[Senate Hearing 118-219]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 118-219
NOMINATIONS OF JARED BERNSTEIN, RON BORZEKOWSKI, SOLOMON JEFFREY
GREENE, AND DAVID UEJIO
=======================================================================
HEARING
before the
COMMITTEE ON
BANKING,HOUSING,AND URBAN AFFAIRS
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
ON
NOMINATIONS OF:
JARED BERNSTEIN, OF VIRGINIA, TO BE CHAIRMAN OF THE COUNCIL OF
ECONOMIC ADVISERS
__________
RON BORZEKOWSKI, OF MARYLAND, TO BE DIRECTOR OF FINANCIAL RESEARCH,
DEPARTMENT OF TREASURY
__________
SOLOMON JEFFREY GREENE, OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, TO BE AN
ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT
__________
DAVID UEJIO, OF CALIFORNIA, TO BE AN ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF HOUSING
AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT
__________
APRIL 18, 2023
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Available at: https: //www.govinfo.gov /
______
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
54-598 WASHINGTON : 2026
COMMITTEE ON BANKING, HOUSING, AND URBAN AFFAIRS
SHERROD BROWN, Ohio, Chair
JACK REED, Rhode Island TIM SCOTT, South Carolina
ROBERT MENENDEZ, New Jersey MIKE CRAPO, Idaho
JON TESTER, Montana MIKE ROUNDS, South Dakota
MARK R. WARNER, Virginia THOM TILLIS, North Carolina
ELIZABETH WARREN, Massachusetts JOHN KENNEDY, Louisiana
CHRIS VAN HOLLEN, Maryland BILL HAGERTY, Tennessee
CATHERINE CORTEZ MASTO, Nevada CYNTHIA LUMMIS, Wyoming
TINA SMITH, Minnesota J.D. VANCE, Ohio
KYRSTEN SINEMA, Arizona KATIE BOYD BRITT, Alabama
RAPHAEL G. WARNOCK, Georgia KEVIN CRAMER, North Dakota
JOHN FETTERMAN, Pennsylvania STEVE DAINES, Montana
Laura Swanson, Staff Director
Lila Nieves-Lee, Republican Staff Director
Elisha Tuku, Chief Counsel
Amber Beck, Republican Chief Counsel
Cameron Ricker, Chief Clerk
Shelvin Simmons, IT Director
Pat Lally, Assistant Clerk
(ii)
C O N T E N T S
----------
TUESDAY, APRIL 18, 2023
Page
Opening statement of Chair Brown................................. 1
Prepared statement....................................... 41
Opening statements, comments, or prepared statements of:
Senator Scott................................................ 4
Prepared statement....................................... 43
NOMINEES
Jared Bernstein, of Virginia, to be Chairman of the Council of
Economic Advisers.............................................. 7
Prepared statement........................................... 44
Biographical sketch of nominee............................... 46
Responses to written questions of:
Chair Brown.............................................. 225
Senator Scott............................................ 229
Senator Cortez Masto..................................... 259
Senator Warnock.......................................... 260
Ron Borzekowski, of Maryland, to be Director of Financial
Research, Department of Treasury............................... 8
Prepared statement........................................... 176
Biographical sketch of nominee............................... 177
Responses to written questions of:
Chair Brown.............................................. 262
Senator Scott............................................ 263
Senator Warren........................................... 267
Senator Cortez Masto..................................... 269
Senator Warnock.......................................... 270
Senator Rounds........................................... 271
Senator Tillis........................................... 273
Senator Vance............................................ 274
Solomon Jeffrey Greene, of the District of Columbia, to be an
Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development........... 10
Prepared statement........................................... 186
Biographical sketch of nominee............................... 187
Responses to written questions of:
Senator Scott............................................ 276
Senator Cortez Masto..................................... 282
Senator Warnock.......................................... 284
Senator Vance............................................ 285
Senator Daines........................................... 288
David Uejio, of California, to be an Assistant Secretary of
Housing and Urban Development.................................. 11
Prepared statement........................................... 213
Biographical sketch of nominee............................... 215
Responses to written questions of:
Senator Scott............................................ 290
Senator Cortez Masto..................................... 303
Senator Vance............................................ 304
Senator Daines........................................... 306
Additional Material Supplied for the Record
Letters in support of nominees................................... 307
Senator Scott floorboard......................................... 331
(iii)
NOMINATIONS OF JARED BERNSTEIN,
RON BORZEKOWSKI, SOLOMON JEFFREY GREENE, AND DAVID UEJIO
----------
TUESDAY, APRIL 18, 2023
U.S. Senate,
Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs,
Washington, DC.
The Committee met at 10 a.m., in room 538, Dirksen Senate
Office Building, Hon. Sherrod Brown, Chair of the Committee,
presiding.
OPENING STATEMENT OF CHAIR SHERROD BROWN
Chair Brown. Good morning. The Senate Banking, Housing, and
Urban Affairs Committee will come to order. Today's hearing is
in the hybrid format. Our witnesses are in person. Members have
the option to appear in person or virtually.
The Committee meets today to consider four nominations: Dr.
Jared Bernstein to be Chair of the Council of Economic
Advisors; Dr. Ron Borzekowski to be Director of Financial
Research at the Department of Treasury; Mr. Solomon Greene to
be Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research at
the Department of Housing and Urban Development; Mr. David
Uejio, to be Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal
Opportunity at HUD. We thank the nominees for appearing today
and for their willingness to serve, each of you, in these
important roles.
Just over 2 years ago, January of 2021, this Committee held
a hearing to consider the nomination of Cecelia Rouse to chair
the Council of Economic Advisors. At the time, our economy was
at a crossroads. The country had experienced the deadliest
month of the pandemic and a rise in new unemployment claims.
Much has changed since then. For the first time in far too
long, companies are investing in America again. We have seen
investments in manufacturing critical technologies, like
semiconductors, solar production, and EV vehicles. Last year,
Ohioans celebrated the groundbreaking of a $20 billion
semiconductor plant in Licking County, right outside of
Columbus. It will create thousands of good-paying jobs.
And for the first time in decades, we are investing in our
infrastructure. Our bridges and roads and ports and trains and
airports used to be the envy of the world. We are finally doing
the work we need to modernize our infrastructure and keep our
economy competitive.
Inflation is moving in the right direction.
And perhaps most important of all, workers are finally
starting to gain a little power in our economy.
Today, unemployment stands at 3.5 percent, the lowest rate
in almost 50 years. The Black unemployment rate has plummeted
from more than 16 percent at the height of the pandemic, to a
record low 5 percent today. Since the beginning of this
Administration, over 12 million jobs have been created. And a
tight labor market means that more workers are finally able to
demand to be paid what they are worth. More Americans,
especially working-class Americans, are finally getting the
raises they have earned.
The unemployment rate between White and Black Americans is
the lowest it has been in five decades, the lowest it has been
since we started collecting data.
Let me say that again. The economic growth that began under
President Obama, sidetracked by a global pandemic, has
continued to advance under President Biden with the result
being that Black unemployment is at near all-time lows and the
gap between White and Black unemployment is at the lowest point
since this data has been tracked.
As we continue this work to create an economy with a strong
middle class, that all workers have the opportunity to join,
CEA will continue playing an important role.
While it is true Members of this Committee have often
disagreed on policy, we have agreed that the President is
entitled to have the choice of who he wants for CEA Chair. I
voted for Kevin Hassett, President Trump's choice to lead CEA
in this Committee and on the floor. Senator Crapo and I have
talked about that many times. The Senate, in a bipartisan
manner, went on to overwhelmingly confirm this nomination, 81-
16, again a nomination with whom I had great disagreements on
macro and microeconomic issues.
Last Congress, Ranking Member Toomey voted for Cecilia
Rouse. He had the same difference of opinion with her. The
Senate confirmed that nomination, 95-4. There is a long history
in this Committee, a long history of CEA nominations being
voted on by voice in the Committee and on the floor. I was part
of that during the Bush administration.
Jared Bernstein is the President's nominee to succeed Dr.
Rouse as Chairman of CEA. With close to four decades of
experience, Dr. Bernstein is an extremely qualified nominee
with a distinguished record. That fact is evident when
reviewing his Committee questionnaire, over 130 pages in
length.
This a compilation of articles. This is a compilation of a
list of his articles, to tell you how much information he has
provided this Committee. This is already in the record. I do
not have to ask to do that again. But again, this is a list of
the writings that this Committee has asked for and received.
I have served on this Committee since 2007, my first day in
the Senate. Dr. Bernstein's record is more extensive than any I
have seen, and he went to great lengths to provide the writings
and statements the Committee requires. No nominee--no nominee,
I would underscore--has come close to providing as much
material as Jared Bernstein: 4,000 published writings, 1,200
speeches, presentations, and public statements.
As you would imagine, Dr. Bernstein is well-respected by
colleagues across the political spectrum. Last week, a group of
seven former CEA Chairs who served in Republican
administrations wrote in support of his nomination. I will
enter this letter into the record, without objection.
They wrote in support of his nomination: Ben Bernanke,
Michael Boskin, Glenn Hubbard, Gregory Mankiw, Kevin Hassett,
Tomas Philipson, and Tyler Goodspeed. The last three all served
in the Trump administration.
Dr. Hassett led the effort for this letter that I
mentioned. He told the New York Times: ``I disagree with Jared
about a lot, and Jared and I have been disagreeing about things
for 20 years. But he really is a fundamentally good person who
tries to figure things out with an open mind, and who changes
his mind.''
That kind of openness to ideas from anyone, of any party or
point of view, is what we should all want in an economic
leader. He has spent his entire career fighting to make our
economy fairer, so that working families' hard work can pay
off. And I am sure that is why, despite concerns from some
progressives, he voiced support for Senator Booker and Senator
Scott's proposal for Opportunity Zones.
He has served as a member of CEA since the beginning of
this Administration, and has served in various senior roles,
including as Chief Economist and Economic Policy Advisor to
then-Vice President Biden, Deputy Chief Economist at the
Department of Labor, a senior fellow at the Center on Budget
and Policy Priorities, and an economist at the Economic Policy
Institute.
His credentials are unmatched. He has the experience,
knowledge, and dedication to public service we need in a CEA
Chairman. I cannot imagine any of my colleagues opposing him.
Welcome to the Committee, Dr. Bernstein.
Dr. Ron Borzekowski is the President's nominee to be
Director of Financial Research at the Department of Treasury.
As some of my colleagues remember, as part of Dodd-Frank, the
Committee established this office to help identify and guard
against risks that reach across the financial system, and to
provide the FSOC and member agencies with the data they need to
protect financial stability.
I believe we can all agree, in light of the recent bank
failures, how important it is that regulators and decision-
makers have the data they need to measure and appropriately
respond to risks to our financial system. I think we all
remember the Silicon Valley Bank did not have a chief risk
officer, for instance, not that it would be his job, once
confirmed, but what Dr. Borzekowski does is along those lines
and very important. Consideration of his nomination is
particularly timely.
He is an exceptionally well-qualified nominee. For 19
years, under both Democratic and Republican directors, he
served in various roles in the Office of Research at the CFPB.
There, he helped support the Bureau's research and data
efforts.
Earlier in his career, he served as a senior economist at
the Federal Reserve and as a Deputy Research Director for the
Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. Today, he serves as the
Executive Director of Yale's Data-Intensive Social Science
Center.
Welcome, Dr. Borzekowski. Glad to have you here today.
Today we also consider the nominations of two qualified HUD
nominees, Solomon Greene and David Uejio. Both Mr. Greene and
Mr. Uejio have long histories of public service. There have
been attempts to distract from these nominees' qualifications.
The record is clear. Their breadth of experience and knowledge
will help them lead HUD as the agency works to tackle the
housing challenges, immense as they are, facing every
community.
Solomon Greene is the President's nominee to serve as
Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research. Since
2022, Mr. Greene has served as principal deputy assistant
secretary for Policy Development and Research at HUD. Prior to
joining HUD, Mr. Greene served as a senior fellow at the Urban
Institute, where he led research on housing and community
development issues.
Mr. Greene previously served as Senior Advisor at HUD, and
an adjunct professor at NYU's Wagner Graduate School of Public
Service.
As the head of Policy Development and Research, Mr. Greene
will lead HUD's research and provide data to inform Congress
and the agency as we discuss policy decisions.
Welcome, Mr. Greene.
David Uejio is the President's nominee to serve as
Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity.
That office is responsible for overseeing the implementation
and enforcement of laws that protect homeowners and renters
from housing discrimination.
Mr. Uejio has strong management experience. He is currently
the Acting Associate Director for Supervision, Enforcement, and
Fair Lending at CFPB. Previously, Mr. Uejio served as the
Bureau's Acting Director, Acting Chief of Staff, and Chief
Strategy Officer. Before joining CFPB, Mr. Uejio served in
different roles at NIH, OPM, and DoD.
Welcome, Mr. Uejio.
Thank you, again, to all of these nominees for your
willingness to serve. I look forward to your testimonies today.
And I would like to welcome Senator Fetterman back to our
Committee. John, good to have you back.
Senator Scott.
OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR TIM SCOTT
Senator Scott. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Today we are here
in furtherance of the Senate's solemn and constitutional role
to provide advice and consent on Presidential nominees.
Nominees are intended to advise the President and serve as his
or her designee by leading their respective department, agency,
or division. And as leaders of our country, the greatest Nation
on Earth, Presidential nominees should inspire confidence and
have a strong respect for the rule of law and support policies
that promote the American Dream. As public servants, we must
all strive to serve the American people to the best of our
ability, and in doing so we must promote a strong economy and
policies that serve the interests of everyday Americans working
to achieve their version of the American Dream. We do this by
incentivizing growth and opportunity, not an administrative
State full of regulatory burdens.
Unfortunately, this panel before us today falls short of
those goals. Today we will hear from Dr. Jared Bernstein, to be
the Chairman of the CEA, Dr. Ron Borzekowski, and Mr. Solomon
Greene, as well as Mr. David Uejio. Sadly for our country, most
of these men share a vision to remake our Government into one
that prioritizes handouts over hand-ups. They lack respect for
our men and women in blue, and they have worked to promote an
administrative agenda cloaked in secrecy and politics rather
than working through a transparent notice-and-comment process.
These views and ideas are not held by the majority of the
American people, and they should not be reflected in America's
leaders and the regulatory responsibilities they undertake.
Time for my opening remarks is limited, but given the large
panel I would like to take just a few minutes to run through
some of my chief concerns with each of the nominees before us
today.
First, President Biden has nominated Dr. Bernstein as the
Chair of the CEA. While Mr. Bernstein has made some positive
comments about Opportunity Zones--and I will certainly look
forward to having a conversation about that during the Q&A--
however, the American people probably know Mr. Bernstein best
as a man who told them time and time again that inflation was
``transitory,'' who later had the audacity to say the American
people just did not understand the definition of transitory
when inflation turned out not to be transitory. It is mind-
boggling to me that inflation is at a 40-year high and yet the
person who advised the President that inflation would be
transitory is the very same person the President has nominated
to be the Chair of the CEA. It just does not make sense.
Among other things, Mr. Bernstein has advocated for
universal Government--guaranteed jobs, universal Government-run
health care, higher taxes including a carbon tax, and more
reckless Government spending, the Green New Deal, dropping our
commitment to maintaining the dollar as a reserve currency, and
remaking the Federal Reserve, an independent body, to focus not
on the dual mandate, but more specifically, on unemployment by
race.
He is championing the cause of climate alarmists at the
expense of working families, writing that the price of fossil
fuels ``should be higher'' given the ``increasing awareness of
the urgency of climate change.'' He even criticized the low gas
prices during the previous Administration, claiming that it
should be higher ``given its negative environmental effects.''
Not only have Mr. Bernstein's economic policies and views
proven to be inaccurate, some are simply counter to Americans'
best interests.
In addition to Mr. Bernstein, this Committee must once
again consider Mr. Greene and Mr. Uejio. Mr. Greene and Mr.
Uejio were here last year, during the last Congress. Both
failed to receive a confirmation vote, and I think is important
for us to understand why. Mr. Greene has made numerous public
statements disparaging the police and advocating for defunding
the police. Because of his extreme anti-police statements two
national police groups have publicly opposed Mr. Greene's
nomination since he was first nominated in 2021. Worse yet,
instead of taking responsibility for making such statements, he
pointed fingers and apologized for our taking offense,
attempting to deny his anti-police sentiment.
I am a guy who spent a lot of time and many years working
on police reform. And when you look at the comments, clearly
there is nothing hyperbolic about the position that I am taking
as it relates to the concept or the statement that Mr. Greene
would really not be that dissuaded in finding ways to use the
money for the police officers, particularly in some of the most
devastated communities, for something else.
I will recall that this is round two for Mr. Greene and I
having a conversation about the importance of police in the
poorest communities in the country, as neither one of us will
be surprised that in August of 2021, we had the same
conversation about the importance of having law enforcement in
their presence, increasing in some of the most devastated,
crime-ridden areas of our country.
Having grown up in a single-parent household and in poverty
and being all too familiar with the negative impact that
happens in so many of these devastated areas, I think some
things are not political. Some things are just so personal that
it is impossible to deny the actual impact of fewer officers,
not more officers in some of the most challenging areas. And
so, I take great offense on behalf of those who today suffer
under the weight of crime that is burdening their communities.
You think about here in the D.C. area where rape is over
100 percent. You think about New York City, Los Angeles,
Cleveland, and so many other places around the country where
the weight of crime is now locking grandparents in their houses
from the time the sun goes down until it comes up.
And so, for me, this is such an important issue that having
someone in the role over at the Housing and Urban Development
Department, in any way, shape, or form who does not seem to
appreciate the importance of law enforcement's presence is just
a challenge and makes it impossible for me to vote for someone
like that.
Like Mr. Greene, Mr. Uejio's nomination also failed law
last Congress. Despite protestations to the contrary, the
record is clear. Mr. Uejio is unqualified to serve as an
Assistant Secretary of the Department of HUD. More importantly,
the reported actions of forcing out senior career civil
servants so that Director Chopra at CFPB could fill those
positions with handpicked loyalists, including Mr. Uejio
himself, are troubling. We must all strive to lead by example,
and I cannot justify confirming a nominee who may have unfairly
secured his current role as a means of padding his resume for
his pending, albeit languishing nomination.
And finally, Mr. Borzekowski has been nominated to serve as
the Director of the Office of Financial Research at the
Department of Treasury. He has a doctorate in economics and
unquestionably is academically qualified. And though his record
lacks really glaring concerns, I look forward to hearing more
about your positions and learning more about you carrying out
your responsibilities and duties in a fair, empirical, and
apolitical fashion, if confirmed. After all, the Office of
Financial Research should not be used to manipulate financial
data, standards, and analysis to justify the progressive
economic agenda of the Biden administration that seeks to
unravel our free-market economy and damage the livelihood of
everyday Americans.
I look forward to hearing from each of you.
Chair Brown. Thank you, Senator Scott.
Would the nominees please rise. Raise your right hand.
Do you swear or affirm that the testimony you are about to
give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth,
so help you God?
Mr. Bernstein. I do.
Mr. Borzekowski. I do.
Mr. Greene. I do.
Mr. Uejio. I do.
Chair Brown. Do you agree to appear and testify before any
duly constituted committee of the Senate?
Mr. Bernstein. I do.
Mr. Borzekowski. I do.
Mr. Greene. I do.
Mr. Uejio. I do.
Chair Brown. Thank you. Please take your seats.
If you would like to introduce family members or friends
with you today I invite you to do that before the beginning of
your testimony.
Dr. Bernstein, you are recognized to begin your testimony.
STATEMENT OF JARED BERNSTEIN, OF VIRGINIA, TO BE CHAIRMAN OF
THE COUNCIL OF ECONOMIC ADVISERS
Mr. Bernstein. Thank you Chair Brown, Ranking Member Scott,
and Members of the Committee. It is an honor to come before you
today as President Biden's nominee to serve as Chair of the
Council of Economic Advisers, and I am joined today by my wife,
Kay Arndorfer, and two of my daughters, Ellie and Kate.
I began working for the President as an economic adviser
when he was Vice President, in 2009. I was honored when he
asked me to join the CEA as a member of this Administration and
also by his recent decision to nominate me for the position of
Chair. I would not be here today were it not for the
President's faith and confidence in my work, along with our
shared vision of an economy that provides opportunities for
everyone from all walks of life to reach their full potential.
I would also not be here without the support of my family.
My father, a veteran of the Second World War, has long been an
inspiration to me, even though he died when I was 7 years old
from a kidney disease he contracted during the war. He came
from extremely humble beginnings and was the first member of
his family to go to college, eventually going on to earn a
Ph.D. in physics.
This path would have been closed to him were it not for the
GI Bill, and he made sure his children knew how important that
policy was to his and to our lives.
After he died, my mother supported me and my two sisters
through her job as a public school teacher, and by working
weekends as a waitress to help make ends meet without my
father's salary. Though I am sure I was not thinking about it
in economic terms at such a young age, the importance of a
paycheck was embedded in my young consciousness.
Though my early career was in music, I never lost sight of
the role of Government policy and strong labor markets to
provide economic opportunity. As a resident of New York City in
the 1970s and '80s, I personally observed a period of rising
inequality and ``sticky'' poverty rates, meaning rates that
were unresponsive to overall economic growth, and increasingly
realized how important it was to try to help those less
privileged than myself.
That led me into social work, and I spent a number of years
as a social worker in New York City. In one formative
experience, I vividly remember working with an older veteran of
both World War II and Vietnam. He clearly needed further
medical support but after giving so much to his country was not
able to access the services he needed and deserved.
This experience was deeply troubling, and fed my desire to
want to intervene on a more systemic basis. This led me to a
Ph.D. program at Columbia University that addressed social
welfare problems using the analytic and policy tools of
economics. Were it not for the rigor of that program, as well
as the guidance of my dissertation advisor, Irwin Garfinkel, I
would likely not have the honor of coming before you today.
As I was writing my dissertation in 1992, I came to
Washington to work for a year at the Economic Policy Institute,
where I would coauthor my first book, ``The State of Working
America'', with labor economist Lawrence Mishel. Based on the
quality difference between D.C. and New York bagels and pizza
alone, I assumed I would soon be back in New York.
But my work with Dr. Mishel on the importance of strong
labor markets to working American families was so compelling
that I stayed on at EPI and eventually coauthored nine editions
of the The State of Working America.
Far more important, however, was the life-changing moment
in 1994 when I met my wife, Kay Arndorfer, who is here today
along with two of our daughters, Kate and Ellie. In what I fear
was a weak effort to impress Kay on our very first date, I
showed her an early print edition of The State of Working
America. Since then, my family has been an unceasing source of
support in my work and personal life.
I believe that all these experiences, as well as working
for Chair Rouse these past 2 years, has left me in a uniquely
strong position to, if confirmed, chair of the CEA. I am
committed to carrying on the work we have done, including
careful analysis of the dataflow on behalf of the President and
senior staff, the writing of our annual Economic Report of the
President, participation in Administration-wide policy
processes, and providing top-level advice to the President on
economic policy. If confirmed, I also look forward to
continuing Chair Rouse's efforts to ensure the diversity and
excellence of CEA's staff.
Thank you again for this opportunity. I look forward to
your questions.
Chair Brown. Thank you, Dr. Bernstein.
Dr. Borzekowski, you are recognized.
STATEMENT OF RON BORZEKOWSKI, OF MARYLAND, TO BE DIRECTOR OF
FINANCIAL RESEARCH, DEPARTMENT OF TREASURY
Mr. Borzekowski. Thank you. Chairman Brown, Ranking Member
Scott, and distinguished Members of the Committee, thank you
very much for the opportunity to be here today. It is an honor
to appear before you as the President's nominee to serve as
Director of the Office of Financial Research.
With me today are my wife Dina, my partner for over 40
years, and my children, Emma Rose, Benjamin, and Ruby. My
mother-in-law is here too, beaming on her own and representing
the pride that I am sure my parents would feel at this
nomination. I want publicly to thank my whole family and my
community for their support and encouragement during my
previous public service, and for their future sacrifice if I am
fortunate enough to be confirmed in this new role.
Both of my parents were survivors of the Shoah, and came to
the United States with nearly nothing, seeking to rebuild their
lives and to restart their family lines. My father first worked
in a series of factories, and then as a small-business owner.
My mother worked first as a social worker and then as a
homemaker, meticulously taking care of our home and family.
Nightly, our dinner table in a middle-class suburb of New York
was the place to discuss the issues of the day. In retrospect,
my parents' deep interest in the public affairs of their
adopted land may be the origin of my own dedication to well-
supported policy.
School took me west to California, where I studied math and
political science, and after a short career as an actuary, I
earned a master's degree in public policy. I followed that with
a Ph.D. in economics and a first research job at the Federal
Reserve Board, studying the structure of the financial system
and later, issues of financial stability. I was thrilled to
start my postgraduate career in public service and I still
remember my parents' pride when I shared that news.
In the aftermath of the financial crisis and the Great
Recession, I worked with my colleagues at the Financial Crisis
Inquiry Commission helping to analyze and record the causes and
history of that crisis. I then joined the Office of Research at
the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, drawn by the mission
and the opportunity to put research and evidence at the center
of this new Government organization.
As you know, at the same time, Congress established the
Office of Financial Research to serve the Financial Stability
Oversight Council, its member agencies, and the public. One of
the key findings from our work researching the crisis was that
hard-working Americans suffered massive costs. The OFR's
critical mission should be focused on ensuring that this does
not happen again. Collecting, standardizing, and making
accessible financial data; conducting and sponsoring research
related to financial stability; and, developing new tools for
risk measurement and monitoring should all be in line with that
central purpose.
This mission implicitly recognizes the inherent economies
of scale in collecting and managing data. It also recognizes
the benefits of a more coordinated regulatory system. A
successful OFR will improve Government, lessen the chance of
financial crises, and benefit both the public and private
sectors.
If confirmed, I look forward to working with this Committee
and with the members of the Council to achieve these worthy
goals.
Thank you. I look forward to answering your questions.
Chair Brown. Thank you, Dr. Borzekowski.
Mr. Greene, you are recognized.
STATEMENT OF SOLOMON JEFFREY GREENE, OF THE DISTRICT OF
COLUMBIA, TO BE AN ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF HOUSING AND URBAN
DEVELOPMENT
Mr. Greene. Chairman Brown, Ranking Member Scott, and
distinguished Members of the Committee, I am deeply honored to
appear before you today as you consider my nomination to serve
as the Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research
at HUD.
I want to begin by thanking President Biden and Secretary
Fudge for the confidence they placed in me by nominating me for
this important position. I would also like to thank my family
for their love and unwavering support.
Senators, Secretary Fudge often says that ``bringing people
home is at the heart of everything we do at HUD.'' It is also
at the heart of my life's work. I have dedicated my career to
helping families find and keep stable and affordable housing.
This is something I grew to appreciate from an early age. I
was raised primarily by a single mother who earned so little
while working full-time as a nurse that we received Medicaid
and food stamps. By economic necessity, my family often moved
to where we could afford the rent until my mother was able to
scrimp and save just enough for a downpayment on a house in a
rural county in upstate New York. That house and that property,
where my mother still lives with my brother, his wife, and my
baby nephew, provided the stability I needed to be able to
focus on school and my future. I truly believe it is why I am
able to sit here before you today as a nominee.
These early experiences also instilled in me the
recognition that a home is more than a roof over your head. It
is also a platform for health and well-being and a downpayment
on your children's future.
Throughout my career, I have strived to give every family
the opportunities I was given. The American Dream is the idea
that no matter who you are or where you come from, if you work
hard and give it your all, you will succeed. I have dedicated
my career to ensuring that where you come from does not
determine who you can become later in life. HUD's mission--to
create strong, sustainable and inclusive communities and ensure
quality homes for all--embodies that promise. And my
contribution to fulfilling this promise has been to support
innovative, evidence-based, and data-driven housing polices at
all levels of Government.
For years, I have worked with Federal, State, and local
leaders to design and test policies and programs to produce and
preserve affordable housing, to revitalize communities, expand
neighborhood choices, and boost upward mobility. Most
importantly for the position to which I have been nominated, I
am passionate about using the best available evidence to inform
public policy decisions. I am first and foremost a researcher
with a strong and proven commitment to evidence-based policy
making.
I have demonstrated this through over two decades of work
on data-driven and community-informed housing policy, from the
very start of my career working in local government and for a
community-based affordable housing developer, as a graduate
student in law and urban planning, as a legal research fellow
and adjunct professor at NYU, during over 7 years as a senior
researcher at the Urban Institute, and now in my current role
at HUD.
In all my work, I have applied independent, unbiased, and
objective research to help ensure that our public policies are
rooted in evidence, maximize the impact of limited resources,
and respond to the realities of people and communities on the
ground.
I am also passionate about bringing together researchers,
practitioners, and policymakers to identify evidence-based and
data-driven solutions to our Nation's housing and community
development challenges. I firmly believe that rigorous research
can provide diverse stakeholders a common frame through which
to assess problems and a shared foundation to find solutions.
Senators, we are at a moment in our Nation's history when
HUD's mission is more important than ever. It is a mission I
have endeavored to support with evidence, innovation, and
compassion from the very start of my career. I would be deeply
honored and grateful for the opportunity to serve as HUD's 17th
Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today.
I look forward to your questions.
Chair Brown. Thank you, Mr. Greene.
Mr. Uejio, you are recognized.
STATEMENT OF DAVID UEJIO, OF CALIFORNIA, TO BE AN ASSISTANT
SECRETARY OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT
Mr. Uejio. Great. Thank you very much, Chairman. I am
joined here by my wife Myra, and daughter Vivi, and my son
Maxwell.
Thank you, Chairman Brown, Ranking Member Scott, and
Members of the Committee. I am honored to appear before you
again today as the nominee for Assistant Secretary for Fair
Housing and Equal Opportunity at the Department of Housing and
Urban Development.
I want to thank President Biden for the trust and
confidence he has placed in me by nominating me for this
position. I would also like to thank my family and friends for
their steadfast support during the 17 years I have spent as a
career civil servant. I particularly want to thank my wife, who
has believed in me every step along the way, and our two
wonderful children for their love and inspiration.
I have seen firsthand the unparalleled opportunity offered
by the American Dream. My great-grandparents arrived in this
country with nothing, building their first house in rural
Hawai`i with their own hands. Our family also faced down the
challenge of discrimination. My grand-uncle was interned in six
different States during World War II before reuniting with his
wife and children in Hawai`i.
Though there were challenges, those generations worked hard
for their piece of the American Dream, and to pass on greater
opportunity to their children than they had themselves. For my
family, and for so many others, access to stable housing served
as an engine for prosperity, providing a safe roof over our
heads and a chance to build equity at the bank.
Over the past 17 years I have been blessed to serve the
American people as a career civil servant at the National
Institutes of Health, the Pentagon, and at the Consumer
Financial Protection Bureau. Over that time, I have been called
upon repeatedly to stand up or reinvigorate agencies and to
solve complex problems preventing them from delivering for the
American people. I have deep expertise in leading, designing,
and strengthening Federal programs, offices, and processes.
In my 11 years at the CFPB, I have had the opportunity to
work as Chief Strategy Officer for Directors from both parties
to implement their policy and operational priorities. And in
January of 2021, the President asked me to serve in the
capacity as Acting Director of the Bureau. During my 10 months
leading CFPB, I moved swiftly to address consumer harm amidst
the COVID-19 pandemic. I adopted a laser-like focus on housing
insecurity, as housing is a cornerstone issue for the financial
stability of America's consumers. Under my leadership, the
Bureau used all available policy tools to require that
struggling homeowners had access to every opportunity to stay
in their homes and to ensure tenants eligible for protections
were apprised of their rights. I doubled the number of fair
lending examinations the Bureau conducted, with a particular
focus on redlining and other discriminatory practices in the
mortgage market under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and its
implementing Regulation B, the Fair Housing Act's parallel in
the consumer credit market.
Since that time, I have led the law enforcement and
compliance work of the CFPB, enforcing fairly and impartially
the laws Congress has written to protect American consumers. I
have overseen more than 700 nationally distributed staff, who
are tasked with undertaking hundreds of compliance examinations
and enforcement investigations or actions under the 20-plus
consumer laws and implementing regulations that Congress has
assigned the CFPB to enforce.
As we commemorate the 55th anniversary of the Fair Housing
Act this year, I am deeply humbled to be nominated to carry out
its statutory purpose to protect all Americans from
discrimination in housing so that every family can claim their
piece of the American Dream.
Discrimination in housing has evolved in profound ways over
the years. Housing discrimination is no longer explicitly
codified in Federal mortgage policy or enforced via
exclusionary racial covenants. But we now live in a world where
access to housing is increasingly defined by algorithmically
generated indicators in credit scoring and tenant screening,
which themselves could bake in discrimination or exclusion in
ways that are insidious and difficult to detect. And as Main
Street communities across our Nation grapple with how to meet
their housing needs, Wall Street investors are eyeing those
same neighborhoods for short-term profits.
And not everything has changed. While many of the methods
of housing discrimination may have shifted, we are no closer to
closing the Black-White home ownership gap than we were when
the Act was signed into law. Amidst a precipitous shortfall in
housing supply, too many Americans are finding themselves
unable to guarantee safe and stable housing for their families.
If confirmed, I would execute FHEO's mission under
Secretary Fudge with transparency, integrity, and impartiality,
and I would look forward to working with this Committee to
ensure fair access to housing for all Americans. Thank you for
this opportunity, and I look forward to answering your
questions.
Chair Brown. Thank you, Mr. Uejio.
Dr. Bernstein, start with you. For many Ohioans that I hear
from--just yesterday I was in East Palestine again, for
instance--prices for groceries and rents remain far too high.
The cost of living and raising a family have been rising for
decades. Inflation stemming from the pandemic and from Putin's
war in Ukraine remains a challenge at home and abroad. While we
have seen prices come down, in recent months Americans are
searching for more relief.
Dr. Bernstein, would you describe briefly how you view
inflation at this time, how your views have evolved on this
subject over time, and what Congress can do to help the
Administration tackle this?
Mr. Bernstein. Thank you, Senator. As you very correctly
suggest, inflation is a global challenge. The rates of
inflation are now double in the European Union and in the U.K.
than they are here. They are closer to 10 percent; we are
around 5 percent, and that 5 percent is down from its most
recent peak of over 9 percent last June.
The fact that inflation has been global, despite different
policy agendas across different countries, provides an
important reminder that its overriding cause was, as you
suggest, first the pandemic, and then later the war. That is
countries all had different fiscal and monetary responses, but
they all had fast-rising inflation. And while we still have
ground to make up, as noted, our inflation has fallen much
faster than either in the EU or the U.K.
Now inflation is a function of strong demand, especially
for goods--it was during the pandemic--as well as damaged
supply chains. In answer to your question of actions that we
have taken, one of the first things we did out of the box was
to try to repair damaged supply chains, improve the logistics
therein, and increase the flow of goods across the globe. That
work has been quite successful. Supply chains are much repaired
from where they started, and in fact, core goods prices have
been negative or about zero for the last 6 months.
Finally, fiscal and monetary policy since 2020 contributed
to demand but it also helped us to get to the other side of the
crisis. The Rescue Plan, in particular, got shots in arms,
checks in pockets, setting up an historic recovery with a labor
market that, as you said in your opening statement, has made
some remarkable gains. Hundreds of millions of people received
vaccinations, child poverty cut by half, the first national
eviction prevention program, small businesses getting to the
other side of this recovery, and posting record entrepreneurial
gains in this person, and of course, a real GDP level that is 5
percent above its prepandemic level, and well above that of the
G7.
So I think that balanced view hopefully covers both our
understanding of inflation, actions we have taken to ameliorate
its pressures, and well as some of the very positive, important
growth effects that everyday people are benefiting from.
Chair Brown. Thank you for that answer.
Mr. Greene, prior to your hearing in 2021, you wrote the
Committee. You unequivocally stated you do not support
defunding the police. You testified in 2021, under oath, that
you do not support defunding the police. Put this issue to bed,
once and for all. Again, under oath, do you support defunding
the police?
Mr. Greene. I do not support defunding the police, Chairman
Brown.
Chair Brown. Have you ever advocated for, or do you support
defunding DOJ, the FBI, or Federal law enforcement?
Mr. Greene. No, I have not.
Chair Brown. Thank you for that answer. Talk about
defunding the police today is a distraction. My colleagues know
that. The chart that the Ranking Member held up were not your
words, understanding that. The witnesses have stated under oath
that this witness does not support defunding the police.
But what is ironic on this, as these political attacks
endure in Presidential races and Senate races forever, what is
interesting is that is Democrats who funded the police. The
American Rescue Plan enabled communities around the country to
keep cops on the job through the pandemic. Democrats voted for
the American Rescue Plan. Republicans, to the person, opposed
funding local and State police in our communities. Republican
politicians today, in the House and Senate, are actually
calling for defunding law enforcement, defunding the FBI,
defunding DOJ. Prominent Republican politicians continue to do
that while accusing Democrats of something that Democrats
simply have not advocated for. If you care about law
enforcement you support them in word and deed, period.
Now my last question for Mr. Borzekowski. You have
significant experience leading and managing economic research
organizations. Briefly describe how your experience has
prepared you for this role and how you approach evaluating
risks to our financial system.
Mr. Borzekowski. Thank you for the question, Chairman
Brown. I think given the time I will do this very briefly.
My role at the CFPB, in particular, was to build a research
office for a brand-new Government agency, and that meant
gathering the data resources, hiring the personnel that were
necessary, putting in the correct policies, procedures, and
safeguards for those data, all to make sure that we could do
the analysis, provide those at the time to Director Cordray and
later to Acting Director Mulvaney and Director Kraninger, so
that they can make the policy decisions the Bureau needed. And
that was primarily my role over that period of time.
Chair Brown. Thank you. Senator Scott.
Senator Scott. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will simply say
that anyone who thinks that Republicans have not been the
leading voices on funding the police, and that Democrats have
been the leading voices to defund the police, do not ask us.
Ask the police. Look around the country and see the devastating
state of crime in America. Do not ask us. Ask the people of the
country who sides with the police and who does not.
I will simply say that, Mr. Greene, those are your
comments. Those are your retweets. We would love to get you or
Twitter to provide us with all your retweets or your tweets. We
could have a serious conversation about that. But I am not
going to politicize that issue because I think there are other
issues that are incredibly important. We will not see eye-to-
eye on that issue, so let's talk about something that I think
is equally important to those folks living in HUD homes.
On April 7th, despite bipartisan support from both sides of
Congress to overturn the regulation, President Biden vetoed a
resolution that would have reversed the EPA's WOTUS rule. In
addition, this regulation will have a massive impact on
farmers, farmers, small businesses across the country. I am
extremely concerned about the potential impacts this will have
on affordable housing as well. This rule will require Federal
assessments on constructionsites across the country by
expanding Federal authority over drainage ditches, water tanks,
irrigation systems.
Virtually every association responsible for building
affordable housing, they are all ringing the alarm bells about
how this regulatory overreach will create massive delays and
higher costs. Would you agree with those organizations, Mr.
Greene?
Mr. Greene. Thank you, Ranking Member Scott. So I have
dedicated much of my career to----
Senator Scott. And mostly because I only have 2\1/2\
minutes left.
Mr. Greene. ----expanding the supply of affordable housing,
including conducting research and removing regulatory barriers.
In my experience, and I think based on the research, most of
the barriers that impede the supply of housing are overly
restrictive State and local land use reforms.
I am generally familiar with the EPA actions you have
described but not enough to be able to provide an answer as to
what----
Senator Scott. Let me ask you a shorter question then. Do
you think the Federal Government should be regulating every
ditch in America?
Mr. Greene. I do not.
Senator Scott. OK. Good enough for me.
Dr. Bernstein, I enjoyed reading about your family's
history. I think it is a powerful testament to the American
Dream, and I truly appreciate that. I would love to ask you
just a few yes-no questions. As often as we can get to the yes-
no quickly, we both will benefit from that.
Generally supportive of Opportunity Zones?
Mr. Bernstein. Oh, absolutely.
Senator Scott. OK. Sounds great. One of the comments that
you made about inflation I would, of course, take exception to
the fact that inflation was basically the byproduct of, first,
and finally, the war. I would just suggest that as it relates
to gas prices, before the Putin invasion of Ukraine gas prices
were up about 60 percent in our country, so I would not put the
burden of inflation simply on those two. I would also add on
top of that $4 trillion of Federal spending that led to the 9.1
percent inflationary effect.
Something that you said in the Washington Post piece that
you wrote in 2020, you said that anyone who voted for the TCJA
has zero credibility on deficits and should summarily be
ignored, if not ridiculed. That would, of course, include every
single Republican that is going to have a choice in voting for
you or not. Do you continue to stand behind that statement? And
the one thing I would add on top of that is that after being a
part of the team that wrote the bill, we saw, in 2018, revenues
to the Treasury went up, not down, so that would actually
improve, not reduce, the likelihood of us making our bills. And
number two, in 2019, add another 3 percent on top of the 3
percent. So therefore, with the lower taxes, revenues to the
Treasury actually went up. So do you still think that
Republicans should be ridiculed for that?
Mr. Bernstein. No, no. I certainly do not, and I also think
it is very important to look at the context of comments like
that. So contextually, the point that I was making was that if
you look at the main factor that has been driving up both
deficits and debts, it is clearly diminished revenues. And the
Tax Cuts and Jobs Act definitely played a role in diminishing
revenues flowing to the Treasury. You can find a quarter or two
that supports your interpretation. But it is widely----
Senator Scott. Yes, sir. So let me----
Mr. Bernstein. Sir, let me just finish. It is widely
understood to be the case----
Senator Scott. I will not because I have less time left, so
I am going to continue to reclaim my time.
Mr. Bernstein. ----that the revenue factor----
Senator Scott. Let me ask you one more question. Four
quarters is what you have in 12 months, and four quarters, 12
months later, we had an increase in revenue, not a decrease in
revenue. Then another four quarters in a row, we had another
increased revenue, not a decreased revenue. So therefore, I
would say that it is not a quarterly snapshot. It is actually a
12-month period of time where we saw more revenue coming to the
Treasury, not less money coming into the Treasury.
Mr. Bernstein. This is not a controversial issue, Senator.
Senator Scott. Yeah, I agree with you on that part, so let
me ask you my next----
Mr. Bernstein. It is widely agreed upon.
Senator Scott. ----question, by the way. You also said, in
a 2017 Washington Post piece, that Republicans are good at
getting elected, lousy at governance. Do you continue to stand
by that statement?
Mr. Bernstein. Again, I think that lifting statements out
of context can lead to things that certainly do not describe my
views.
Senator Scott. You would understand why I would find these
statements to be concerning because, let me just----
Mr. Bernstein. Absolutely. If I can respond, my entire
professional career has been dedicated to working with people
across the aisle to do precisely what you said in your opening
comments, was to lift up the economic opportunities to everyday
Americans, handups over handouts.
Senator Scott. Yes.
Mr. Bernstein. It is why I worked on Opportunity Zones with
the Trump administration. It is why the letter from Republican
former CEA chairs endorsed my nomination. And so I look
forward, if confirmed, to continuing to work with you on
policies that do precisely what I think meet both of our goals
in that regard.
Senator Scott. I will look forward to that as well. I would
just suggest for you and future noms that while we are going to
have strong disagreements on politics and perhaps philosophy,
and we probably should because we do not see the world from the
same vantage point, that is OK. But to suggest that in the time
that we live today that people should be ridiculed, taking that
out of context? Maybe but probably not. I just think we should
be very careful in how we--I try not to demonize the other
side.
Mr. Bernstein. I agree with you.
Senator Scott. I am not talking about anybody personally. I
am just talk about politics.
Mr. Bernstein. I agree with you, sir.
Senator Scott. Thank you, sir.
Chair Brown. Senator Warner, of Virginia, is recognized
from his office.
Senator Warner. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and Dr. Bernstein,
it is good to see you again. I have worked with you literally
for years and very much appreciate the fact that I think you
bring an open mind to all issues. You and I have not always
agreed on a whole host of issues, but I think your record, the
fact that you have got virtually living former Chairs of the
Council of Economic Advisors, all of those former Republican
CEA heads, I think speaks volumes. And I think anyone that
would take a fair look at the extent of your record, and how
you work on issues like Opportunity Zones--and I was proud to
work with Senator Scott on Opportunity Zones. I think the
implementation still left a lot to be desired, and I hope I can
work with Senator Scott and Senator Booker and others on, if we
were to renew it how we would get it right. But I think you
have got a very strong record.
I want to get to a couple of questions. One, housing, and I
appreciate the Chairman's focus on housing. We all know that
prices of rents go up tremendously. I think in Virginia it now
takes somebody, to get a one-bedroom apartment you would have
to work a 78-hour work week to be able to pay the rent. That
just does not make sense. I want you to speak about affordable
housing but with a particular focus on things like the Low-
Income Housing Tax Credit, the Neighborhood Homes Tax Credit
that Senator Portman and Senator Cardin had, the new Markets
Tax Credit. How can we use these tools and others to increase
housing supply? I think it is critically important.
Mr. Bernstein. Yeah. Just to be clear, are you asking me
that question, Senator?
Senator Warner. Yeah. I am asking you, yes.
Mr. Bernstein. Because there are other housing folks here.
I strongly agree with what you are suggesting there, and the
housing team, of which I serve on in the Biden administration
has exclusively--I should not say exclusively--has largely
focused on improving the supply of housing in ways that you
have been working on for as long as you have been here. So not
only does our agenda hope to close the gap between housing
demand and housing supply, it hopes to do so through policies
like the Capital Magnet Fund, the Housing Trust Fund, and yes,
in our budget we have significant increases in the Low-Income
Housing Tax Credit. And I think that policy has a particularly
strong appeal right now, and I would strongly urge Congress to
give that a close look. If confirmed, I would be really excited
and happy to work with you and this Committee on legislating
those proposals.
Senator Warner. Yeah, and I hope that you will be
confirmed, and I look forward to working with you on that.
I want to touch, as well, on something I raised with the
Chairman of the Fed in recent hearings. We know that the
commercial real estate market is going through massive
dislocation. There is close to $6 trillion in commercial debt
that is outstanding. A lot of that is related to the real
estate market. We have seen the refinancing blows in the past,
with cliffs coming, and somehow we always manage to get through
them.
I do worry this time, with inflation up and with the
fundamental transition going in on in the office market, and I
do believe we need to encourage more of our wildfire, Federal
workers, private sector workers, to get back into the office. I
know some can work efficiently at home, but I do think overall
operations are better.
But this commercial real estate debt overhang, is this time
it going to be different in terms of the rollover on that
commercial debt? I am hugely worried that we could have a real
meltdown now, that on top of what is happening on some of the
follow-on effects of the SVB and other banking tightening. Talk
about this commercial----
Mr. Bernstein. Sure. Briefly, Senator, that is a relevant,
germane concern. Certainly occupancy rates remain well below
their prepandemic levels. And while we have seen any
delinquencies in this space rise a bit lately there are still
really quite low in historical terms. That said, this issue is
very much on our watchlist. It is something we are tracking
carefully. To a nontrivial extent, many holdings of commercial
real estate are held by smaller and middle-sized banks.
I think just in completing my thoughts on this for now--
there is more to be said here--I think some of the actions that
were taken, decisive actions that were taken the weekend that
SVB and Signature failed have really helped to stabilize the
system, and this too should help ameliorate the stressors that
you are describing. But they are definitely worth keeping a
close eye on, and we will do so at CEA.
Senator Warner. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chair Brown. Thank you, Senator Warren.
Senator Rounds, of South Dakota, is recognized.
Senator Rounds. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Dr. Bernstein, I have to admit I really appreciated the
opportunity to visit with you in my office, and thank you for
taking the time to do so. There were a couple of items that we
talked about there that I would suspect that we would disagree
on, but I want to work my way through them with you here today.
Inflation, specifically the high energy prices, I believe
have negatively affected American families. I also believe that
the Federal Reserve does not have the appropriate tools to
fight this inflation because it policy-induced by President
Biden's plans.
On President Biden's first day in office, with a stroke of
a pen, he choked off the access to the Keystone XL pipeline and
prohibited new oil and gas leases on public lands and waters.
This sent a signal to the energy community, those people that
invest in energy, that the Federal Government would be
diverting resources away from domestic energy production.
As a member of the CEA, did you recommend that that action,
that he shut down that Keystone pipeline on that first day?
Mr. Bernstein. First of all, let me very much agree that
meeting with you and talking about these issues was a pleasure,
and I hope that in that meeting I underscored the kind of
dynamics that the CEA former Republican chairs referenced about
my proclivities to work with folks across the aisle and to
``value inputs from a diverse set of views.'' That is a quote.
I think the important points that I tried to stress with
you were less about Keystone and more about crude production
under President Biden, which has been higher than any other
President on record.
Senator Rounds. But the reason why I am asking is because
on that particular day the President relies on advice from
trusted advisors around him. I would have assumed that you
would be one of those trusted advisors. So that is the reason
why I asked. Did you recommend to him that he shut down the
Keystone XL pipeline?
Mr. Bernstein. I am always involved in policy processes,
but I do not have a readout from that precise incident. I will
point out that the Keystone pipeline was only 8 percent
completed when the decision to cancel it was made, and of
course, that was merely--not merely--that was a pipeline to
transmit oil, not to produce more.
And again, I think the key point here is that----
Senator Rounds. I do not mean to be argumentative, but my
question is simply did you recommend that he shut down the
Keystone XL pipeline?
Mr. Bernstein. And my answer, Senator, was as a member of
the team I was part of those conversations, but I do not have
any particular readout or recollection that would answer that
question in the fulsome manner you are requesting.
Senator Rounds. Well, let me go on then. In your role as
the Chair of the CEA, how would you advise the President to
bring down inflation from a policy perspective?
Mr. Bernstein. OK. That is a great question, and I would
say one of the answers is one I already referenced in
discussions with Senator Brown earlier, which is the pandemic,
while not the sole cause of inflation, was certainly its root
cause. And helping to ameliorate the supply side constraints
that have been such a key factor in putting upward pressure on
inflation was something we took very seriously, and continue to
do so. Our supply side Disruptions Task Force got right to work
helping to bring down the logjam at the ports. And as I
mentioned earlier, goods-priced inflation has actually been
zero or negative over the past 5 or 6 months.
In terms of energy, which I know is so important to you and
your State, there I think it is important to recognize that
production of oil under President Biden, 11.6 million barrels
per day, is the highest under any President thus far, and that
the President just approved, as you know, the Willow Project,
which will produce 180,000 barrels per day. We know that there
are unused leases ready to be drilled, and that our oil
producers have been highly profitable.
Senator Rounds. Fair enough to say that the cost of energy,
the cost of fuel has driven inflation up?
Mr. Bernstein. It is definitely not that simple, and in
fact, in recent time it has gone the other way. So in the month
of March----
Senator Rounds. Since President Biden has taken office the
price of gas on a per-gallon basis is still about $1.30 higher
than what it was when he took office.
Mr. Bernstein. Interestingly, it is about $1.35 since below
where it was in the peak of June of last year, when it went----
Senator Rounds. Well, it has been higher under his
Administration, but from the beginning of his Administration
forward, based upon advice he has received, we have seen energy
prices go up, and not all of it, in fact, a lot of it occurred
prior to Mr. Putin invading Ukraine.
So the reason why I ask this is these are really important
advisories, and the message that you and I had, the discussion
that you and I had in my office the other day was specific on
the types of advice and the background that you would provide
the President. And I know I am over my time on this, but I just
think it is really important that the Committee hear the
approach that you take in advising the President of the United
States on economic issues of all sites.
But thank you for your time today.
Mr. Bernstein. Thank you, Senator.
Chair Brown. Thank you, Senator Rounds.
Senator Fetterman, of Pennsylvania, is recognized.
Senator Fetterman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chair Brown. Good to see you. Thank you.
Senator Fetterman. And Mr. Greene, I know the Chairman was
really drilling down on it, but I just really wanted to put a
sharper point on it. You do not embrace, at all, defunding the
police. Correct?
Mr. Greene. I do not, Senator.
Senator Fetterman. Well, I just want to thank you for being
here today, and I know your nomination was brought in before
this Committee last Congress, and my predecessor may have
prevented you from being able to move forward. Is that a fact?
Mr. Greene. That is correct.
Senator Fetterman. Yeah. I personally wanted to, looking
forward, to giving you a fair chance to discuss your policy
work in substance.
Mr. Greene. Thank you, Senator.
Senator Fetterman. You know, with Congress' historic
investments in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act we
are beginning to see some real improvement in the quality and
lives of forgotten communities. So, Mr. Greene, has HUD been
working with the Department of Transportation to coordinate on
the implementation of the IIHA? If you were confirmed, could
HUD help track housing costs around major infrastructure
projects so we could develop targeted strategies to preserve
affordability?
Mr. Greene. Absolutely, Senator. We are, as a country,
benefiting from unprecedented investments in our Nation's, and
overdue investments in our Nation's infrastructure and
transportation. At the same time, we are also facing a
tremendous housing crisis, and there is an opportunity to
leverage those investments to address the housing needs so
desperate in so many communities.
And we have already started that work at HUD with the
Department of Transportation. We just, earlier this year,
announced a Thriving Communities Technical Assistance Program
to give local communities the support they need and help them
build capacity to leverage those investments. Of course, we
would continue to do so.
We already have tools to measure and data to measure how
changes in prices that may be associated with transportation
infrastructure investments, and we can use our Thriving
Communities TA to help communities use those data to make more
informed decisions.
So it is both a tremendous challenge but I would say also a
tremendous opportunity that we are eager to leverage.
Senator Fetterman. Thank you.
Dr. Bernstein, between the historic investments in American
infrastructure and manufacturing, we have seen in the CHIPS
Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, Infrastructure Investment and
Jobs Act, we are witnessing a level of Government investment in
American infrastructure and manufacturing capacity that we have
not seen in decades. Importantly, these investments are
translated into real, high-paid jobs for Pennsylvanians and
working nationwide.
So Doctor, how can smart, proactive Government investments
in economic policy create high-paying, family sustaining jobs
for workers and expanding the middle class?
Mr. Bernstein. Thank you, Senator. Through precisely the
types of investments that you have mentioned, but specifically
by tapping the power of private markets so that we are working
in tandem, that the Government provides tailwinds to
investments in areas where we have historically underinvested,
both at great cost to our domestic production but also to our
national security.
The CHIPS Act is a classic example. We used to produce
close to 40 percent of the world's computer chips. Now we are
somewhere around 10 percent. And I would say the exposure of
that shortfall was made very clear during the pandemic.
So elevating the resiliency and the importance of those
supply chains, whether it is chips or whether it is the
production of clean energy, is very much a motivator for us.
And again, just underscoring that of course this is not
something we can do ourselves, Congress or any Administration.
We have to work closely with the private sector, and that is
why I think we are so glad to be seeing some very strong
reactions, whether it is investment in manufacturing, hundreds
of billions coming in from the sidelines to complement the
kinds of incentives that we have introduced in the bills you
have mentioned.
Senator Fetterman. Thank you, Doctor.
Chair Brown. Thank you, Senator Fetterman.
Senator Kennedy, of Louisiana, is recognized.
Senator Kennedy. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you,
gentlemen, for being here.
Mr. Uejio--am I saying your name right, sir?
Mr. Uejio. It's ``way-gee-oh'', Senator.
Senator Kennedy. Thank you. You have been nominated
Assistant Secretary of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity at
HUD. Is that correct?
Mr. Uejio. Yes, Senator, that is correct.
Senator Kennedy. OK. Tell me the difference between Title
VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Fair Housing Act.
Mr. Uejio. Certainly, Senator. My understanding is that
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act deals principally with labor
practices and employment practices, whereas the Fair Housing
Act is principally focused on discrimination in housing, sir.
Senator Kennedy. OK. Is there a difference in the protected
classes in the two statutes?
Mr. Uejio. Thank you, Senator. I do not have a ton of
experience with Title VII. I will say that the protected
classes under the Fair Housing Act are well-established as
race, national origin, religion, familial status. You know, I
can name the rest of it if you would like, Senator.
Senator Kennedy. OK. Tell me about Bostock v. Clayton
County, the Supreme Court case.
Mr. Uejio. Yes, Senator. My understanding about Bostock was
that it interpreted specifically the protected class in the
Fair Housing Act dealing with sex and gender to include LGBTQIA
individuals for those protections----
Senator Kennedy. Excuse me for interrupting, but was
Bostock an employment case or a housing case?
Mr. Uejio. Senator, thanks for the question. You know, I
actually do not know the answer to that, Senator.
Senator Kennedy. Well, it is kind of fundamental. I mean,
what was the holding of Bostock?
Mr. Uejio. My sense was that Bostock, as it has been
interpreted by HUD----
Senator Kennedy. I am not asking how HUD interpreted it. I
mean, you have read the opinion. What does it say? It was an
employment case, right?
Mr. Uejio. Sure. My sense, Senator, I get what you are
getting at with this questioning.
Senator Kennedy. What am I getting at?
Mr. Uejio. My sense is that this was a case--well, I am not
a lawyer, Senator, and I have not had a good deal of experience
with labor law. But the position I have been nominated for
deals with----
Senator Kennedy. Well, let me tell you what I am getting
at, OK. Bostock dealt with employment discrimination, OK. Its
holding does not have to do with housing. Do you propose that
the holding of Bostock be extended to housing?
Mr. Uejio. Senator, my understanding is that HUD issued an
interpretive rule----
Senator Kennedy. I am not asking about HUD. I know what HUD
has done. I am asking about you. Bostock, you say you have read
it and I believe you. If you have you know it is an employment
discrimination case. Right?
Mr. Uejio. Yes, Senator.
Senator Kennedy. OK. Do you think that the holding of
Bostock can fairly be extended to the field of housing?
Mr. Uejio. Senator, my view is that the role for which I
have been nominated is to faithfully enforce the laws as
Congress has written them and as they have been interpreted by
the courts.
Senator Kennedy. I am asking you what the law is. I am
asking you what Bostock held, and do you think that Bostock can
be extended to housing?
Mr. Uejio. Senator, and I apologize if I am missing the
mark on your question. My sense is that Bostock held that sex
prohibited basis or protected class under that set of laws
under Title VII did include individuals who identify as LGBTQIA
or----
Senator Kennedy. Well, here is what I am getting at.
Bostock was an employment discrimination case. All you have got
to do is read it. There it is, big as a house. OK? And HUD has
said we are going to apply Bostock to housing, not to
employment discrimination, to housing, and you are going to
have to go along with that. Otherwise, you are not going to
last very long on your job.
So legally how can that be done?
Mr. Uejio. Senator, I do not presently work at HUD. I am
familiar with the interpretive rule you have described.
Senator Kennedy. OK. I do not think you are going to answer
me, and I am going to run out of time. So let me ask Dr.
Bernstein a question. Doc, why did you think inflation was
temporary?
Mr. Bernstein. The word, of course, ``transitory'' is what
you are referring to, and I not only believed but I said----
Senator Kennedy. Well is ``temporary'' and ``transitory,''
those are synonymous, right?
Mr. Bernstein. Yeah, they are synonyms.
Senator Kennedy. OK. Well, tell me why----
Mr. Bernstein. But I think ``transitory'' was----
Senator Kennedy. ----tell me why you thought inflation--I
want to be accurate--why, in your infinite wisdom, you thought
inflation was transitory or temporary
Mr. Bernstein. Well, let me be clear about what we meant at
the time. And by the way, and this is contrary to what Ranking
Member Scott said earlier, I did not ever say that people did
not understand transitory. What I said was that we did not
understand transitory.
Senator Kennedy. Well, that is clear. We can just stipulate
to that.
Mr. Bernstein. That word is temporally ambiguous. It meant
different things to some people, and then 2 weeks to some
people meant 2 years. What we meant--and let me answer your
question--we thought inflation was going to accelerate and
gradually cool down over time. Now, that has turned out to be,
in fact, the pattern that inflation has taken. But
``transitory'' was much too ambiguous a description of that
dynamic. Acceleration, cooling.
Senator Kennedy. Let me stop you because I am going to run
out of time.
Mr. Bernstein. Now inflation has----
Senator Kennedy. I am going to run out of time.
Mr. Bernstein. ----gone from 9 percent to 5 percent.
Senator Kennedy. Are you telling me that when you said
inflation was ``transitory,'' you were correct?
Mr. Bernstein. No, I am not saying I was correct or
incorrect. What I am saying was that was an ambiguous----
Senator Kennedy. You were saying you were correct.
Mr. Bernstein. No. I am saying that was an ambiguous and
unclear word that was poorly chosen, I think, for that
discussion because it meant different things to different
people. To me----
Senator Kennedy. Well, has it been transitory?
Mr. Bernstein. Inflation has, in fact, behaved much as I
just described. We thought inflation was going to accelerate
but gradually cool over time----
Senator Kennedy. But have not we been transitory----
Mr. Bernstein. ----and that is accurate.
Senator Kennedy. The Chairman is going to cut me off. Has
it been transitory?
Mr. Bernstein. Inflation has accelerated and cooled.
Chair Brown. The Senator's time has expired. I want to
fulfill what you said, that I was going to cut you off.
Senator Kennedy. Yeah.
Chair Brown. Senator Van Hollen, of Maryland, is
recognized.
Senator Van Hollen. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Congratulations to all of you on your nominations.
Dr. Bernstein, I have a question regarding employee
ownership, because I am working with some colleagues on a
bipartisan basis to encourage private investment funds to
finance the establishment and growth of employee-owned
businesses. I think there is bipartisan agreement that when
every employee has a stake in the success of an enterprise that
is a good thing we should encourage. And I know that this is
something that you have devoted a lot of time to looking into
and supporting.
So could you just outline quickly for the Committee the
benefits of employee ownership?
Mr. Bernstein. Yeah. I think that this is a great question.
Thank you, Senator. And, you know, it reminds me a little bit
of the spirit of the Opportunity Zones that Senator Scott has
worked on in the sense that this is a way of trying to ensure
that wealth reaches folks who it otherwise would not. So
employment ESOPs, or any kind of program that enables workers
to have some stake in the ownership of their companies actually
turned out to be a pretty surefire way to help rebalance the
vast inequalities of wealth. We know income is unequally
distributed. Wealth is far more unequally distributed. In fact,
half of the population does not own any stock, and those that
do, it is concentrated on the very top.
So employee ownership programs are a great way to help
break down that highly inequitable distribution.
Senator Van Hollen. I appreciate that. As you know, and you
have written about this, it can be very complicated right now
for a business that wants to become an employee-owned business
to do that, which is why we are working on this legislation.
Could I just have your commitment that if confirmed to this
position that you would work with us in developing this
legislation?
Mr. Bernstein. Oh, absolutely. I give you my full
commitment that if confirmed, I will do so. And in fact, of the
areas I have tried to study is why are there not more
arrangements like this, because there should be. And barriers
you described, that is what we need to really drill down on.
Senator Van Hollen. Thank you. Yeah, we are trying to knock
down those barriers.
Dr. Borzekowski, great to have a fellow Marylander here.
Congratulations on your nomination. I want to discuss the
Office of Financial Research's role in identifying systemic
risk. And as you know, part of your mission is to promote
financial stability by looking across the financial system, to
measure and analyze risks and perform important research.
All of this obviously hinges on data availability, and
right now, as I look at the nonbanking financial system, there
seems to be a great shortage of good information and data, and
again, the shadow banking system and other financial companies
that are not currently regulated in the same way as banks.
So could you talk a little bit about the role of this
office in trying to gather that information, and whether you
think that we should be doing more to gather data in that area
to look at systemic risk.
Mr. Borzekowski. Thank you, Senator, for the question and
for the kind welcome from Maryland. I fully agree with you that
the mission of the OFR, if it is going to fulfill its mission
to monitor for and be vigilant about systemic risks, is to
build the data ahead of time, in particular into areas of the
financial system that are not currently visible and for which
we currently do not have data. The nonbanking sector, as you
have mentioned, is one of those areas. So, in principle, I
fully support efforts in that regard, and the statute gives the
office and the authority and the responsibility to do just
that.
While not being in the role currently I am a little bit at
a loss exactly where they are in their current efforts in that
regard, outside of the one current collection that is under
notice and comment for bilateral repo. But should I be lucky
enough to be confirmed, I believe that collecting data on the
areas of the financial system that we do not currently see is
an important part of the mission.
Senator Van Hollen. Well, I appreciate that. I look forward
to working with you and your office, because while there has
been a lot of attention, as we know, on the banking system,
even with the kind of information we currently collect, we have
seen the risks, like Silicon Valley Bank and others.
But the shadow banking system is growing very rapidly, and
when I asked the Secretary of Treasury and all the other
Federal regulators whether they support rolling back the
limitations that the previous Administration put on FSOC's
ability to regulate there, the answer has been a unanimous yes
from all of them.
But we need to make sure that we gather more information
here in order to make sure that we approach this regulation in
a smart way. So I appreciate that. Congratulations to all of
you.
Chair Brown. Thank you, Senator Van Hollen.
Senator Britt, from Alabama, is recognized.
Senator Britt. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to start by
saying it was wonderful to see Senator Fetterman here today. As
a friend and a freshman colleague, it is great to have him back
in this Committee room and here in the Capitol.
Thank you for appearing before this Committee today. We
appreciate your time and your intentionality in answering our
questions. I believe that this Committee's role is that of
oversight, and it is essential for holding leaders in our
executive departments accountable for the decisions they make
and policies they promote that affect all Americans, whether it
be in our housing programs or our macroeconomic policies.
America has seen inflation increase by 15.4 percent since
President Biden came into office. As a mom of two school-aged
kids, I see this firsthand every time I go to the grocery store
or to the gas pump. Groceries are up 20 percent and energy
costs are up 36 percent. Families in Alabama, South Carolina,
Ohio, and in every community across the country are feeling
that pain. Rising prices have cost the typical households about
$10,000 in 2 years. Families, parents, and retirees have had to
bear the brunt of that persistent inflation over these last 23,
24 months.
Dr. Bernstein, I wanted to talk to you, following up on
what Senator Kennedy was asking you. I know you have been asked
once, but I want to make sure that we can clarify this. Do you
still stand by your past comments indicating that inflation is
transitory?
Mr. Bernstein. The problem with the word ``transitory'' is
that it has become, I think, an unhelpful and much too
ambiguous term to describe the trajectory of inflation. It is
true that that word, or any other word, temporary, any synonym,
suggests a condition where inflation accelerates and then
inflation decelerates, slows down. Now inflation peaked at 9
percent in June, and most recently was seen at 5 percent. That
is its lowest annual growth rate since November of 2021. So in
that sense the view of acceleration, then deceleration, was
correct. ``Transitory,'' however, was too temporally ambiguous
a term.
Senator Britt. OK. So you do agree that that term should
not have been used.
Mr. Bernstein. I think that the term was far too ambiguous
to give people a clear sense of what we were thinking.
Senator Britt. Yeah. So one of the things we need you to
do, as a leader and someone who advises, is give the public
very clear indications of what we can expect. Unfortunately,
the word ``transitory'' for many means temporary. It means that
it would be short-lived. That is certainly not what we have
seen. We have seen inflation above 5 percent every single month
for 23 straight months, and real wages have gone down for 2
straight years.
One of the things that Chairman Brown said about, and that
was indicated in the letter, is that are open to changing your
mind. So once again I just want to directly ask, that word
``transitory'' should have never been used.
Mr. Bernstein. I do not want to say it should have never
been used. I think that the word is not a helpful term. I think
it is too ambiguous.
Senator Britt. Thank you.
Mr. Bernstein. I think it does not clearly--it does not
clearly delineate either what we believe to be the case or the
actual trajectory. Now that said, it is true that we saw
inflation accelerate, and we have seen inflation cool, but we
have a lot more to go.
Senator Britt. Would you agree that it has lasted longer
than you anticipated when you first used that term?
Mr. Bernstein. Yes.
Senator Britt. OK. Thank you.
Dr. Bernstein, you have also championed massive spending
packages pushed by President Biden over these last 2 years, the
American Rescue Plan and the Inflation Reduction Act. You have
publicly said that they would decrease inflation. The hard
truth is that these bills and policies have increased
inflation, and result in some saying that we may be having to
have a recession in order to stem inflation.
More spending is not the answer to lower costs for all
Americans. We have to stop the reckless spending, reduce
regulatory burdens on job creators, and unleash American energy
production so that we are not just energy independent but
energy dominant.
President Biden has nominated you to for the position of
the Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors, of which you
currently serve as a member of the council. Seventy-two percent
of Americans believe that the economy is headed in the wrong
direction, and as one of the architects of the past 2 years of
the failing economic policies of this Administration it is
concerning to me that President Biden is asking the Senate to
confirm you to this position.
Last month, we saw President Biden propose his budget for
fiscal year 2024, that includes a $6.9 trillion tax and
spending spree that we know will continue to drive inflation
even higher. All we have to do is look over the past 2 years
for the evidence of that.
I would ask you, how can the American people expect
different results when this Administration and its economic
advisors tend to look like they are doubling down on what I
believe has not worked?
Mr. Bernstein. So thank you for the question, Senator. I
respectfully would like to challenge some of the ways you have
teed up some issues there. So first of all, the Rescue Plan was
actually fiscally smaller than the CARES Act, so if that was
massive then the CARES Act was even more massive. The Inflation
Reduction Act more than pays for itself. It actually reduces
the budget deficit by over $200 billion over 10 years. In terms
of the President's budget, once again that not only pays for
the proposals in the budget but reduces the deficit by almost
$3 trillion over 10 years.
So I think that those characterizations go in a different
direction than some that you were suggesting, respectfully.
Senator Britt. And respectfully I would disagree. I think
if we were producing more energy, if we were to be spending
less money, I think inflation would not have been as, quote/
unquote, ``transitory'' as you first put forth.
Mr. Bernstein. So if I may, Senator, the production of
crude oil under President Biden is the highest----
Senator Britt. I heard you say that earlier.
Mr. Bernstein. ----is the highest under any President on
record, and, in fact, under President Biden, on average, the
production is 560,000 barrels per day greater than under the
previous Administration.
Senator Britt. And we see what is happening in Europe and
the U.K., and you referenced that earlier. And if we were doing
more to help them with their energy needs I think that we would
see those costs go down as well.
Chair Brown. Thank you, Senator Britt.
Senator Warren, from Massachusetts, is recognized.
Senator Warren. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to
our nominees for being here today.
So the sudden failures of Silicon Valley and Signature
Banks last month reminded us just how quickly risks that are
lurking in our financial system can blow up, forcing regulators
to take extraordinary action to stop panic and to protect our
economy. It was a lesson hard learned in 2008, which is why
Congress created the Office of Financial Research, or OFR, in
the Dodd-Frank Act.
Now OFR is an independent office within the Treasury
Department that was intended to serve as an early warning
system to alert financial regulators to emerging risks, the
idea is before it is too late. By collecting and analyzing
critical data from across financial markets, OFR can give
regulators and financial institutions the information they need
to better monitor and address risks to the financial system,
wherever those risks occur.
Dr. Borzekowski, you have been nominated to serve as the
Director of OFR, so let me ask you to explain the role OFR
should play in monitoring and providing regulators with a
better understanding of the kinds of financial stability risks
that helped take down SVB and Signature, like interest rate
risk and concentrated deposits.
Mr. Borzekowski. Thank you, Senator Warren, for the
question and for your leadership on a lot of the financial
issues post crisis. As you note, we learned a lot in 2008 and
2009----
Senator Warren. And then forgot it.
Mr. Borzekowski. To your question about the role of the
OFR, I believe it begins, as you state, with looking across the
landscape, trying to be vigilant in where risks may emerge.
That takes some creativity because by definition, as you note,
if they were hiding in plain sight we would see them. So where
could these risks emerge and what data, therefore, should be
gathered to confirm that hypothesis or negate it? That data
should be gathered, and should be gathered ahead of any
potential crisis, which is one of the other things we learned
from 2008 and 2009. When things did start going wrong, it was a
scramble to get the data necessary.
So primarily I believe it is that data, and then the
complement to that is the research, resources, and not only the
resources to turn those into insights and findings.
Senator Warren. In fact, as I recall, OFR flagged the
interest rate risk and other risks in the banking sector, and I
assume you would like to stay on top of that, if confirmed.
Mr. Borzekowski. If confirmed, I feel it is my duty to
fulfill the mission that Congress laid out.
Senator Warren. Yes. Good.
Congress gave OFR independence and powerful authorities to
do its job to help ensure the safety of our financial system.
The problem is I think that OFR has fallen far short in its
mandate for far too long.
Now one reason OFR has been so ineffective has been
Republican sabotage. The Trump administration's OFR director
narrowed the office's mission. He cut the staff by 60 percent.
He slashed the budget by 25 percent. There is a particular
irony in that because the OFR budget is not paid for by
taxpayers. Its costs are actually paid by assessments on giant
financial institutions.
Dr. Borzekowski, if you are confirmed as OFR Director you
will have the authority, in consultation with Treasury
Secretary Yellen, to adjust fees on the biggest banks to ensure
that OFR has the resources it needs to do its job. If
confirmed, do you plan to adjust the fee structure to restore
OFR's budget and staff?
Mr. Borzekowski. Senator, if I am privileged enough to be
confirmed what I am committed to is the mission and to making
sure that the OFR has both the staff and the resources and the
data it needs to fulfill this critical mission.
Senator Warren. So you are willing to readjust their fee
structure and restore the budget and staff?
Mr. Borzekowski. I am willing to look at all of the tools
the OFR Director is granted.
Senator Warren. I am concerned that I am not hearing just
yes.
Mr. Borzekowski. I am committed to looking at all the
resources. I cannot speak to it right now.
Senator Warren. That is a very troubling answer.
Undoing the Trump administration's sabotage and restoring
OFR's ability to do its job is, in my view, the critical first
step, but OFR also has to be willing to use the tools that
Congress gave it.
One of those tools is the ability to collect critical data
from financial companies, which you have talked about earlier.
For years, OFR has identified a variety of gaping holes in our
data--missing information on climate risk, private funds,
crypto, cybersecurity. These data gaps matter because they
prevent regulators from better understanding how these risks
could blow up our financial system.
Congress anticipated that some financial firms might be
reluctant to share the data on these risks that they are taking
on, so we equipped OFR with subpoena power. Even so, in the 13
years since OFR was established, it apparently never once has
used this authority. So this is why Senator Reed and I recently
sent another letter to OFR asking it how it plans to collect
the information needed to fill these data gaps.
I realize I am over. I want to ask one quick question. Dr.
Borzekowski, OFR has the explicit statutory authority to
collect whatever information our regulators need, but we need
leadership willing to use that authority. If confirmed, do you
commit to using all of OFR's tools, including its subpoena
power, to bring greater transparency to our financial markets
and address these dangerous data gaps?
Mr. Borzekowski. Senator, the statute lays out a number of
ways for the OFR to collect data, including subpoena authority,
and I commit to gathering the data in whatever way may be
necessary----
Senator Warren. That was not the question.
Mr. Borzekowski. ----to fulfill the mission.
Senator Warren. That was not the question. Do you commit to
using all the tools you have got available----
Mr. Borzekowski. I will use all tools available.
Senator Warren. That is what I wanted to hear. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chair Brown. Thank you, Senator Warren.
Senator Hagerty, of Tennessee, is recognized.
Senator Hagerty. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Dr. Bernstein, I want to start with you and talk about what
I see is a very troubling trend that has been developing, it
has been strengthening over the past several years, and that is
the growing momentum and efforts of our allies and our
adversaries to weaken the dollar's role as the international
reserve currency. That includes Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin. I
have got an article right here that I was just reading,
``Brazil's Lula Calls for an End to Dollar Trade Dominance.
China Applauds This''. Even Malaysia sought to promote
alternatives to the dollar. All of this the CCP is applauding.
And my first question to you is, do you agree that China
wants to see this happen?
Mr. Bernstein. I think there is some evidence that it does.
Senator Hagerty. There seems to be a great deal of evidence
that it does. I think specifically--and we could talk about
this from a strategic standpoint--why would China want to see
this happen?
Mr. Bernstein. I think there are extremely important
privileges, and even in the realm of security, reasons to have
the benefits from having the reserve currency. One of the most
obvious is, of course, sanctions. If you control the reserve
currency you are able to impose sanctions as we have done on
Russia to considerable effect. But there are other positive
aspects as well.
Senator Hagerty. I do see the positive aspects, and that is
why I want to get into this next question which has to do with
some of your writings. And you have written a number of op-eds
pushing for the U.S. to willingly cede the dollar's dominance,
arguing that we should, in quotes, ``be happy to shed this
privilege,'' and that we should, quote, ``dethrone king
dollar.''
So I am trying to understand, you seem to believe that
China would be better off if this were to happen. I am trying
to understand where you are on this point right now. Do you
think that the United States would actually be better off if
the dollar were to somehow lose its status as the world's
currency?
Mr. Bernstein. Definitely not, Senator, but I certainly
understand the references you are making, and I apologize if
there is confusion there.
Senator Hagerty. I am not confused. I am just trying to
understand what----
Mr. Bernstein. Well, I think you are actually not quite
capturing what I was trying to get at there, so let me try to
explain it.
Senator Hagerty. Please explain.
Mr. Bernstein. Yeah. The benefits of having the reserve
currency are, as we have discussed and we could go on to
elaborate those benefits, there are costs as well, particularly
when other countries with whom we compete--China back in the
'80s and '90s, to some extent, but other countries as well--
manage their currencies in order to have a trade advantage
against us. Now from this very dais recently, Senator Vance
asked this question of Chair Powell, to the extent to which
reserve currency status can strengthen the dollar and
disadvantage our manufacturers. What I was trying to do in
those writings was to explore both sides of the issues, the
very solid benefits that I think you and I agree on, but also
the cost, which I think we too often ignore, particularly to
our manufacturers.
Senator Hagerty. I understand the issue of the cost, but in
terms of the strength of the benefits and the strategic value I
certainly know where I stand. I would like to know where you
stand in terms of the weight of this. Where would you stand on
balance and where will the Biden administration stand?
Mr. Bernstein. I share your view on the importance of the
dollar as the dominant reserve currency.
Senator Hagerty. Perfect, because I think that is an
incredibly important tool, particularly as we look at what
China is threatening to do with respect to Taiwan. We look at
the incredible debt that we have piled up and the interest rate
cost, which the CBO has projected to actually be greater than
our entire defense budget.
Mr. Bernstein. Senator, if I may make one point, because we
are in agreement here. One thing we could really do to help
both the dollar maintain its reserve currency status but also
to protect the value of the dollar would be to raise the debt
ceiling. I think having that kind of default out there as a
political tool is antithetical to what you and I are talking
about right now.
Senator Hagerty. I think you just need the finish the
sentence. We need to raise this debt ceiling at the same time
that we begin to get our fiscal house in order.
Mr. Bernstein. I agree.
Senator Hagerty. Because the fiscal spending is, I think,
going to let the market dictate what happens to the dollar as
the reserve currency, and if we continue to allow deficit
spending to go out of control I very, very seriously am
concerned that we do it to ourselves. I know China would like
to do it to us. China would like to see us lose our status as
the reserve currency, but I think the biggest threat is from
within, by allowing our spending to get out of control. That is
the path that we are on now and we need to see it back under
control.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chair Brown. Thank you, Senator Hagerty.
Senator Menendez, from New Jersey, is recognized.
Senator Menendez. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Bernstein, I
have a couple of questions for you. First of all, I appreciate
the even-handedness that you have approached issues over a long
period of time. I think you are inclusive of everybody's views,
and I think you have taken positions that are rather centrist
in terms of trying to make sure that we get to the right place.
So I appreciate your history.
The Federal Reserve's most recent semiannual Monetary
Policy Report stated that the United States continues to face a
dire labor shortage, 10 million unfilled job openings. Now
certainly companies can and should make jobs more attractive by
improving pay and workplace conditions, but the report goes on
to note that this is primarily due to a wave of retirements and
low population growth.
At the same time, we have immigrants ready and willing to
fill these jobs. Over 1.6 million immigrants still have pending
work permit applications before USCIS, and over 8 million
immigrants are stuck in the broader visa backlog, talking about
legal immigration.
Would addressing these visa backlogs help alleviate labor
shortages in the job market?
Mr. Bernstein. Thank you, Senator. Not only would they, but
we have tried to take measures to help address that. When it
comes to employment-based immigrant visas we have approved more
than 172,000 in fiscal year 2021 and a record 280,000 in fiscal
year 2022. Similar advances have been made in H-2B. And I very
much agree with the spirit of your question.
Senator Menendez. Yeah, well, even the leading business
groups and labor unions agree that robust immigration reform is
urgently needed to address our labor shortage, and creating new
legal pathways to do exactly that. We have Republican Governors
calling for parole for certain immigrants to do part of the
jobs that they just simply cannot fulfill. I am for any
American that wants to do any job, regardless of how
significant or how low the skill set is. But in the absence of
finding any Americans to fill 10 million American jobs, we need
productivity and growth, and this is an opportunity for that.
Let me ask you, one of the great successes I view of the
Biden administration has come from focusing on issues of
immediate importance to hard-working families, from emergency
rental assistance during the pandemic that helped keep people
in their homes to the expanded child tax credit that helped
lift millions of children out of poverty, to the unprecedented
funding provided by IIJA to restore roads, bridges, public
transit systems, and other critical infrastructure projects
that Americans rely on.
But many hard-working Americans are still struggling, and
the costs of key goods and services such as housing and child
care remain high. If you were to be confirmed, you will play a
key role in helping to shape the Biden economic plan moving
forward. It is important to continue this focus on kitchen
table issues. If confirmed, what would be your strategy to
suggest to the President for continuing to deliver economic aid
directly to middle-class, working families and those struggling
to get into the middle class?
Mr. Bernstein. Well, this is, of course, as I know you
know, Senator, core to Bidenomics and core to the values of
President Biden, who grew up in precisely the type of middle-
class family, often facing the very struggles you defined
there. So yes, if confirmed, one of the ways we would continue
to press on this would be the implementation of the measures
that you described. I mean, again, I have worked for President
Biden for a long time, and implementation means a lot more to
him than I think to many others in very high office, all the
way back to 2009, when he was the implementer-in-chief of the
Recovery Act.
So implementing the Inflation Reduction Act to make sure
that insulin costs, that the benefits of lower insulin costs,
capping that at $35 a month, benefits of reductions in
prescription drug costs, the benefits of lower costs for clean
energy appliances, all of those, electric vehicles, electric
cars, all of those are going to be implemented under President
Biden's guidance in a way that I think is consistent with your
question.
Senator Menendez. Thank you. Finally, Dr. Borzekowski, let
me just echo Senator Warren's concerns about the Office of
Financial Research. It was reduced by 50 percent in staff.
Recent events in the banking sector, not to mention longer-term
problems like the growth of digital assets and the implications
they will have on the financial system make it all the more
important to ensure that all members of FSOC, including OFR,
are fully staffed.
So I just want to echo that if you are to be confirmed you
need to work to accelerate hiring and bring OFR back to its
full strength so that we can have faith in the information that
we need generated to understand these complex issues. Is that
something that you are committed to doing?
Mr. Borzekowski. Senator, as I think I mentioned to your
colleague, I am fully committed to making sure the resources
are there, both in terms of staffing and data, to fulfill the
mission that Congress has given the OFR.
Senator Menendez. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chair Brown. Thank you, Senator Menendez.
Senator Tillis, of North Carolina, is recognized.
Senator Tillis. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and
congratulations to all of you on your nomination. Mr. Uejio, I
watched your opening statement in my office and would like to
apologize for the challenges of some of your family members
here in what I consider to be a dark chapter in our Nation's
history.
But Mr. Bernstein, I want to start with you. You previously
supported the concept of a financial transaction tax in the
U.S., and I believe at the time you argued it would bring
revenue, and dampen trading volume, you believed, should not
exist. Now we know that Sweden tried it and repealed it. We
know the EU debated it and determined that it was going to be a
loser, and I think the CBO said that it would have about a $43
billion first-year impact net loss on tax revenues, and assets
would immediately depreciate.
So I know that part of your motivation, in a blog post in
2015, had to be a way to tamp down spoofing, which we know is
illegal. So that would be the way to wipe out high-frequency
trading. Do you still support that position?
Mr. Bernstein. Thank you for the question, Senator. We
actually have a few factual disagreements, if I may.
Senator Tillis. Yeah.
Mr. Bernstein. Respectfully. First of all, I believe the
CBO score over 10 years of the financial transaction cost was
in the fairly high hundreds of billions. I think it was 700 or
800----
Senator Tillis. May information says a $43.9 billion first
year net loss of tax revenues, and it would immediately lower
the value of financial assets.
Mr. Bernstein. So we can certainly follow this up. I
believe the 10-year score was around somewhere in the $700
billion.
Senator Tillis. Why would an FTT in the United States defy
the trends of Sweden and the assessment of the EU?
Mr. Bernstein. That is a very good point. First of all, I
do not currently support or am not working on a financial
transaction tax.
Senator Tillis. OK. We can move on.
Mr. Bernstein. Wait, no. But there are some utilities to
that tax. So the Swedish tax was very badly designed, and we
actually have a financial transaction tax in this country
already, and it funds the SEC. So we have one here.
Senator Tillis. But your position, at least as it was
articulated in 2015, is moderated?
Mr. Bernstein. Yes. I am not currently working on an FTT,
nor is our Administration.
Senator Tillis. I guess maybe the only other question,
because I am thinking about how trading has changed so much and
how many retail investors there are today, do you feel like the
FTT, in whatever form or revised form, would actually be
beneficial to that block of traders?
Mr. Bernstein. Beneficial? I do think that the damages of
very high-speed trading, particularly when servers are co-
located, really we have not done enough to look into that and
to ameliorate it. Now I do not know if a very small FTT would
be a good solution to that. I suspect you and I could have good
conversations about that, and if confirmed, I would like to do
so. But that would be where I would land at that right now.
Senator Tillis. OK. I want to move to another area. I, for
one, in the 8 years that I have been here, have seen a major
shift in what I consider to be the politicization of certain
financial regulators. In fact, now I think, from where I sit,
the Fed is the only one that seems to be trying to keep
consensus as the top priority. We saw what happened with the
FDIC.
But just on Fed independence being a priority of mine, I am
concerned about some of your past writings, and as a neutral
institution--I just want to try and figure out where you are.
You have worked for President Biden for a long time. I would
assume you share his priorities.
Mr. Bernstein. I do.
Senator Tillis. You have probably been in an advisory role
to actually formulate some of those priorities. So as a neutral
institution, should the Fed base policy decisions off of
prioritization of one race over another?
Mr. Bernstein. No.
Senator Tillis. I am trying to figure out, then, as you are
aware, full employment--you know what full employment is. It is
a function of aggregate inputs. Yet I believe you have a
proposal out there to pare aggregate economic numbers against
cherry-picked datasets. I am particularly thinking about
minority unemployment numbers being mixed in with the
aggregate. It seems like that could distort decision-making. Do
you agree or disagree with that? What are you attempting to
achieve with that position?
Mr. Bernstein. So I am not exactly sure what you are asking
about, but let me just say that you and I would agree, and more
importantly, President Biden would agree on the absolutely
critical independence of the Federal Reserve.
Senator Tillis. I would like to see, in the consensus in
the FDIC, the SEC, if I had an opportunity I would talk about
fast and loose rulemaking under the APA, but I absolutely----
Mr. Bernstein. I agree with you in terms of independent
regulators critical to what we need to do here. I think what I
was trying to communicate in some of the things that you are
talking about there is the benefits to minorities of full
employment labor markets. And so as we speak today, the Black
unemployment rate of 5 percent is the lowest on record, going
all the way back to 1972, when we started collecting that data.
That is very much a function of just how tight this job market
has been for so long, and it is a tremendously important
benefit. You know, Senator Scott earlier talked about handups,
not handouts. I think this is extremely consistent with that
aspiration.
Senator Tillis. I am going to close out, but just to me it
had more to do, rather than maybe cherry-picking, I am trying
to understand how you can fly at 30,000 feet with certain
numbers and then how you would normalize any sort of level of
granularity and then reconcile that with what are actual local
numbers.
Mr. Bernstein. Great question. If confirmed----
Chair Brown. Please be brief.
Mr. Bernstein. ----I would be honored to sit with you and
explore that question.
Senator Tillis. OK. Thank you. Thank you all.
Chair Brown. Thank you, Senator Tillis.
Senator Smith, from Minnesota, is recognized from her
office.
Senator Smith. Thank you, Chair Brown and Ranking Member,
and congratulations to all of you, Dr. Bernstein, Dr.
Borzekowski, Mr. Greene, and Mr. Uejio. I am very glad to be
with you virtually this morning, and I look forward to
supporting your nominations.
I would like to focus my first question on the interplay
between higher interest rates and home ownership. Mr. Uejio and
Mr. Greene, higher interest rates are raising barriers for home
ownership, especially for lower-income households, and this
hurts people of color who own their own home at much lower
rates. Demand for home buying has gone down as the Fed has
raised interest rates, because obviously higher rates make home
ownership less affordable. And in most markets, including
Minnesota, prices are still up year over year, further
diminishing the purchasing power of working families.
So Mr. Uejio and Mr. Green, what steps can we take, should
we be taking, to promote affordable home ownership in an era of
higher interest rates?
Mr. Uejio. Sure. Thank you for the question, Senator Smith.
If I were confirmed to lead the Office of Fair Housing at HUD
my principal nexus would be between this phenomenon of
decreased housing affordability, largely driven by a huge
shortfall in supply, and any implication or violation of the
Fair Housing Act.
I think the best thing we can do from that perspective to
protect the vulnerable communities you have just described is
really try and keep people in their existing housing. We do not
want to exacerbate this problem through unfair evictions or
foreclosures. So if I were confirmed for this role I would look
carefully to see any nexus or interaction between that
phenomenon of housing becoming increasingly less affordable and
any violation of the rights of individuals protected by the
Fair Housing Act.
Senator Smith. Thank you, and I would like to just
reinforce something that you said, which is that I agree with
you that the crisis in the shortage of housing supply,
especially for lower-priced homes is a huge contributor to why
we have such a dramatic disparity in home ownership rates.
Mr. Greene, would you respond to my question too, please?
Mr. Greene. Absolutely, Senator. It is such an important
question, and the Secretary is committed to expanding home
ownership in this country. And we know the importance of home
ownership as a wealth building tool. We do not control interest
rates at HUD, of course, but the loans provided by the FHA are
such a critical tool and pathway for building home ownership.
Earlier this year the FHA took an important step of lowering
the premiums for the mortgage insurance premiums that will put,
on average, $800 back in the pockets of FHA borrowers.
So I would emphasize that HUD and FHA are doing everything
we can to protect home ownership as a pathway to wealth
building, and I would also echo Mr. Uejio's emphasis that it is
also connected to supply issues. So it is not just access to
affordable mortgages and responsible mortgages. It is also the
fact that this Nation is facing a tremendous housing supply
shortage that is driving up the costs and putting home
ownership out of reach for too many Americans. So that
combination is, in my view, the winning combination to address
the issues you raised.
Senator Smith. I am increasingly hearing from Minnesotans
about institutional investors buying up single-family homes and
also manufactured home parks, especially in rural communities.
So one large private equity fund has purchased hundreds of
homes around North Minneapolis, which is a predominantly lower-
income and diverse community. So taking affordable homes off
the market and turning them into permanent rentals, thereby
reducing the supply of affordable home ownership. And these
large institutional landlords often have a terrible record as
landlords, leaving their tenants in sometimes even squalid and
dangerous conditions.
As I mentioned, this is happening in greater Minnesota,
there it was more likely to be institutional investors buying
up manufactured housing communities, and as you all know, it is
often cost prohibitive or physically impossible to move a
mobile home. So folks are experiencing higher rates, higher lot
rates, and then the communities are also deteriorating.
Mr. Greene, what impact does this purchase of manufactured
communities have, and institutional investors' purchase of
homes, for example, in Minneapolis, what impact does that have,
and what can we do about this?
Mr. Greene. It is a great question, and it is one we have
actually taken a hard look at in the Office of Policy
Development and Research. We recently brought together local
policymakers, researchers, advocates, and others to take a hard
look at this issue, look at the data, and publish a brief,
summarizing what we learned.
You are absolutely correct. Institutional investors have
increased as their presence in the marketplace significantly
since the beginning of the pandemic, particularly in the
single-family home market and in manufactured home communities.
And one of the reasons for that is that institutional investors
often have access to ready capital to repair homes. These are
often homes that are in need of repair, and they have a
competitive advantage over homeowners and community-based
organizations.
So one of the things that HUD has already done, again
through the Federal Housing Administration, has extended the
period, the first-look period for owner-occupants and
community-based nonprofit organizations and mission-driven
organizations, when properties in the FHA portfolio go into
default or foreclosure.
So we need to do everything we can--there are many more
tools I could discuss--to make sure that home buyers and
community-based organizations have the first opportunity to
purchase homes that institutional investors are currently
purchasing, to preserve home ownership opportunities for
everyone.
Chair Brown. Thank you, Senator Smith.
Senator Smith. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Chair Brown. Senator Daines, of Montana, is recognized.
Senator Daines. Great. Chairman Brown, thank you. I have
been watching this hearing today, and I was just curious,
coming back to the Keystone pipeline, Dr. Bernstein. You
refused to say whether you recommended shutting down the
Keystone pipeline or not. Would you just clarify--you do not
recall or did you make a recommendation or what are your
thoughts?
By the way, the Keystone pipeline enters Montana first. A
million barrels a day of oil from Canada, a huge creation of
jobs, $80 million a year of tax revenues to impoverished
counties in eastern Montana, a gut punch to so many families in
Montana. Here is a chance for you to clarify your position on
it.
Mr. Bernstein. So two things, Senator, and thank you for
the question. First of all, I do not recall being part of that
decision, and second, I think it is important to recognize----
Senator Daines. If you would have been part of the
decision, what would your recommendation have been?
Mr. Bernstein. I cannot speculate on that.
Senator Daines. What do you think about it now? Should we
reopen it?
Mr. Bernstein. This was my second point, Senator,
respectfully. I think the important point here is the domestic
production of traditional forms of energy, under which our
Administration has the top track record of any Presidential
administration on record, 11.6 million barrels a day,
considerably higher than the previous Administration, higher
than any other Administration on record, as we also plot a
course to more renewable----
Senator Daines. So you are incredible pro-oil and pro-
natural gas. More, more, more. Is that right?
Mr. Bernstein. Exactly, yes.
Senator Daines. OK. So why not----
Mr. Bernstein. But let, if I can----
Senator Daines. Sure. You bet.
Mr. Bernstein. Yes, as one step of a two-step, and a
critically important second step, process, which is traditional
sources of energy must be accessible and affordable today, in
today's America, and we must continue to doing everything we
can to build on the success of our Administration in achieving
that goal, as we plot a course to more renewables over the
longer term, and there you see some of our legislation, which I
think has been instrumental in that goal.
Senator Daines. So if we need more oil right now, as you
just say, why should we not permit the Keystone XL pipeline?
Mr. Bernstein. The Keystone pipeline does not create more
oil. It transports oil from one place to another.
Senator Daines. In the least carbon way possible, because a
pipeline generates a lot less carbon than by rail or by trucks,
so why not use a pipeline?
Mr. Bernstein. So again, Senator, and I am happy, if
confirmed, to get into----
Senator Daines. OK. I do not want to belabor----
Mr. Bernstein. The Keystone pipeline does not produce more
oil.
Senator Daines. It moves more oil----
Mr. Bernstein. The Biden administration produces more oil.
Senator Daines. It is laughable to think the Biden
administration is somehow pro-oil and pro-natural gas and pro-
coal, when the world is going to need 50 percent more energy in
the next 25 years. My concern is not about adding more
renewable energy to the portfolio. My concern is about using it
as a replacement strategy of traditional sources of energy. You
do not burn your existing bridges until the new bridges are
built. It is very dangerous. Spend time talking to the
Europeans right now about what it means to shut down baseload
power of nuclear, of coal, to watch the Lithuanians who had to
shut down a nuclear plant because the EU said to. We cannot
follow the same green hallucination that your Administration is
pursuing.
Mr. Bernstein. Obviously I would disagree with the
hallucination characterization. But I think that when it comes
to the first step of this two-step process you and I probably
have a lot to talk about and hopefully agree on. I mean, the
President approved the Willow project, which I suspect you very
much support.
Senator Daines. Yes.
Mr. Bernstein. That will produce 180,000 barrels per day.
Senator Daines. I mean, it is laughable to see how just
taking a few small examples to somehow try to cover up a very
radical green agenda.
Let me ask you this. In 2019, you mocked $60-a-barrel oil
as ``totally inconsistent with sustainable growth.'' I am
quoting you, and a ``threat to climate change.'' You also
expressed support for the Green New Deal and the job-killing
policies it would impose because the Green New Deal publicly
promotes, quote, ``social justice'' and, quote, ``health
care,'' while, quote, ``plotting a complete destruction of
traditional energy sources.'' Do you still believe that low oil
prices, which my farmers and ranchers need, and my low-income
Montanans, benefit from, are inconsistent from the economic
goals and a threat to enacting a radical green new policy? And
it is important because of the position you are looking to be
appointed to.
Mr. Bernstein. Thank you for the question, Senator. It is
an important one. And yes, I would hope that the spirit of my
comments--and I very much disagree that there is anything
cherry-picked here. I have a table here that I am happy to
share with you that shows thousands of barrels per day pumped
by----
Senator Daines. Have you ever asked the producers? If we
brought the producers in here right now and asked them if----
Mr. Bernstein. So our large----
Senator Daines. ----this pro-oil?
Mr. Bernstein. If I may, our large, publicly traded oil
producers have made $36 billion in profits in the fourth
quarter of 2022, $162 billion over the full year. That is, by
far, a record. So I think I am telling you a story where oil
companies are more profitable and pumping more oil than ever on
U.S. grounds, as we plot a course to more renewable energy.
Senator Daines. Right. In your op-ed you said, ``So what's
not to like about $60-a-barrel oil? Well, there is the fact
that is melting the planet.'' You said that is ``hyperbole
meant to get your attention, but the fact is that cheap oil is
totally inconsistent with sustainable growth.''
I reject that notion, try and explain that to hard-working
Montanans and Americans who want to see lower-cost energy.
Mr. Bernstein. I think the point of that writing, which if
you read it back to me, sometimes the context gets lost. The
point of that writing was supposed to be we need to do two
things at once. We need to walk and chew gum. Walk, in this
case, means affordable, accessible, and traditional energy
sources for Americans----
Senator Daines. Wait a minute. Walking and chewing gum, and
you say cheap oil is totally inconsistent with sustainable
growth? I would not call that a balanced----
Mr. Bernstein. Well, I think that is inconsistent with the
points that I have been trying to make here today, where I have
been telling you that under President Biden we have a very
strong record with oil companies highly profitable, and we are
pumping more barrels per day than ever, as we plot a course to
more renewable energy.
So I think we have to do both. I hope I conveyed that in my
piece, and if I did not, I ask you for----
Senator Daines. And the EPA that is going to require that
nearly two-thirds of vehicles are electric by 2032. I would not
exactly call that a friendly----
Mr. Bernstein. But that is the ``chew gum'' part of the
equation. I think we have to make sure that we have affordable,
accessible, traditional sources of energy in the present and in
years to come, while we plot a course to, yes, electric
vehicles, charging stations, and the kind of investments that
we make in the Inflation Reduction Act and other pieces of
legislation.
Senator Daines. Thank you.
Chair Brown. Thank you, Senator Daines. Thank you to the
witnesses. This Committee, as we know, as we wrap up, has
traditionally agreed the President should have his choice of
CEA Chair. I worked closely with Senator Crapo and Kevin
Hassett's nomination, someone whom I did not generally agree
with, but he was President Trump's pick to lead CEA. I voted
for Mr. Hassett, confirmed by the Senate 81-16. Senator Toomey
voted for Cecelia Rouse, your predecessor. She was
overwhelmingly confirmed 95-4. A long history of CEA chairs get
voted out of the Committee and the floor with strong bipartisan
support.
I have held up this letter already of the six or seven
former Republican nominated CEA chairs who support Dr.
Bernstein. I hope my colleagues will follow the tradition of
this Committee, not fall victim to the distractions and
rhetoric we have heard today. Dr. Bernstein is clearly
qualified, and economists from both parties have agreed we
should confirm him.
Finally, let me address the other nominees. Dr.
Borzekowski, Mr. Greene, and Mr. Uejio all have the experience
and qualifications for the positions they have been nominated
for. There have been efforts to distort their views and
qualifications. It is evident they should be confirmed.
Thanks to the nominees for being here. I hope we can work
together as a Committee to move forward quickly on these
nominations. For Senators of both parties who wish to submit
questions, those questions are due at 5 p.m. this Friday, April
21st. To the nominees, we would like to have your responses in
less than a week from then, Thursday, April 27th, at noon.
Thank you again for your testimony. Thank you for your
desire to serve our country. With that the hearing is
adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 12:04 p.m., the hearing was adjourned.]
[Prepared statements, biographical sketches of nominees,
responses to written questions, and additional material
supplied for the record follow:]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF CHAIR SHERROD BROWN
The Committee meets today to consider four nominations:
Dr. Jared Bernstein to be Chairman of the Council of Economic
Advisers;
Dr. Ron Borzekowski to be Director of Financial Research at the
Department of Treasury;
Mr. Solomon Greene to be Assistant Secretary for Policy Development
and Research at the Department of Housing and Urban Development;
And, Mr. David Uejio to be Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and
Equal Opportunity at HUD.
We thank the nominees for appearing here today and for their
willingness to serve in these important roles.
Just over 2 years ago--in January 2021--this Committee held a
hearing to consider the nomination of Cecilia Rouse to Chair of the
Council of Economic Advisors. At the time, our economy was at a
crossroads.
The country had experienced the deadliest month of the pandemic and
a rise in new unemployment claims.
Much has changed since then.
For the first time in far too long, companies are investing in
America again.
We have seen investments in manufacturing critical technologies,
like semiconductors, solar production, and EV vehicles.
Last year, Ohioans celebrated the groundbreaking of a $20 billion
semiconductor plant in Licking County, right outside of Columbus, which
will create thousands of good paying jobs.
And for the first time in decades, we are investing in our
infrastructure. Our bridges and roads and ports and trains and airports
used to be the envy of the world. We are finally doing the work we need
to modernize our infrastructure and keep our economy competitive.
Inflation is moving in the right direction.
And perhaps most important of all, workers are finally starting to
gain a little power in our economy.
Today, unemployment stands at 3.5 percent--the lowest rate in
almost 50 years.
The Black unemployment rate has plummeted from more than 16 percent
at the height of the pandemic, to a record low 5 percent today.
Since the beginning of this Administration, over 12 million jobs
have been created.
And a tight labor market means that more workers are finally able
to demand to be paid what they're worth. More Americans--especially
working-class Americans--are finally getting the raises they've earned.
The unemployment rate between White and Black Americans is the
lowest it has been in the past 50 years--the lowest it's been since we
started collecting data.
Let me say that again, the economic growth that began under
President Obama--was sidetracked by a global pandemic--has continued to
advance under President Biden with the result being that Black
unemployment is at near all-time lows and the gap between White and
Black unemployment is at the lowest point since this data has been
tracked.
As we continue this work to create an economy with a strong middle
class, that all workers have the opportunity to join, CEA will continue
playing an important role.
While it is true Members of this Committee have often disagreed on
policy, we have agreed the President is entitled to have his choice of
CEA Chair. That is why I voted for Kevin Hassett, President Trump's
choice to lead CEA in this Committee and on the floor, and it's why the
Senate, in a bipartisan manner, overwhelmingly confirmed his nomination
in a vote of 81-16.
Last Congress, Ranking Member Toomey voted for Cecilia Rouse--and
the Senate confirmed her nomination in a 95-4 vote.
Jared Bernstein is the President's nominee to succeed Dr. Rouse as
Chairman of CEA. With close to four decades of experience, Dr.
Bernstein is an extremely qualified nominee with a distinguished
record. That fact is evident when reviewing his Committee
questionnaire--over 130 pages in length.
I have served on the Banking and Housing Committee since 2007. Dr.
Bernstein's record is more extensive than any I've seen, and he went to
great lengths to provide the writings and statements the Committee
requires. No nominee has come close to providing as much material as
Jared Bernstein.
Over 4,000 published writings.
Over 1,200 speeches, presentations, and public statements.
As you would imagine, Dr. Bernstein is well-respected by colleagues
across the political spectrum. Last week, a group of seven former CEA
Chairs who served in Republican administrations wrote in support of his
nomination: Ben Bernanke, Michael Boskin, Glenn Hubbard, Gregory
Mankiw, Kevin Hassett, Tomas Philipson, and Tyler Goodspeed.
Mr. Hassett, Mr. Philipson, and Mr. Goodspeed all served in the
Trump administration.
Mr. Hassett led that effort. He told the New York Times: ``I
disagree with Jared about a lot, and Jared and I have been disagreeing
about things for 20 years. But he really is a fundamentally good person
who tries to figure things out with an open mind, and who changes his
mind.''
That kind of openness to ideas from anyone, of any party or point
of view, is what we should all want in an economic leader.
Dr. Bernstein has spent his entire career fighting to make our
economy fairer, so that working families' hard work can pay off--and I
am sure that is why, despite concerns from some progressives, he voiced
support for Senator Booker and Senator Scott's proposal for Opportunity
Zones.
He has served as a member of CEA since the beginning of this
Administration, and has served in various senior roles, including as
Chief Economist and Economic Policy Advisor to then-Vice President
Biden, Deputy Chief Economist at the Department of Labor, a senior
fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and an economist
at the Economic Policy Institute.
His credentials are unmatched. He has the experience, knowledge,
and dedication to public service we need in a CEA Chairman.
Welcome to the Committee, Dr. Bernstein.
Dr. Ron Borzekowski is the President's nominee to be Director of
Financial Research at the Department of Treasury.
As some of my colleagues remember, as part of the Dodd-Frank Act,
the Committee established the Office of Financial Research to help
identify and guard against risks that reach across the financial
system, and to provide the Financial Stability Oversight Council and
member agencies with the data they need to protect financial stability.
I believe we can all agree, in light of the recent bank failures,
how important it is that regulators and decision makers have the data
they need to measure and appropriately respond to risks to our
financial system.
That makes consideration of Dr. Borzekowski's nomination
particularly timely.
Dr. Borzekowski is an exceptionally well-qualified nominee.
From 2011 to 2019, under both Democratic and Republican Directors,
Dr. Borzekowski served in various roles in the Office of Research at
the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. There, he helped support the
Bureau's research and data efforts.
Earlier in his career, he served as a senior economist at the
Federal Reserve and as a Deputy Research Director for the Financial
Crisis Inquiry Commission. Today, he serves as the Executive Director
of Yale's Data-Intensive Social Science Center.
Welcome, Dr. Borzekowski. Glad to have you here today.
Today we also consider the nominations of two qualified HUD
nominees--Solomon Greene and David Uejio.
Both Mr. Greene and Mr. Uejio have long histories of public
service. While there have been attempts to distract from these
nominees' qualifications, the record is clear. Their breadth of
experience and knowledge will help them lead HUD as the agency works to
tackle the housing challenges facing every community across the
country.
Solomon Greene is the President's nominee to serve as Assistant
Secretary for Policy Development and Research.
Since 2022, Mr. Greene has served as principal deputy assistant
secretary for Policy Development and Research at HUD. Prior to joining
HUD, Mr. Greene served as a senior fellow at the Urban Institute, where
he led research on housing and community development issues.
Mr. Greene previously served as Senior Advisor at HUD, and an
adjunct professor at NYU's Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.
As the head of Policy Development and Research, Mr. Greene will
lead HUD's research and provide data to inform Congress and the agency
as we discuss policy decisions.
Welcome, Mr. Greene.
David Uejio is the President's nominee to serve as Assistant
Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity. That office is
responsible for overseeing the implementation and enforcement of laws
that protect homeowners and renters from housing discrimination.
Mr. Uejio has strong management experience. He is currently the
Acting Associate Director for Supervision, Enforcement, and Fair
Lending at CFPB. Previously, Mr. Uejio served as the Bureau's Acting
Director, Acting Chief of Staff, and Chief Strategy Officer. Before
joining CFPB, Mr. Uejio served in different roles at NIH, OPM, and DoD.
Welcome, Mr. Uejio.
Thank you, again, to all of these nominees for your willingness to
serve.
I look forward to your testimonies today.
______
PREPARED STATEMENT OF SENATOR TIM SCOTT
Today we are here in furtherance of the Senate's solemn and
constitutional role to provide advice and consent on Presidential
nominees. Nominees are intended to advise the President and serve as
his or her designee by leading their respective department, agency, or
division. And as leaders of our country, the greatest Nation on Earth,
Presidential nominees should inspire confidence and have a strong
respect for the rule of law and support policies that promote the
American Dream. As public servants, we must all strive to serve the
American people to the best of our ability, and in doing so, we must
promote a strong economy and policies that serve the interests of
everyday Americans working to achieve their version of the American
Dream. We do this by incentivizing growth and opportunity, not an
administrative State full of regulatory burdens.
Unfortunately, this panel before us today falls short of those
goals. Today we will hear from Dr. Jared Bernstein, to be the Chairman
of the CEA, Dr. Ron Borzekowski, and Mr. Solomon Greene, as well as Mr.
David Uejio. Sadly for our country, most of these men share a vision to
remake our Government into one that prioritizes handouts over hand-ups.
They lack respect for our men and women in blue, and they have worked
to promote an administrative agenda cloaked in secrecy and politics
rather than working through a transparent notice-and-comment process.
These views and ideas aren't held by the majority of the American
people, and they should not be reflected in America's leaders and the
regulatory responsibilities they undertake. Time for my opening remarks
is limited. But given the large panel, I would like to take just a few
minutes to run through some of my chief concerns with each of the
nominees before us today.
First, President Biden has nominated Dr. Bernstein as the chair of
the CEA. While Mr. Bernstein has made some positive comments about
opportunity zones--and I will certainly look forward to having a
conversation about that during the Q&A--however, the American people
probably know Mr. Bernstein best as a man who told them time and time
again that inflation was ``transitory.'' Who later had the audacity to
say the American people just didn't understand the definition of
transitory when inflation turned out not to be transitory. It is mind-
boggling to me that inflation is at a 40-year high and yet the person
who advised the President that inflation would be transitory is the
very same person the President has nominated to be the Chair of the
CEA. It just doesn't make sense.
Among other things, Mr. Bernstein has advocated for universal
Government-guaranteed jobs, universal Government-run health care,
higher taxes including a carbon tax, and more reckless Government
spending, the [Green New] Deal, dropping our commitment to maintaining
the dollar as a reserve currency, and remaking the Federal Reserve--an
independent body--to focus not on the dual mandate, but more
specifically, on unemployment by race. He is championing the cause of
climate alarmists at the expense of working families, writing that the
price of fossil fuels ``should be higher'' given the ``increasing
awareness of the urgency of climate change.'' He even criticized the
low gas prices during the previous Administration, claiming that it
should be higher ``given its negative environmental effects.'' Not only
have Mr. Bernstein's economic policies and views proven to be
inaccurate, some are simply counter to Americans' best interests.
In addition to Mr. Bernstein, this Committee must once again
consider Mr. Greene and Mr. Uejio. Mr. Greene and Mr. Uejio were here
last year, during the last Congress. Both failed to receive a
confirmation vote, and I think is important for us to understand why.
Mr. Greene has made numerous public statements disparaging the police
and advocating for defunding the police. Because of his extreme anti-
police statements two national police groups have publicly opposed Mr.
Greene's nomination since he was first nominated in 2021. Worse yet,
instead of taking responsibility for making such statements, he pointed
fingers and apologized for our taking offense, attempting to deny his
anti-police sentiment.
I'm a guy who spent a lot of time and many years working on police
reform. And when you look at the comments, clearly, there's nothing
hyperbolic about the position that I'm taking as it relates to the
concept or the statement that Mr. Greene would really not be that
dissuaded in finding ways to use the money for the police officers,
particularly in some of the most devastated communities, for something
else. I will recall that this is round two for Mr. Greene and I having
a conversation about the importance of police in the poorest
communities in the country, as neither one of us will be surprised that
in August of [2021], we had the same conversation about the importance
of having law enforcement in their presence--increasing in some of the
most devastated, crime-ridden areas of our country. Having grown up in
a single-parent household and in poverty and being all too familiar
with the negative impact that happens in so many of these [devastated]
areas, I think some things are not political. Some things are just so
personal that it is impossible to deny the actual impact of fewer
officers, not more officers in some of the most challenging areas. And
so, I take great offense on behalf of those who today suffer under the
weight of crime that is burdening their communities. You think about
here in the D.C. area where rape is over 100 percent, you think about
New York City, Los Angeles, Cleveland, and so many other places around
the country where the weight of crime is now locking grandparents in
their houses from the time the sun goes down, until it comes up. And
so, for me, this is such an important issue that having someone in the
role over [at] the Housing and Urban Development [Department] in any
way, shape, or form who doesn't seem to appreciate the importance of
law enforcement's presence is just a challenge and makes it impossible
for me to vote for someone like that.
Like Mr. Greene, Mr. Uejio's nomination also failed law last
Congress. Despite protestations to the contrary, the record is clear.
Mr. Uejio is unqualified to serve as an Assistant Secretary of the
Department of HUD. More importantly, the reported actions of forcing
out senior career civil servants so that Director Chopra at CFPB could
fill those positions with handpicked loyalists, including Mr. Uejio
himself, are troubling. We must all strive to lead by example, and I
cannot justify confirming a nominee who may have unfairly secured his
current role as a means of padding his resume for his pending, albeit
languishing nomination.
And finally, Mr. Borzekowski has been nominated to serve as the
Director of the Office of Financial Research at the Department of
Treasury. He has a doctorate in economics and unquestionably is
academically qualified. And though his record lacks really glaring
concerns, I look forward to hearing more about your positions and
learning more about you carrying out your responsibilities and duties
in a fair, empirical, and apolitical fashion, if confirmed. After all,
the Office of Financial Research should not be used to manipulate
financial data, standards, and analysis to justify the progressive
economic agenda of the Biden administration that seeks to unravel our
free-market economy and damage the livelihood of everyday Americans. I
look forward to hearing from each of you.
______
PREPARED STATEMENT OF JARED BERNSTEIN
To Be Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers
April 18, 2023
Chair Brown, Ranking Member Scott, and Members of the Committee, it
is an honor to come before you today as President Biden's nominee to
serve as Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA).
I began working for the President as an economic adviser when he
was Vice President in 2009. I was honored when he asked me to join the
CEA as a member of this Administration and also by his recent decision
to nominate me for the position of Chair. I would not be here today
were it not for the President's faith and confidence in my work, along
with our shared vision of an economy that provides opportunities for
everyone from all walks of life to reach their full potential.
I would also not be here without the support of my family. My
father, a veteran of the Second World War, has long been an inspiration
to me, even though he died when I was 7 years old from a kidney disease
he contracted during the war. He came from extremely humble beginnings
and was the first member of his family to go to college, eventually
going on to earn a Ph.D. in physics.
This path would have been closed to him were it not for the GI
Bill, and he made sure his children knew how important that policy was
to his and to our lives.
After he died, my mother supported me and my two sisters through
her job as a public school teacher, and by working weekends as a
waitress to help make ends meet without my father's salary. Though I'm
sure I wasn't thinking about it in economic terms at such a young age,
the importance of a paycheck was embedded in my young consciousness.
Though my early career was in music, I never lost sight of the role
of Government policy and strong labor markets to provide economic
opportunity. As a resident of New York City in the 1970s and '80s, I
personally observed a period of rising inequality and ``sticky''
poverty rates (meaning rates that were unresponsive to overall economic
growth), and increasingly realized how important it was to try to help
those less privileged than myself.
That led me into social work, and I spent a number of years as a
social worker in New York City.
In one formative experience, I vividly remember working with an
older veteran of both World War II and Vietnam. He clearly needed
further medical support but after giving so much to his country was not
able to access the services he needed--and deserved.
This experience was deeply troubling, and fed my desire to want to
intervene on a more systemic basis. This led me to a Ph.D. program at
Columbia University that addressed social welfare problems using the
analytic and policy tools of economics. Were it not for the rigor of
that program, as well as the guidance of my dissertation advisor, Irwin
Garfinkel, I would likely not have the honor of coming before you
today.
As I was writing my dissertation in 1992, I came to Washington to
work for a year at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), where I would
coauthor my first book, The State of Working America, with labor
economist Lawrence Mishel. Based on the quality difference between D.C.
and New York bagels and pizza alone, I assumed I'd soon be back in New
York.
But my work with Dr. Mishel on the importance of strong labor
markets to working American families was so compelling, that I stayed
on at EPI and eventually coauthored nine editions of The State of
Working America.
Far more important, however, was the life-changing moment in 1994
when I met my wife, Kay Arndorfer, who is here today, along with two of
our daughters, Kate and Ellie. In what I fear was a weak effort to
impress Kay on our very first date, I showed her an early print edition
of The State of Working America. Since then, my family has been an
unceasing source of support in my work and personal life.
I believe that all these experiences, as well as working for Chair
Rouse these past 2 years, has left me in a uniquely strong position to,
if confirmed, serve as Chair of the CEA. I am committed to carrying on
the work we've done, including careful analysis of the dataflow on
behalf of the President and senior staff, the writing of our annual
Economic Report of the President, participation in Administration-wide
policy processes, and providing top-level advice to the President on
economic policy. If confirmed, I also look forward to continuing Chair
Rouse's efforts to ensure the diversity and excellence of CEA's staff.
Thank you again for this opportunity. I look forward to your
questions.
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PREPARED STATEMENT OF RON BORZEKOWSKI
To Be Director of Financial Research, Department of Treasury
April 18, 2023
Chairman Brown, Ranking Member Scott, and distinguished Members of
the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to be here today. It is an
honor to appear before you as the President's nominee to serve as
Director of the Office of Financial Research.
With me today are my wife Dina, my partner for over 40 years, and
my children Emma Rose, Benjamin, and Ruby. My mother-in-law is here
too--beaming on her own and representing the pride that my parents
would feel at this nomination. I want publicly to thank my whole
family, and my community, for their support and encouragement during my
previous public service, and for their future sacrifice if I am
fortunate enough to be confirmed in this new role.
Both of my parents were survivors of the Shoah, and came to the
United States with nearly nothing, seeking to rebuild their lives and
to restart their family lines. My father first worked in a series of
factories, and then as a small-business owner. My mother worked first
as a social worker and then as a homemaker, meticulously taking care of
our home and family. Nightly, our dinner table in a middle-class suburb
of New York was the place to discuss the issues of the day. In
retrospect, my parents' deep interest in the public affairs of their
adopted land may be the origin of my own dedication to well-supported
policy.
School took me west to California, where I studied mathematics and
political science. After a short career as an actuary, I earned a
master's degree in public policy. I followed that with a Ph.D. in
economics and a first research job at the Federal Reserve Board,
studying the structure of the financial system and later, issues of
financial stability. I was thrilled to start my postgraduate career in
public service and I still remember my parents' pride when I shared
that news.
In the aftermath of the financial crisis and the Great Recession, I
worked with my colleagues at the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission
helping to analyze and record the causes and history of that crisis. I
then joined the Office of Research at the Consumer Financial Protection
Bureau, drawn by the mission and the opportunity to put research and
evidence at the center of this new Government organization.
As you know, at the same time, Congress established the Office of
Financial Research to serve the Financial Stability Oversight Council,
its member agencies, and the public. One of the key findings from our
work researching the crisis was that hard-working Americans suffered
massive costs. The OFR's critical mission should be focused on ensuring
that this doesn't happen again. Collecting, standardizing, and making
accessible financial data; conducting and sponsoring research related
to financial stability; and, developing new tools for risk measurement
and monitoring should be in line with that purpose.
This mission implicitly recognizes the inherent economies of scale
in collecting and managing data. It also recognizes the benefits of a
more coordinated regulatory system. A successful OFR will improve
Government, lessen the chance of financial crises, and benefit both the
public and private sectors.
If confirmed, I look forward to working with this Committee and
with the members of the Council to achieve these worthy goals.
Thank you. I look forward to answering your questions.
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PREPARED STATEMENT OF SOLOMON JEFFREY GREENE
To Be an Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
April 18, 2023
Chairman Brown, Ranking Member Scott, and distinguished Members of
the Committee, I am deeply honored to appear before you today as you
consider my nomination to serve as Assistant Secretary for Policy
Development and Research at HUD.
I want to begin by thanking President Biden and Secretary Fudge for
the confidence and trust they placed in me by nominating me for this
important position. I would also like to thank my family for their love
and unwavering support.
Senators, Secretary Fudge often says that ``bringing people home is
at the heart of everything we do at HUD.'' It is also at the heart of
my life's work. I have dedicated my career to helping all families find
and keep stable and affordable housing.
This is something I grew to appreciate from an early age. I was
raised primarily by a single mother who earned so little while working
full-time as a nurse that we received Medicaid and food stamps. By
economic necessity, my family often moved to where we could afford the
rent until my mother was able to scrimp and save just enough for a
downpayment on a house in a rural county in New York.
That house and property, where my mother still lives with my
brother, his wife and my baby nephew, provided the stability I needed
to be able to focus on school and my future. I truly believe it is why
I am able to sit here before you today as a nominee. These early
experiences also instilled in me the recognition that a home is more
than a roof over your head--it is also a platform for health and well-
being and a downpayment on your children's future.
Throughout my career, I have strived to give every family the
opportunities I was given. The American Dream is the idea that, no
matter who you are or where you come from, if you work hard and give it
your all, you will succeed. I have dedicated my career to ensuring that
where you come from does not determine who you can become later in
life.
HUD's mission--to create strong, sustainable, and inclusive
communities and ensure quality homes for all--embodies that promise.
And my contribution to fulfilling this promise has been to support
innovative, evidence-based, and data-driven housing polices at all
levels of Government.
For years, I have worked with Federal, State, and local leaders to
design and test policies and programs to produce and preserve
affordable housing, revitalize communities, expand neighborhood
choices, and boost upward mobility.
Most importantly for the position to which I have been nominated, I
am passionate about using the best available data and evidence to
inform public policy decisions. I am first and foremost a researcher
with a strong and proven commitment to evidence-based policy-making.
I have demonstrated this through over two decades of work on data-
driven and community-informed housing policy: from the start of my
career working in local government and for a community-based affordable
housing developer, as a graduate student in law and urban planning, as
a legal research fellow and adjunct professor at NYU, during over 7
years as a senior researcher at the Urban Institute, and now in my
current role at HUD.
In all my work, I have applied independent, unbiased, and objective
research to help ensure that our public policies are rooted in
evidence, maximize the impact of limited resources, and respond to the
realities of people and communities on the ground.
I am also passionate about bringing together researchers,
practitioners, and policymakers to identify evidence-based and data-
driven policy solutions to our Nation's housing and community
development challenges. I firmly believe that rigorous research can
provide diverse stakeholders a common frame through which to assess
problems and a shared foundation to find solutions.
We are at a moment in our Nation's history when HUD's mission is
more important than ever. It is a mission I have endeavored to support
with evidence, innovation, and compassion from the very start of my
career. I would be deeply honored and grateful for the opportunity to
serve as HUD's 17th Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and
Research.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today. I look
forward to your questions.
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PREPARED STATEMENT OF DAVID UEJIO
To Be an Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
April 18, 2023
Thank you, Chairman Brown, Ranking Member Scott, and Members of the
Committee. I am honored to appear before you again today as the nominee
for Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity at the
Department of Housing and Urban Development.
I want to thank President Biden for the trust and confidence he has
placed in me by nominating me for this position. I would also like to
thank my family and friends for their steadfast support during the 17
years I have spent as a career civil servant. I particularly want to
thank my wife, who has believed in me every step along the way, and our
two wonderful children for their love and inspiration.
I have seen firsthand the unparalleled opportunity offered by the
American dream. My great-grandparents arrived in this country with
nothing, building their first house in rural Hawai`i with their own
hands. Our family also faced down the challenge of discrimination; my
grand-uncle was interned in 6 different States during World War II
before reuniting with his wife and children in Hawai`i.
Though there were challenges, those generations worked hard for
their piece of the American dream, and to pass on greater opportunity
to their children than they had themselves. For my family, and for so
many others, access to stable housing served as an engine for
prosperity, providing a safe roof over our heads and a chance to build
equity at the bank.
Over the past 17 years I have been blessed to serve the American
people as a career civil servant at the National Institutes of Health,
the Pentagon, and at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).
Over that time, I have been called upon repeatedly to stand up or
reinvigorate agencies and to solve complex problems preventing them
from delivering for the American people. I have deep expertise in
leading, designing, and strengthening Federal programs, offices, and
processes.
In my 11 years at the CFPB, I have had the opportunity to work as
Chief Strategy Officer for Directors from both parties to implement
their policy and operational priorities. And in January of 2021 the
President asked me to serve in the capacity as Acting Director of the
Bureau.
During my 10 months leading CFPB, I moved swiftly to address
consumer harm amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. I adopted a laser-like
focus on housing insecurity, as housing is a cornerstone issue for the
financial stability of American consumers. Under my leadership, the
Bureau used all available policy tools to require that struggling
homeowners had access to every opportunity to stay in their homes and
to ensure tenants eligible for protections were apprised of their
rights. I doubled the number of fair lending examinations the Bureau
conducted, with a particular focus on redlining and other
discriminatory practices in the mortgage market under the Equal Credit
Opportunity Act and its implementing Regulation B, the Fair Housing
Act's parallel in the consumer credit market.
Since that time, I have led the law enforcement and compliance work
of the CFPB, enforcing fairly and impartially the laws Congress has
written to protect American consumers. I have overseen more than 700
nationally distributed staff, who are tasked with undertaking hundreds
of compliance examinations and enforcement investigations or actions
under the 20-plus consumer laws and implementing regulations that
Congress assigned the CFPB to enforce.
As we commemorate the 55th anniversary of the Fair Housing Act this
year, I am deeply humbled to be nominated to carry out its statutory
purpose to protect all Americans from discrimination in housing so that
every family can claim their piece of the American dream.
Discrimination in housing has evolved in profound ways over the
years. Housing discrimination is no longer explicitly codified in
Federal mortgage policy or enforced via exclusionary racial covenants.
But we now live in a world where access to housing is increasingly
defined by algorithmically generated indicators in credit scoring and
tenant screening, which themselves could bake in discrimination or
exclusion in ways that are insidious and difficult to detect. And as
Main Street communities across our Nation grapple with how to meet
their housing needs, Wall Street investors are eyeing those same
neighborhoods for short-term profits.
And not everything has changed; while many of the methods of
housing discrimination may have shifted, we are no closer to closing
the Black-White home ownership gap than we were when the Act was signed
into law. Amidst a precipitous shortfall in housing supply, too many
Americans are finding themselves unable to guarantee safe and stable
housing for their families.
If confirmed, I would execute FHEO's mission under Secretary Fudge
with transparency, integrity, and impartiality, and I would look
forward to working with this Committee to ensure fair access to housing
for all Americans. Thank you to this Committee for the privilege of
appearing before you today and I look forward to answering your
questions.
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RESPONSES TO WRITTEN QUESTIONS OF CHAIR BROWN
FROM JARED BERNSTEIN
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RESPONSES TO WRITTEN QUESTIONS OF SENATOR SCOTT
FROM RON BORZEKOWSKI
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RESPONSES TO WRITTEN QUESTIONS OF
SENATOR CORTEZ MASTO FROM JARED BERNSTEIN
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RESPONSES TO WRITTEN QUESTIONS OF SENATOR WARNOCK
FROM JARED BERNSTEIN
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RESPONSES TO WRITTEN QUESTIONS OF CHAIR BROWN
FROM RON BORZEKOWSKI
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RESPONSES TO WRITTEN QUESTIONS OF SENATOR SCOTT
FROM RON BORZEKOWSKI
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RESPONSES TO WRITTEN QUESTIONS OF SENATOR WARREN
FROM RON BORZEKOWSKI
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SENATOR CORTEZ MASTO FROM RON BORZEKOWSKI
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FROM RON BORZEKOWSKI
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FROM RON BORZEKOWSKI
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RESPONSES TO WRITTEN QUESTIONS OF SENATOR TILLIS
FROM RON BORZEKOWSKI
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RESPONSES TO WRITTEN QUESTIONS OF SENATOR VANCE
FROM RON BORZEKOWSKI
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RESPONSES TO WRITTEN QUESTIONS OF SENATOR SCOTT
FROM SOLOMON JEFFREY GREENE
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RESPONSES TO WRITTEN QUESTIONS OF
SENATOR CORTEZ MASTO FROM SOLOMON JEFFREY GREENE
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RESPONSES TO WRITTEN QUESTIONS OF SENATOR WARNOCK
FROM SOLOMON JEFFREY GREENE
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RESPONSES TO WRITTEN QUESTIONS OF SENATOR VANCE
FROM SOLOMON JEFFREY GREENE
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RESPONSES TO WRITTEN QUESTIONS OF SENATOR DAINES
FROM SOLOMON JEFFREY GREENE
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RESPONSES TO WRITTEN QUESTIONS OF SENATOR SCOTT
FROM DAVID UEJIO
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RESPONSES TO WRITTEN QUESTIONS OF
SENATOR CORTEZ MASTO FROM DAVID UEJIO
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RESPONSES TO WRITTEN QUESTIONS OF SENATOR VANCE
FROM DAVID UEJIO
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RESPONSES TO WRITTEN QUESTIONS OF SENATOR DAINES
FROM DAVID UEJIO
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Additional Material Supplied for the Record
LETTERS IN SUPPORT OF NOMINEES
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SENATOR SCOTT FLOORBOARD
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