Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news as sent to Washington.
Speaker 2: President Trump reaching across the arm, asking Democratic Senator Elizabeth
Speaker 2: Warren to support his effort to credit card interest rates
Speaker 2: at ten percent after facing opposition from his own party.
Speaker 2: The Republican Congressman French Hill, chairman of the House Financial
Speaker 2: Service Committee, joins us now from Capitol Hill to respond
Speaker 2: to that and a whole lot more. Congressman, it's good
Speaker 2: to see history is littered with examples, full of examples
Speaker 2: that when you introduce price controls, you end up with
Speaker 2: restricted supply. Congressman, is this proposal going to end up
Speaker 2: any differently?
Speaker 3: Happy New year, Jonathan. Great to be with you. Congratulations
Speaker 3: on becoming a dad. So happy for you and your family. Look,
Speaker 3: this proposal is a price control, and I think I've
Speaker 3: heard from Republicans and House that they have concerns about it.
Speaker 3: What we are in agreement with President Trump on is
Speaker 3: that we want to reverse the curse of the Biden
Speaker 3: years and taxation, regulatory and government policies. So we want
Speaker 3: to work to pass by twenty first Century Housing Act,
Speaker 3: which would lower home construction costs. We want to pass
Speaker 3: the Main Street Capital Access Act, which would lower compliance
Speaker 3: cost and refocus the bank regulators on safety and soundness,
Speaker 3: tailoring regulations to bank complexity. And when you think about
Speaker 3: the regional banks you just talked about and the community banks,
Speaker 3: particularly those banks under ten billion dollars, they make sixty
Speaker 3: percent of the one to four family home loans in
Speaker 3: this country. So we believe that with the tax benefits
Speaker 3: from the one Big Beautiful Bill, lowering compliance costs, focusing
Speaker 3: and tailoring regulations, and focusing on dropping the regulatory burdens,
Speaker 3: and trying to build homes in this country, these are
Speaker 3: bullish signs for the GDP for the nation. We don't
Speaker 3: want to do anything that throws off that gross domestic product.
Speaker 3: And one of the things I heard from colleagues is
Speaker 3: two thirds of GDP and the US is consumption. And
Speaker 3: so if credit availability is denied or reduced, that could
Speaker 3: impact growth for twenty twenty six.
Speaker 2: Congressman, do you think they proposal as it stands could
Speaker 2: have a chilling effect on credit?
Speaker 3: Well, I think this is what people that I've heard
Speaker 3: from in the House Republican Conference have said to me,
Speaker 3: is they think, gosh, this could mean that those Americans
Speaker 3: with lower credit scores have their credit purtailed in some way,
Speaker 3: even by temporary and proposal like this. And you know
Speaker 3: we've campaigned against the government price controls in the twenty
Speaker 3: twenty four election in Kamala Harris's efforts to put in
Speaker 3: nationwide rent control, for example, Congressman.
Speaker 4: Which is why it's so curious the President is getting
Speaker 4: on the phone with the likes of Senator Elizabeth Warren
Speaker 4: and continuously has this text exchange we've learned through axios
Speaker 4: with Zorammom, Donnie, I think he is moving too far
Speaker 4: to the left and almost out of where your party is.
Speaker 3: Well. I just think that Republicans want to work with
Speaker 3: President Trump to accomplish his goal reverse the curse of
Speaker 3: the Biden policies and regulation, taxation, open up the economy.
Speaker 3: Besides our tax policy and the big Beautiful bill, I
Speaker 3: really believe that our mainstream Capital Access Act will make
Speaker 3: capital more available for small businesses all across the nation,
Speaker 3: produce economic growth, particularly in the home building area. Mike
Speaker 3: Flood's twenty first century housing build that we put together
Speaker 3: lowers regulatory costs on building new homes, opens up things
Speaker 3: like the Home program and the CDBG program to private
Speaker 3: sector partnerships to build more housing. We want more housing available,
Speaker 3: we want better at better prices, and that's the tack
Speaker 3: that we're taking. I think these are the priorities of
Speaker 3: the President.
Speaker 4: Congressman, as the chair of the Financial Services Committee, have
Speaker 4: you spoken to Chair J. Powell since the subpoena was
Speaker 4: delivered to him from the DOJ?
Speaker 3: I have Chairman Powell called and told me that this
Speaker 3: process was taking place.
Speaker 4: And does he have plans to come to the Hill
Speaker 4: to testify.
Speaker 3: Well, we've invited the Chairman to testify for his semi
Speaker 3: annual Humphrey Hawkins testimony and we're working out the date now.
Speaker 3: We'll do that typically in coordination both with the FED
Speaker 3: and with the Senate Banking Committee, so that we can
Speaker 3: get the FED chairman up for his semi annual testimony
Speaker 3: on the Hill.
Speaker 1: Congressman, do you agree with the efforts put forward by
Speaker 1: Senator Tillis talking about potentially stiming any of the candidates
Speaker 1: that President Trump is putting forward or will put forward
Speaker 1: for the Federal Reserve until the subpoena is removed or
Speaker 1: this issue is resolved.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, my attitude about this is really simple,
Speaker 3: which is FED independence, doesn't mean the Fed's immune from
Speaker 3: criticism or governors at the FED or immune from criticism.
Speaker 3: And if people have questions and concerns about the construction
Speaker 3: project down there, about how expensive it is to build
Speaker 3: something in Washington, d C. How expensive it is to
Speaker 3: build something after a forty year high in inflation from
Speaker 3: the FED and fiscal policy mistakes made at the end
Speaker 3: of the pandemic, those are legitimate questions. But to try
Speaker 3: to criminalize it and threaten people with a grand jury
Speaker 3: over disputes about that construction, I just I don't agree
Speaker 3: with that, and I think the Congress can do oversight
Speaker 3: about the construction project. And I think, as I said
Speaker 3: in my statement, I think this is a distraction from
Speaker 3: our partnership with President Trump in lowering cost of living
Speaker 3: for our citizens through access to increasing access to capital,
Speaker 3: lowering the cost of building a home in this country,
Speaker 3: getting the economy growing along with all the improvements, the
Speaker 3: tremendous improvements we've had for working families that we passed
Speaker 3: in the One Big, Beautiful Bill last year.
Speaker 1: It's actually illegitimate this particular subpoena.
Speaker 3: Well, I don't know that it's illegitimate because I'm not
Speaker 3: at the Justice Department, and I'm not the US attorney
Speaker 3: for the District of Columbia. I'd say it is, in
Speaker 3: my personal opinion, an overreaction to concerns about the construction
Speaker 3: at the FED, and I don't agree with that approach.
Speaker 4: You've been friends with him for decades. Do you think
Speaker 4: he added to this distraction by coming out with a
Speaker 4: rare video as the markets were opening up an Asia
Speaker 4: instead of just replying to the subpoena.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think we'll always second guess whenever we make
Speaker 3: a public statement as a public figure. I won't second
Speaker 3: guess the decision that he took about that. I'll just
Speaker 3: let it play out the way it is. But I
Speaker 3: do believe that trying to criminalize that kind of behavior,
Speaker 3: I just don't agree with that.
Speaker 4: How delayed do you think this could make going through
Speaker 4: the process of the next FED chair?
Speaker 3: Well, I think it could throw it off track. I
Speaker 3: think it's a distraction to Treasury Secretary Bessence very able
Speaker 3: partnership with the President to identify a new FED chair,
Speaker 3: something they've worked on for months, and the President has
Speaker 3: had interviews consistently over the last few weeks, and he's
Speaker 3: close to taking a decision, and that this decision. Whoever
Speaker 3: made the recommendation to do this, I think was a
Speaker 3: mistake because I think, as I've said, it distracts from
Speaker 3: my economic agenda benefiting working families with lower cost and
Speaker 3: more accessibility to capital and housing. And it's a distraction
Speaker 3: to Treasury Secretary Vesset and President Trump's excellent work to
Speaker 3: identify a new leader for the Federal Reserve, something that
Speaker 3: we want and we want clarity on on Capitol Hills.
Speaker 3: So that's why I think whoever made a recommendation like
Speaker 3: this was not wise.
Speaker 4: It hasn't been a distraction from markets, though they pretty
Speaker 4: much shrugged it off. Do you think the markets don't
Speaker 4: view this as real threat to independence?
Speaker 3: Possible. I don't know that it's a threat to independence.
Speaker 3: I think it's a distraction to the work we're trying
Speaker 3: to do here to move the economy forward. To complement
Speaker 3: the big tax changes we made to benefit working families
Speaker 3: last year, we want to do the same thing this
Speaker 3: year to open up regulatory policy, make it easy not
Speaker 3: only just to permit the growth of the energy industry
Speaker 3: in the country and critical minerals. These are goals of
Speaker 3: the President, but we also want to reduce that regulatory
Speaker 3: burden on how's it construction and capital access for the
Speaker 3: American economy. And if we don't have a nominated and
Speaker 3: confirmed Feeder Reserve chair, that's a distraction to getting that
Speaker 3: done in the right way, and I think it throws
Speaker 3: the President's mission off track. That's why I called it
Speaker 3: a distraction.
Speaker 2: I'm sticking with Congressmen. Always appreciate your time and thank
Speaker 2: you for the congratulations. I promise you this. I'll introduce
Speaker 2: a little guy to SEC football later this year. I
Speaker 2: can't make a promise that he's going to be a
Speaker 2: razorback fan, though, okay, there's going to be a winning.
Speaker 3: See French So we got to talk about we'll.
Speaker 2: Try and work it out. Congressman. Thank you. Congressman french
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