Federal Reserve Racial and Economic Equity Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. HILL. Mr. Speaker, I do rise in opposition to H.R. 2543. I thank my friend from Houston, Texas, and our colleagues on both sides of the aisle that worked on many of the bills that are in the package today.

It is a shame that that package was not put together in such a way that we could be here in a bipartisan visit about the ones that we actually support and that we think could be enacted into law. Instead, Democrats have put together a partisan package of bills that politicize our central bank and do nothing to address the insidious inflation that is hurting all American families and workers--Black, Brown, and White.

Mr. Speaker, one thing I know is that H.R. 2543 will not become law. Mr. Speaker, on Monday, Arkansans woke up and as they went to work and filled up their tanks for the week, they had to pay $5 for gas. That is not as high as it is here in Washington, but $5 is hurting all of the hardworking families in my State.

While Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is still toeing the economically illiterate party line on inflation, even economists from the left of center admit that government spending was too much and not targeted.

Don't believe me?

Listen to President Biden's key advisers.

Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers predicted, a month after President Biden took office, that the proposed American Rescue Plan would ``set off inflationary pressures of a kind we have not seen in a generation.''

Now Larry Summers is forecasting a recession.

Steve Rattner, Mr. Obama's former economic adviser on his staff, said Mr. Biden was ``wrong to omit the important contribution to inflation from excessive fiscal and monetary stimulus.''

The truth is, after the CARES Act and the December appropriations bill of 2020, there was plenty of COVID money left over, and the economy was well on its way to recovery with vaccines being distributed.

But House Democrats supercharged demand-side stimulus by adding another $2 trillion in unpaid-for spending in that so-called American Rescue Plan. Mr. Speaker, Americans aren't feeling rescued. They are feeling like hostages--hostages to the daily theft of the Biden inflation.

Now, Mr. Speaker, the President fashions himself as a budget hawk, saying last month that he personally reduced the deficit last year, and he is complaining that we on this side of the aisle aren't giving him any credit. But what he doesn't tell you, Mr. Speaker, is that he is taking credit for deficits that were falling due to those expiring COVID programs.

The facts are, Mr. Biden has not reduced deficits. In fact, he has increased them. The Congressional Budget Office's latest numbers project $16 trillion in additional debt between now and 2032.

So I hear a lot of talk about deflection on our House floor today, and the deflection of this bill, Mr. Speaker, is the deflection from the insidious inflation that our families are facing. If House Democrats were serious, then they would target and spend less money. They would stop blaming Putin and accusing American companies of price gouging. They would stop cutting off capital to American energy companies through ESG mandates and intimidating banks, and they would stop threatening trillions in more taxes.

While government spending and supply chain constraints have contributed to higher prices, this inflation also stems from the Fed's loose monetary policy--too loose, too lax, and for too long.

Just as House and Senate Republicans worked to tailor and end the COVID funds at the end of 2020, we also urged the Federal Reserve to end zero interest rates and begin shrinking their balance sheet. Instead of doing anything to address these root causes of inflation, H.R. 2543 on the House floor would instead expand the Fed's mandate to address socioeconomic disparities.

Two weeks ago, Mr. Biden met with Fed Chair Jerome Powell in the Oval Office where Mr. Biden said that he embraced the Fed's independence. Apparently, House Democrats didn't get the memo. At a time when our central bank has failed to carry out its current mandate for sound money and price stability, Democrats want the Fed to not only be a climate regulator but also to end racial inequity. Expanding the Fed's mandate to address socioeconomic disparities would further inject uncertainty and risk into the Fed's monetary policy and politicize our historically independent central bank.

House Republicans believe Congress should return to pre-pandemic debates on our spending priorities, abandon economic pop science fads like modern monetary theory, and urge our Federal Reserve to return to its core mission.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to reject this bill, H.R. 2543.

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Mr. HILL. Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend, the ranking member on the House Financial Services Committee, Mr. McHenry, for his leadership.

Mr. Speaker, I have a motion to recommit. It addresses the core flaw that House Republicans believe presides today. We hear the voices of those 80 percent of Americans who say that $5,000 extra coming out of our pockets is what is hurting the working families, Black, White, and Brown, in my home State of Arkansas. We know inflation is the top issue facing this House and facing our families that we represent.

That is why if we were to adopt my motion to recommit, we would instruct the Committee on Financial Services to adopt my amendment to H.R. 2543. This amendment, Mr. Speaker, is straightforward. It would simply focus the Federal Reserve, as Representative Byron Donalds so eloquently outlined, on a single mandate: price stability.

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