Federal Reserve Racial and Economic Equity Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. DONALDS. Mr. Speaker, the measure in front of us today just makes no sense. This measure is actually going to make inflation worse. Why? Because you are going to put a third mandate on the Federal Reserve--a Federal Reserve that has done a poor job of actually managing price stability.

The same price stability that hurts poor Americans whether you are Black, whether you are Hispanic, or whether you are White. The same price stability that hurts middle-income Americans whether you are Black, whether you are Hispanic, or whether you are White.

The only group of Americans who might even escape the sting of inflation in the United States are rich Americans who happen to be Black, rich Americans who happen to be Hispanic, and rich Americans who happen to be White.

The common denominator with massive inflation is that if you are poor, regardless of your race, you are being crippled. To have the majority party say today that they are going to add a third mandate onto the Federal Reserve is ludicrous. That does not address the systemic disparities that exist with respect to wealth in America between Black families and White families.

We all know the history. We understand why there are Black families who do not have the same size of net worth as White families on an average basis. What you do not do is saddle our economy with more regulation and more silly policies, which will actually make our economy more efficient.

How are Black families in the future going to actually increase their net worth if being able to apply for loans is more expensive? How do Black families actually increase their wages if our economy is saddled with more inflation? It does not help Black people going forward, it actually hurts them, and it hurts everybody along the way.

We should be getting the Federal Reserve back to one mandate--of sound money. That would actually help matters for poor Americans, regardless of their race. That is a bill myself and my colleague from Arkansas (Mr. Hill) have sponsored to get the Federal Reserve back into the right place.

If you want to seriously have a conversation about systemic inequities, if you want to have a conversation about the difference in net worth between Black Americans and White Americans, what you cannot do is shut off the economy, which would actually hurt Black families from growing their wealth into the future.

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