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

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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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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.

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