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