‘Something Needs To Be Done’: Williams Slams Sec. Yellen Over Small Business Fiscal Policies

3 months ago

On Tuesday, Rep. Roger Williams (R-TX) questioned Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on small business financial education policy during a House Financial Services Committee hearing.

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Transcript

00:00Chairman of the Small Business Committee, Mr. Williams, recognized for five minutes.

00:06Thank you, Mr. Chair and Secretary. Good to see you again. The last time you were here, I asked

00:11you what actions Treasury was taking to educate small businesses on their obligations to file

00:17beneficial ownership information in FinCEN. And you acknowledged the burdens that small

00:22business will face with compliance surrounding this rule and committed to working with

00:26businesses to better educate them on compliance. However, from what I've been hearing from small

00:31businesses, owners that I travel around and being on the ground, is that they are still unaware of

00:35the FinCEN's beneficial ownership reporting requirements. Now, FinCEN Director Gackey

00:40recently said that only two million small businesses out of over 32 million have filed

00:45beneficial ownership information. So this shows that something needs to be done because you cannot

00:49hold these small businesses responsible for something they've never heard of or even aware

00:53of the rules of the road. So my question would be, could you expand on how Treasury will work

00:58with small business to educate them on beneficial ownership? And is there any possibility for

01:03Treasury to provide more time for small businesses to come in compliance? That's important.

01:08So at this point, we're engaged. FinCEN is in a very broad outreach effort. It's received 2.7

01:17million filings already. The filing and requirements are easy to do. And FinCEN

01:27believes that the time frame is adequate. The companies in existence before this year

01:34have until January 1 to file. But that's their current view. If things don't go according to plan.

01:44Yeah, well, small business is burdened right now. So please take a look at that.

01:49And the Biden administration's climate agenda is forcing the IMF and the World Bank to take

01:53their eye off the ball and channel resources and funding toward climate related projects

01:58and not projects that would enhance the overall well-being of a country or region. The World Bank

02:03is working to devote 45 percent of their financing to climate. And you are voting in opposition to

02:09any fossil fuel projects. Developing countries need to access to electricity and other vital

02:15resources, not some unelected bureaucrats telling them that they can't finance an energy project in

02:21their country because it would support fossil fuels. So my question would be because of this,

02:26many developing countries will be forced to turn to Chinese financing.

02:30Now, how is Treasury going to combat growing Chinese influence around the globe

02:34if your policies are enabling them to grow their influence?

02:38Well, look, what we see is that countries in Africa and elsewhere, especially those that,

02:45as in Africa, you have 600 million people who don't have electricity at all, actually want to

02:53use renewables to expand access and to address climate and to have systems that over time

03:03will be more secure, less dependent on fluctuations in global markets. And this is

03:13the strategy that they prefer. Our policy in terms of lending is that if it's not possible

03:22to use renewable energy, we want that to be looked at first. If it isn't feasible or it's

03:31unduly expensive, we will vote in favor of projects that use natural gas. And in fact,

03:40in those that have been presented, the great majority we've been supportive of. But climate

03:49is a very serious concern in so many countries around the world. It's impeding the goals of

03:59sustainable development and poverty reduction. And so it is a priority of borrowing countries,

04:07as well as the World Bank and other MDBs. In business, you don't want to sell off an

04:11empty shelf and you want to have products that people want to buy. So I think we need to have

04:17all options available. There's also been developments at the IMF under the Biden

04:22administration that I find extremely concerning. Specifically, the IMF proposed that billions of

04:26dollars in special drawing rights assets be generally allocated as global membership. Now,

04:31this alarming is hostile actors like China, Iran, and Russia can receive the funding to use it as

04:36they please, all of which can be done without congressional approval. So quickly, Secretary,

04:40could you, you should be using your influence in the IMF to protect U.S. influence, ensure

04:45transparency and prevent malign actors from exploiting resources. So how could increasing

04:50IMF resource and allocating SDRs to China, Russia, Iran affect the U.S. national security? And what

04:55steps are you at Treasury taking to protect our U.S. interests? Well, we oppose allowing malign

05:05countries to use SDRs that they receive as allocation. We will not exchange them for dollars,

05:14which must be done in order for them to be used. And we work with other countries that

05:21have that capacity to make sure it doesn't occur and it hasn't occurred.

‘Something Needs To Be Done’: Williams Slams Sec. Yellen Over Small Business Fiscal Policies

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