Today, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, delivered the following opening statement at a full Committee hearing entitled, “The Federal Reserve’s Semi-Annual Monetary Policy Report.”
Chairman Powell, welcome back.
First, I’d like to start by acknowledging that the Federal Reserve made the right decision to pause interest rate hikes. As you know, since last November, I’ve cautioned against any approach to monetary policy that ignores the Fed’s maximum employment mandate and results in a recession with millions of people losing their homes and jobs. While we have had strong job growth thus far, experts contend that this trend will not persist with more rate hikes, especially in light of new challenges. For example, the recent bank failures have resulted in the banking industry further restricting credit, making it even more important for the Fed to move with caution.
The progress that we have made in reducing inflation is borne out in the latest Consumer Price Index data. In fact, it’s been ten months since the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, and inflation has successfully been cut in half. Every single Republican member of Congress voted against the bill and chose to cozy up to the wealthy tax cheats instead of working with Democrats to bring down costs for middle-class families.
However, the only way we will fully combat inflation is to address the primary driver of inflation—soaring housing costs. Congress must invest more in fair and affordable housing.
Under President Biden, unemployment is also at a historic low and job growth is on the rise. So far, there’s been 29 straight months of strong job growth. In fact, a record 13 million jobs have been created since President Biden took office. Democrats are working to build on this progress and grow the middle class, so that everyone can share in this economic growth.
Republicans, however, just can’t seem to get their house in order. On the heels of almost blowing up our economy by forcing a national default, they are now picking a fight over a teeny tiny fee of less than 1 percent of total housing costs, ignoring the costs homebuyers are paying with 7 percent interest rates, appraisal fees, and title insurance. Instead, they are fighting about gas stoves. In fact, just a week ago, Republican disarray got so bad that it halted business on the House floor for the first time in 20 years.
Lastly, as we continue to monitor the banking system following the recent bank failures, the Fed must act to correct the supervisory and regulatory failures identified by our Committee’s oversight. Committee Democrats recently introduced 11 bills, including 3 of my own, to strengthen the safety and soundness of our banking system and hold executives accountable for their misdeeds. The Senate Banking Committee is holding a markup this morning on a bipartisan bill on bank executive accountability, so I urge Chair McHenry to join us in advancing sensible reforms to strengthen our nation’s banking system.
With that, I yield back.
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