hope
the committee will act on these nominations expeditiously.
[The prepared statement of Chairman Wyden appears in the
appendix.]
The Chairman. Senator Hatch?
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. ORRIN G. HATCH,
A U.S. SENATOR FROM UTAH
Senator Hatch. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to thank you
for holding today's hearing. I also want to thank our nominees
for joining us.
Today we are considering the nominations of Nathan Sheets
to be Under Secretary for International Affairs and Ramin
Toloui to be Deputy Under Secretary for International Finance
at the Treasury Department. Both are very important positions,
and I believe both nominees are well-qualified.
My staff and I have discussed our priorities with both
nominees, but I would like to recap some of my concerns here.
First, it is vital that Treasury be more responsive to
information requests from Congress. If Congress is to
effectively fulfill its constitutional role on behalf of the
American people, Treasury, it seems to me, has to be more
forthcoming than it has been in the recent past.
Both nominees ensured me that they will work to fix this
problem, and I certainly hope they will. I also hope both
nominees will help push the administration to be a stronger,
more public advocate on behalf of renewing Trade Promotion
Authority, or TPA. TPA is the linchpin to our international
trade agenda. Without it, I do not think the administration can
negotiate standard trade agreements which will achieve the
goals of Congress and have the opportunity of being passed into
law.
The bipartisan Trade Priorities Act I introduced with
former Senator Baucus, along with Chairman Camp on the House
Ways and Means Committee, would renew TPA and outline a set of
bipartisan priorities for our trade negotiations. It is my hope
that we can move on our legislation as soon as possible. It is
the only way that we can ensure that the ambitious trade
negotiations currently underway are successful. And I know the
distinguished chairman feels much the same way I do. And the
President needs to do more to get this done.
On the substance of these trade agreements, I have made it
clear that no sector should be excluded from our efforts to
enhance regulatory convergence as part of the Trans-Atlantic
Trade and Investment Partnership negotiations, or TTIP,
including financial services. Financial services play an
essential role in facilitating trade and investment flows.
Given the central importance of the financial sector to every
other aspect of industrialized economies, I do not see how
financial services regulation can be excluded from a meaningful
TTIP agreement.
I also understand that, because of Treasury's intransigence
on this issue, the European Union is starting to pull other
sectors off the table, including audiovisual services and
potentially even financial services market access. I am
concerned about that. Such an outcome would be unacceptable to
me, and I hope our nominees will help ensure that this does not
happen.
I would also like to remind Treasury officials to keep
Congress in the loop before going off to discuss important
issues related to taxes and international finance at gatherings
of government officials from other countries, such as the G-20
meetings. It has too often been the case, in my view, that
officials make commitments at international gatherings without
adequate input from Congress. To take just one example,
representatives of the administration agreed to recognize the
IMF and subsequently dropped it on the doorstep of Congress as
an international commitment that had to be honored.
Making commitments of taxpayer resources for potentially
risky international bailouts is something that, in my opinion,
should receive congressional input before the commitment is
made, and not after. Similarly, any international commitments
relevant to U.S. tax policy ought to receive congressional
input in advance.
In addition to our two Treasury nominees, we will also
consider the nomination of Maria Cancian for Assistant
Secretary for Children and Families at the Department of Health
and Human Services.
Now, this is a key post, and it has been without a leader
for too long. I am hopeful that, if confirmed, Dr. Cancian will
work in a bipartisan manner to advance key reforms needed in
our child welfare and foster care system.
Now, child welfare reform is long overdue. We need to work
on that. The current system is structured so that the largest
percentage of Federal dollars is directed to the least
desirable outcome, which is the removal of children from their
homes and placing them with strangers. The current system also
features an over-
reliance on placements in group homes, which, as research
overwhelmingly shows, contributes to negative outcomes for
children and youth.
I understand that Dr. Cancian shares my concern over group
homes. I hope she will work with me to reduce the number of
children who are placed in these facilities.
Finally, as the chairman knows, the Temporary Assistance
for Needy Families, or TANF, programs have not been
reauthorized for years. Progress on TANF has been stymied by
the administration's refusal to withdraw the informational
memorandum to States unilaterally granting this administration
the authority to waive critical welfare work requirements.
Many of us believe that the administration does not have
the authority to waive welfare work requirements. Even if the
members of this administration disagree on this point, the fact
remains that no State has applied for one of these waivers.
The refusal to withdraw the informational memorandum
remains a barrier to bipartisan work on TANF reauthorization. I
hope that, under Dr. Cancian's leadership, we can find a way
forward to implementing meaningful improvements to TANF.
Once again, Mr. Chairman, I am grateful for this hearing
and look forward to hearing from our nominees.
The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Hatch.
[The prepared statement of Senator Hatch appears in the
appendix.]
The Chairman. Our first nominee is Nathan Sheets, nominated
to be Under Secretary for International Affairs at the U.S.
Department of Treasury.
Dr. Sheets, it has been a tradition here at the Finance
Committee to have you introduce your family, and, if you would
like to do that, that would be great.
Dr. Sheets. Thank you, Chairman Wyden.
I am very pleased to introduce my wife, Kimberly, and our
youngest son, Eli. Eli's three older siblings are away this
week at various kinds of summer activities, but I know they are
here in spirit.
The Chairman. How old is Eli?
Dr. Sheets. Eli is 10.
The Chairman. All right. We are glad you are here, Eli.
Thank you.
Our second nominee is Mr. Ramin Toloui, nominated to be
Deputy Under Secretary at the Treasury Department.
Mr. Toloui, why don't you introduce your family?
Mr. Toloui. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
My mother and father are here, Alyce and Ahmad, here from
Iowa City, and I would not be anywhere without them. So it is
great to share this day with them.
The Chairman. Very good. And now we have Dr. Cancian,
nominated to be Assistant Secretary for Children and Families
at the Department of Health and Human Services.
Dr. Cancian, your family?
Dr. Cancian. Thank you, Chairman Wyden.
My husband, Chuck Kalish, is here, and our oldest daughter,
Emma Cancian Kalish. Our younger daughter, Rosa, is busy
teaching summer school in Madison, WI and could not get the day
off to come.
The Chairman. Very good. Thank you all. As is our usual
practice, your prepared statements are going to be made a part
of the record. Please use your 5 minutes to summarize.
Why don't we start with you, Dr. Sheets?
STATEMENT OF D. NATHAN SHEETS, Ph.D., NOMINATED TO BE UNDER
SECRETARY FOR INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, DEPARTMENT OF THE
TREASURY, WASHINGTON, DC
Dr. Sheets. Chairman Wyden, Ranking Member Hatch, and
members of the Committee on Finance, thank you for the
opportunity to appear before you this morning as you consider
my nomination to serve as Under Secretary of the Treasury for
International Affairs.
I am honored that President Obama has nominated me for this
position. If confirmed, I look forward to working with
Secretary Lew, the Treasury staff, and others in the
administration. I also look forward to working closely with
this committee and with others in Congress in pursuing
international economic policies that advance the interests and
well-being of the American people.
The full thrust of my professional career has been focused
on international economics and public policy, and I believe it
has prepared me to serve in this position of public trust. The
bulk of my experience has come as an economist on the Federal
Reserve Board's International Finance Division, where I worked
for 18 years.
Notably, my first major assignment was monitoring
developments in Russia and Ukraine. Experience has proved
remarkably helpful in recent months. In subsequent assignments,
I covered Japan; the emerging market economies, including
China; U.S. trade and current account issues; and the evolving
outlook for global growth. I also served in the U.S. Executive
Director's office at the IMF where I became acquainted with the
Fund from the inside.
In September of 2007, as the global financial crisis
erupted, I was appointed director of the Federal Reserve
Board's International Finance Division. In this role, I managed
a large team of analysts and regularly advised the board and
the Federal Open Market Committee, or FOMC, on global economic
and financial issues. Through the dark days of the crisis, I
focused on the rapidly evolving challenges, such as risks to
the dollar, financial stability stresses, and tensions
emanating from Greece and other vulnerable European countries.
I also participated in a full slate of international
meetings, including those at the G-20, the G-7, the OECD, and
the Bank for International Settlements. The responsibilities of
this position were in many respects parallel to those of the
Treasury Under Secretary for International Affairs.
More recently, I complemented my almost 2 decades of
public-sector experience with 2\1/2\ years as a global
economist in the private sector. During this time, I met face-
to-face with hundreds of investors throughout the world. This
dialogue has given me a deeper sense of how markets actually
function, and where risks to our financial system may arise.
Throughout my career, I have developed close working
relationships with senior policy officials and market
participants in the United States and abroad. It is my
conviction that effective international policymaking is
predicated on strong personal relationships and the ability to
connect with counterparts. I have experience honed during the
financial crisis, drawing on such relationships to achieve
effective international cooperation.
Looking ahead, my sense is that there is still work to be
done in implementing the lessons of the global financial
crisis. This includes further fortifying our financial sector
and, in the process, working with international counterparts to
ensure that they follow suit, advocating strong domestic
demand-led policies on our major trading partners, and
preparing our economies to absorb the headwinds associated with
shifting demographics.
The number-one priority continues to be promoting job
creation and boosting U.S. and global growth. The work ahead
also includes advancing the President's trade agenda, which is
geared toward providing expanded market access for American
businesses and workers and, also, ensuring that we are able to
compete on a level global playing field.
Achieving the objectives of promoting job creation and
boosting growth will require intensive engagement with
Congress, our foreign trading partners in both bilateral and
multilateral forums, and strong advocacy of the merits of
freely floating, transparent,
market-determined exchange rates.
Progress has been made in recent years, but there
nevertheless is much to be done. If confirmed, I look forward
to working closely with you in pursuit of these objectives.
The Chairman. Thanks very much, Dr. Sheets.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Sheets appears in the
appendix.]
The Chairman. Mr. Toloui?
STATEMENT OF RAMIN TOLOUI, NOMINATED TO BE ASSISTANT SECRETARY
FOR INTERNATIONAL FINANCE, DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY,
WASHINGTON, DC
Mr. Toloui. Chairman Wyden, Ranking Member Hatch, and
distinguished members of the Committee on Finance, it is a
great honor to appear before you today as nominee to be
Assistant Secretary for International Finance at the Treasury
Department.
Thank you for considering this nomination, and thank you to
the committee staff for meeting with me over the past 2 weeks
to discuss the key issues facing the United States in the
global economy.
I am deeply grateful to President Obama for nominating me
and to Secretary Lew for his confidence in supporting my
candidacy to join his senior leadership team.
Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member Hatch, I welcome this
opportunity, if confirmed, to return to public service. The
first 7 years of my professional life, from 1999 until 2006, I
spent as a career civil servant in the International Affairs
Division of the Treasury under President Clinton and President
Bush.
This was a period of extraordinary turbulence in emerging
markets and of unique challenges for the United States. Among
the issues I worked on at Treasury were the reintegration of
post-Milosevic Yugoslavia into the international community;
early actions to build a coalition to combat terrorist
financing post-9/11; and the international response to Brazil's
financial crisis in 2002, subsequent stabilization, and exit
from IMF support.
This formative period in my life shaped my view of the
underlying pillars of good policymaking: serious analysis, open
debate, close interagency coordination, effective diplomacy
with our international partners, and strong partnership with
the Congress. In an imperfect world where policymakers must
usually make decisions when information is incomplete and
inconclusive, I believe these elements are crucial to
maximizing the prospects for successful action.
During the past 8 years as a portfolio manager at the asset
management firm PIMCO--most recently as the global co-head of
emerging markets portfolio management--I navigated another
round of extraordinary turbulence from the perspective of an
investor. In addition to being responsible for directing
investments in emerging markets around the globe, I
participated in the firm's global portfolio strategy
formulation before, during, and after the global financial
crisis.
These experiences helped me internalize the interplay
between the tangible and intangible factors driving asset
markets and shaping the global financial terrain in which
policymakers act. They also gave me direct experience with
engagement with foreign governments and the practical aspects
of doing business globally, which I deepened during the past 2
years working and living in Singapore and chairing the firm's
Asia-Pacific portfolio committee.
If confirmed, I look forward to bringing this combination
of public- and private-sector perspectives back to the U.S.
Government as the United States confronts the challenges ahead
in the global economy and financial system.
The Assistant Secretary for International Finance is
responsible for overseeing the macro-dimensions of Treasury's
international engagement, policy coordination in the G-7 and G-
20, regional and bilateral economic affairs, oversight of the
IMF, foreign exchange and capital flows, and global financial
markets. In executing these responsibilities, if confirmed, I
hope to integrate bottom-up inside knowledge of how the policy
gears turn within the U.S. Government with direct experience
with capital allocation decisions and the practical operation
of markets.
My hope is that such experiences can inform better
diagnosis of challenges, evaluation of policy options, and
success in ultimately achieving the objectives of more jobs,
higher incomes, and greater financial stability for U.S.
workers and families.
Thank you again for the privilege of appearing before you
today and for your consideration, and I look forward to the
opportunity to answer any questions you may have.
The Chairman. Mr. Toloui, thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Toloui appears in the
appendix.]
The Chairman. Dr. Cancian?
STATEMENT OF MARIA CANCIAN, Ph.D., NOMINATED TO BE ASSISTANT
SECRETARY FOR CHILDREN AND FAMILIES, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND
HUMAN SERVICES, WASHINGTON, DC
Dr. Cancian. Chairman Wyden, Ranking Member Hatch, and
members of the committee, thank you for inviting me here today.
I am honored to have been nominated by President Obama to serve
as the Assistant Secretary for the Administration for Children
and Families at the Department of Health and Human Services and
to have an opportunity to appear before you.
My grandparents came to the United States searching for
religious freedom and the opportunity for a better life. My
parents worked hard and taught my brother and me that the
relative security that we enjoyed brought responsibilities not
only to our family, but also to the broader community. They
encouraged me to take an interest in social issues, and this
encouragement informed my decision to apply my skills as an
economist to address social policy.
With their words and example, they also provided me with a
foundation to take risks and go beyond the narrow academic
pursuits. In my professional life, this has meant working
beyond campus boundaries in collaboration with colleagues in
local, State, and Federal agencies to help design, implement,
and evaluate public policies and programs serving families.
In my personal life, my family has tried to live our
values. As a foster family, we have shared our home and
expanded our family in ways that have truly transformed our
understanding of our community. I cannot imagine a greater
responsibility or opportunity to serve than I would have were I
confirmed as Assistant Secretary for Children and Families.
Our future depends on the well-being and future
productivity of our children. Parents today face many demands
as they raise the next generation of Americans. Few families
have a parent who stays at home full-time. Instead, parents
typically must balance their responsibilities as parents and
workers, and most American children will spend some portion of
their life living apart from at least one of their parents,
typically because their parents divorce or may never have
married. The challenges of parenting are that much greater
without the emotional and financial support of a stable
marriage.
Many of the programs within ACF support parents' best
efforts to provide for their children financially, as well as
emotionally. Child care and early education programs keep
children safe while their parents work and also provide a
strong foundation for future learning. The child support system
encourages non-resident parents to support their children
financially, even when they do not live together. Teen
pregnancy prevention and responsible parenting programs aim to
encourage young people to avoid becoming parents while they are
themselves still children and help parents recognize and meet
their responsibilities. When parents do not have the resources
to provide for their children, TANF may provide time-
limited income support and services to become self-sufficient.
And when parents cannot provide a safe environment for their
children, the child welfare system is a safety net of last
resort.
The position of Assistant Secretary for the Administration
for Children and Families requires both knowledge of the
programs for which ACF is responsible and an ability to
effectively manage a large organization. Twenty years'
engagement with research, outreach, and technical assistance
has provided me with knowledge of many ACF programs. I have
formed an appreciation of the challenges faced by policymakers,
managers, and front-line staff in their efforts to implement
these programs through my many collaborations with them at the
Federal, State, and local levels. This appreciation and
understanding was further developed when I served as a full-
time fellow assigned to work on child welfare agencies at the
Wisconsin Department of Children and Families in 2010.
Over the years, I have learned a great deal from working
closely with policymakers and scholars from both political
parties, across multiple administrations, finding common ground
and a shared effort to do our best to strengthen American
families. I also have significant organizational management
experience, largely developed through my experience as an
academic administrator. As associate dean for fiscal
initiatives in the College of Letters and Science at the
University of Wisconsin-Madison, I have been involved in
university-wide efforts to reshape our budget and
administration and have had primary responsibility for fiscal
policy development and planning for a college with over 2,000
faculty and staff and 22,000 students. During a period of
increased enrollments and stable or declining State financial
support, I have taken the lead in developing a new budget model
to increase transparency and reallocate funding and staff
resources to meet strategic priorities.
I believe my research, policy, and administrative
experience have prepared me to contribute to the very important
work of ACF. If I am confirmed, I look forward to the
opportunity to work with Congress, the dedicated professionals
within ACF, partners in other Federal agencies, State and local
governments, and the private and nonprofit sectors to ensure
that we are wise stewards of public resources and do everything
we are able to do to support America's children and families.
The Chairman. Doctor, thank you. We will have some
questions here in a moment.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Cancian appears in the
appendix.]
The Chairman. We do have one formality. There are four
questions that I need to ask each of you.
Is there anything you are aware of in your background that
might present a conflict of interest with the duties of the
office to which you have been nominated? Let us just go down
the row.
Dr. Sheets. No.
Mr. Toloui. No.
Dr. Cancian. No.
The Chairman. Do you know of any reason, personal or
otherwise, that would in any way prevent you from fully and
honorably discharging the responsibilities of the office to
which you have been nominated?
Dr. Sheets. No.
Mr. Toloui. No.
Dr. Cancian. No.
The Chairman. Do you agree without reservation to respond
to any reasonable summons to appear and testify before any duly
constituted committee of the Congress if you are confirmed?
Dr. Sheets. Yes.
Mr. Toloui. Yes.
Dr. Cancian. Yes.
The Chairman. Do you commit to provide a prompt response in
writing to any questions addressed to you by any Senator on
this committee?
Dr. Sheets. Yes, I do.
Mr. Toloui. Yes.
Dr. Cancian. Yes.
The Chairman. Very good. Thank you.
Let us start with you, Dr. Cancian, if we might.
You, of course, have written extensively on family
structure over the years, and, of course, the child support
program is enormously important as it relates to this issue of
family structure.
Do you have some fresh ideas on how the child support
program might be reconfigured in the days ahead to help bring
families together rather than driving them apart?
Dr. Cancian. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes. I believe that
the child support system has in recent years become
increasingly focused on the role of non-custodial parents,
generally fathers, in supporting their families, both
emotionally and financially, and in doing more to pass through,
for example, child support so that, when fathers pay child
support, their family receives that funding, and the father has
the satisfaction and the children know that the father is
trying to support them and provide for his family.
So that is an example of something that has been done with
congressional leadership to make the system work better.
The Chairman. So you would like to build on that?
Dr. Cancian. I would.
The Chairman. Because that is what is going on now, and it
seems to me we have to do better, that is why I ask the
question, what is ahead?
Dr. Cancian. Well, I think what is ahead is continuing to
change the culture. So one of the things that happened, for
example, with the welfare reform policies is, we moved from a
system of just writing checks to thinking about families more
holistically and moving them toward self-sufficiency.
Similarly, child support needs to move from a system where
we think of child support as just a bill collection agency, if
you will, to an agency that helps parents, in families where
the parents are not living together, both support their
families.
There have been a number of efforts that the Office for
Child Support Enforcement has been pursuing quite vigorously,
including providing parenting support for nonresident parents,
helping them access job opportunities so that nonresident
parents can have the means to pay support, and doing what is
often referred to as right-sizing child support orders to make
sure that parents can meet their responsibilities.
So I think all of those kinds of efforts are important.
The Chairman. For the future.
Dr. Cancian. For the future.
The Chairman. Mr. Sheets, let us talk a little bit about
currency manipulation, if we might, because, as you know, this
is an extraordinarily important issue. Senators on both sides
of the aisle feel very strongly about this, and the Treasury's
own reports indicate that there is real abuse in the
international monetary system and that there are countries that
are not abiding by their international obligations.
Now, you have heard Senators say it here on the Finance
Committee and on the floor of the Senate: the Congress clearly
wants this administration to do more, to do more effectively to
address currency manipulation by America's trading partners.
You have watched from the outside. Tell us, if you might, what
you believe can be done to address this issue and relieve the
pressure that is created by currency manipulation.
Dr. Sheets. Mr. Chairman, thank you. Thank you for that
question. And let me underscore that I very much share your
commitment and your passion on this score.
I think one of the clear, unmistakable lessons of economic
history is that, when certain countries try to grow their
economies and try to grow their exports on the back of
undervalued exchange rates, it creates significant risks for
the global financial system and the global economy. So this
would very much be a key area of emphasis for me, if confirmed,
and I think it is a key area of emphasis for the
administration.
Now, to date, the Treasury's approach has focused on
vigorous engagement in bilateral and multilateral forums, and I
think that, through that engagement, we are seeing some
improvements. Current account surpluses in China and Japan are
much smaller than they were, which means, in these countries,
their imports are growing more rapidly than their exports,
which is what we want to see happen.
The renminbi is notably stronger in price-adjusted terms
against the dollar than it was 3 or 4 years ago. So I think we
are seeing progress, but, as I indicated in my statement, I see
significant work yet to be done.
I think what this is going to require is ongoing commitment
and, if I may say, a recommitment to this, with vigorous
interactions, vigorous engagement with trading partners. And I
also understand that there are a whole range of ideas and
perspectives that are being considered now, and I very much
look forward to working with you and your staff and others on
the committee to explore some other possible ways forward.
The Chairman. Very good.
Mr. Toloui, I have a question for you, essentially to try
to have you offer up your thoughts on where, in effect, the
global economy is headed. Our continual discussions in various
kinds of financial publications, in particular, say that things
are still on the mend after 5 years, that not enough is being
done to keep a crisis from reappearing.
Why don't you, if you might, just outline what you see as
the biggest risks and the biggest dangers to the kind of
economic growth and stability that the country wants?
Mr. Toloui. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much for that
question. It is something that I have thought a lot about, and
I know that Dr. Sheets has thought a lot about it. I think that
the main challenge that we face in the global economy is that
growth still remains too slow, and it is very difficult to
discern how sustainable it is absent policy support from
governments around the world.
I think that the main challenge, this many years after the
global financial crisis, remains to develop stronger organic
momentum in the global economy, and you see that in developed
countries, which are growing around 2 percent, and emerging
market countries, which are slowing down.
So I think one important function of the International
Affairs Division of the Treasury Department is to use the
various multilateral and bilateral policy dialogues we have to
not only understand the economic circumstances in these
countries, our international partners, but also to encourage
them to take more vigorous action to boost domestic demand in
their economies, and that includes not only the macroeconomic
tools of monetary and fiscal policy, but also structural
reforms to encourage private sector-led investment and expand
household demand, which is particularly important in some of
the largest economies in the globe, such as China and Japan.
The Chairman. Very good.
Senator Hatch?
Senator Hatch. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I support all three of you. So I really should not be
asking many questions.
But let me just ask you, Dr. Sheets: can you assure me that
you will make conclusion of an ambitious and comprehensive
Trade in Services Agreement, or TISA, a priority?
Dr. Sheets. Absolutely.
Senator Hatch. Okay. That is good enough for me. I knew you
would. [Laughter.]
Mr. Toloui, do you believe that the International Monetary
Fund can play a more effective role in monitoring currency
valuations and ensuring that currency values are determined by
market-based principles?
Mr. Toloui. Thank you, Senator Hatch. I think that that is
a project where we can continue to improve. I think that there
have been some improvements in the International Monetary Fund
in terms of new reports which explicitly discuss global
imbalances, but I think that we should be more effective in
using those reports as a platform for policy action with some
of our key trading partners.
Senator Hatch. Thank you.
Dr. Cancian, do you share my view that an over-reliance on
congregate-care facilities or group homes contributes to
negative outcomes for children and youth in our foster care
system?
Dr. Cancian. Thank you, Senator Hatch. Yes. I share your
concern about overuse of group homes. I am very encouraged by
the declines that we have seen recently in a census of group
homes, and I look forward, if confirmed, to working on ways to
try to encourage greater decline.
Senator Hatch. So you will work with me to limit group home
placements for children and youth in foster care?
Dr. Cancian. Absolutely.
Senator Hatch. I appreciate that.
Well, I support all of you, and we appreciate your
willingness to serve our government, and we think you are
excellent choices, in my opinion anyway, and I think most
people would agree with that opinion.
Thank you.
The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Hatch.
You can see that you are getting positive signals from both
the majority and the minority with respect to your
qualifications, and it is my hope that we can move all three of
you quickly through the committee and see you confirmed and out
and about on your important duties.
Would any of you like to add anything else for the
committee?
[No Response.]
The Chairman. With that, the Finance Committee is
adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 10:43 a.m., the hearing was concluded.]
A P P E N D I X
Additional Material Submitted for the Record
----------
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]