For reviewing federal
regulations and for providing
the proper oversight of federal
agencies no small tasks
for the past 10 years Mr Hamdan
has served as the president
and CEO of the Center
for American Progress prior
to that she worked in the United
States Senate as a legislative
director and served in the Obama
and Clinton administrations
as a senior domestic policy
advisor good morning Mr Hamdan
and Thanks very much for being
with us before I go further let
me mention that we have some new
members of this committee
and let me welcome senators
Luann bedelia Sas and Romney
to the budget committee.
This committee has very broad
jurisdiction are dealing with
any policy that impacts
the federal budget that's a lot
of stuff out there and at a time
when our country faces
an unprecedented series
of crises this will be a very
active committee in which we
will be exploring many issues,
including trying to get
an understanding of what is
happening to the working class
of this country the middle class
and lower income Americans and I
hope we're going to have those
good discussions in a civil
manner the American people need
to hear different points
of view.
They need to get
an understanding of why what is
happening in this country is
in fact happening.
In general we don't do a good
job as members of Congress,
the media doesn't do a good job
and I hope this committee will
have civil serious debates about
some of the most important
issues facing America we are
going to explore what it means
that in this country today
the people on the top
economically are doing
phenomenally well while so many
Tens of millions of Americans
are struggling right now
in America to put food
on the table to pay their rent
or to have the income they need
to go to a doctor in the midst
of a pandemic today in America
we are living through the worst
economic crisis since the Great
Depression and the worst public
health crisis in more than 100
years real unemployment is
over 11% over 23 million
Americans are either unemployed
underemployed or have given up
looking for work altogether
unbelievably more than half
of American workers are living
paycheck to paycheck and are
just one medical emergency one
car accident one lost paycheck
away from financial disaster
in America disgracefully we have
the highest rate of childhood
poverty of almost any major
country on Earth the covid-19
pandemic is still raging across
the nation and it's responsible
for taking the lives of more
than 450,000 Americans
and obviously all of us hope
that we're going to address that
crisis as rapidly as possible
but Meanwhile in the midst
of that pandemic over 90 million
Americans are either uninsured
or underinsured and
we remain the only major country
on Earth not to guarantee health
care to all of our people
we've got a climate crisis that
is ravaging nations all over
the world,
including the United States
of America we have an affordable
housing crisis where so many
of our people are paying
literally paying half
of their incomes for rent we
have a racial injustice crisis
in America today that this
Congress is going to have
to address and we have
an immigration crisis as well
and given all of these
unprecedented crises it is
absolutely imperative that we
have an OMB director who has
the courage at this moment
in American history to think big
not small we need an OMB
director was prepared to stand
up to powerful special interests
who dominate the economic
and political life of this
country,
including what goes on here
in Congress we needed OMB
director who can work with
the president and Congress
to create an economy that works
for all of us and not just
wealthy campaign contributors
now Mr Hamdan at a time when
the wealthy and large
corporations have extraordinary
influence over the economic
and political life of this
country I must tell you that I
am concerned about the level
of corporate donations that
the Center for American Progress
has received under
your leadership according
to the Washington Post since
2014 center for American
Progress has received at least
38 million from corporate
America, including Wall Street
and every public every special
interest that I can think of.
So before I vote
on your nomination it is
important for me and members
of this committee to know that
those donations that you have
secured at cap will not
influence your decision making
at the OMB further I would like
to hear how you plan to work
with this committee
and the Congress to enact
the promises that President
Biden made to the American
people.
I think one of the reasons that
so many people are disillusioned
with politics in America given
up on democracy politicians make
promises,
and they run away from those
promises President Biden made
a series of promises I'm going
to work with them to make sure
that we implement those promises
President Biden promised
to raise the minimum wage over
a period of several years
to at least $15 an hour he
promised to make public colleges
and universities tuition free
for working families
and to substantially reduce
student debt he promised
to lower the Medicare
eligibility age from 65 down
to 60 and to also cut
the outrageous outrageously high
prices of prescription drugs
in America Presidents Biden
promised to rebuild
our crumbling infrastructure,
and create millions of good
paying jobs and combat climate
change he said he would fight
to make pre-K universal to make
sure that every three
and four-year-old in America has
the quality child care and pre-K
education that they need
President Biden promised to make
sure that every worker
in America has at least 12 weeks
of paid family and medical leave
and yes President Biden promised
that he would make sure that
corporations like Amazon began
to pay their fair share
of taxes.
The next OMB director will play
a major role in determining
whether those policy proposals
succeed or whether they fail
and I want to hear from you this
morning or how you plan to work
with the president this
committee and the Congress
to implement those promises that
the president made lastly what I
simply want to say is that over
the years I work with Mike enzi
who was then the chairman
and Mike and I had a very very
good relationship and I look
forward to having an excellent
relationship a culture
relationship with the ranking
member Lindsey Graham,
who I've known for many many
years I hope again that this
committee can be the committee
that has said, look, we have
differences of opinion we all
know that.
But let's have a civil debate
and I promise you that
we're going to talk about
the most important issues that
face your constituents.
So let's do that and with that,
let me introduce the ranking
member Lindsey Graham well thank
you very much, Mr Chairman
congratulations on being
chairman of the committee 2020
was a heck of an election cycle
it will soon be over hopefully
in my lifetime and we can move
on with the nation's business
I've talked to Bernie several
times about what we can do
together and there actually is
a lot we can do together.
I look forward to that Senator
Whitehouse is sort
of on the fence about climate
change.
But if we can ever get him out
of his shell I would like
to talk about what happens
if General Motors by 2035
actually converts to all
electrical vehicle vehicles I
mean, that's not you know some
left wing group saying that
that's General Motors saying
that in 2035 I think it is is
that the date or 2050 I
can't remember now that
they're going to stop producing
gasoline driven cars well what
does that mean for the country
why they're trying to do that
and it gives us a chance,
I think,
to talk about big things
and there's going to be
differences Senator Sanders went
down a checklist of big things
and one of my goals is to make
sure that all these big things
that we're talking about other
people paying for that we have
a sense of know how do you pay
for all this stuff.
And from a Republican point
of view we can't really say
a whole lot about running up
the debt because we did it too
but eventually it's going
to take people like Bernie
and Lindsay and the rest of us
around here to figure out what
to do about the debt one day I
don't know when that day comes
but they'll be a day
of reckoning and I know Senator
Whitehouse and Kaine and others
have been pretty open minded
about reforms from my point
of view,
that would be revenue to make
sure that the revenues
consistent with what we need up
here to operate the government
but from Senator Sanders I just
want to tell you that
we're going to have some real
stark differences about
reconciliation we're going
to have some very pointed
differences but the one thing I
want to say about Bernie is that
you believe what you're saying
you've been the most consistent
voice in this body and the one
thing I respect is people who
believe what they're saying
Senator Whitehouse you believe
what you're saying about climate
change.
And the question is can we find
some common ground given what we
believe we have some very
talented people on our side
of the aisle and I would just
challenge all of us to fight
for our without peacefully
that's the new word now fight
for your point of view but see
if there's some common ground
here because the country needs
it as to the nominee I've known
her for a while very nice person
but not the unity that I was
looking for anyway so as Tanden
was receiving corporate
donations which is fine with me.
I don't mind if you receive
corporate donations as long
as they're lawful and fully
disclosed and I think all of us
received donations from
different groups that
doesn't mean your own
because somebody gives you money
so I'm not going to hold that
against you but you've been
a very partisan figure
you've been a very tough figure
when it comes to political
discourse and that's OK too
but calling Mitch McConnell
moskal Mitch is probably not
a very good thing to say
suggesting that the minority
leader somehow in the pocket
of the Russians
the gop's capacity for evil
knows no bounds I'm sure a lot
of people in America believe
that I'm not one of them so
Senator Sanders was Hillary
Clinton's opponent as we all
know.
So her scorn was not limited
to Republicans Russia did a lot
more to help Bernie than the DNC
random internal emails did
to help Hillary oddly when
Russia was trying to elect Trump
they did not attack Bernie
Sanders they chose to help him
they did this in the Democratic
primary they attacked the other
candidate I doubt if Bernie was
Russia's pick either.
So the point I'm trying to make
here is that in a time of unity
we're picking somebody who
throws sharp elbows
and there's going to be
a consequence for that hopefully
on our side as to her management
capability she referred to us
for the Glassdoor review of her
time of writing the Center
for American Progress again
she's a talented person has come
a long way in life
but here's some of the reviews
June 20 '19 one out of five
stars terrible absolutely
horrible October 20 '16 cool
work but absurd management
disapproves of the April 2016
influential organization poorly
managed September 2012 tour
of five stars bad management
February 13 two out of five
stars great
experience terrible management
two out of five stars April 2017
disapproves of CEO
doesn't recommend what a mess
so all I can say is that this is
not the unifying pick that I was
looking for for this position
thank you, Mr Chairman.