'Who gave banks this power?': Kennedy blasts political debanking, confronts Fed Vice Chair Bowman

The chairman and the vice chairman and others should raise or lower interest rates and what we should do about quantitative easing and how many economists can dance on the head of a pin. The same thing about gun manufacturers and oil and gas and anybody you don't like and you let the banks do it.

But your institution went along with it. The banks proposed it and your institution sucked it up like a Hoover Deluxe. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for that courtesy.

Madam Vice Chair, credit should be given when it is due. I remember well three or four years ago, Chairman Powell and others were giving a report when the economy, inflation was 9%. It was gutting the American people like a fish. Stevie Wonder could have seen it coming. President Biden asked and Congress consented that we start spending money like it had the value of Louisiana ditch water. Had President Biden, had we discovered life on Mars when President Biden was president, it would have sent it money. And I remember the Federal Reserve represented by Chairman Powell sitting here and we're talking about what to do about it and he explained his plans and in so many words I said, not going to work. I've read the white papers. You can get inflation down, but we're going to have to suffer unemployment of 7, 8, 9%. It didn't happen, did it? We had a soft landing. And the Federal Reserve was in part responsible in the best sense of the word for that. And we don't applaud that enough. Now, we can debate whether the chairman and the vice chairman and others should raise or lower interest rates and what we should do about quantitative easing and how many economists can dance on the head of a pin. But it's a fact. We had a soft landing. Thank God for it. Now inflation is not down where we want, but 2.7% is a hell of a lot better than 9%. Without having to suffer 7, 8, 9, 10% unemployment and the human misery that goes with it. So the Fed did something right.

On the other hand, what in God's name was the Fed and some of your other agencies thinking when you allowed banks to debank customers for reputational risk? Are you kidding me? Why did you allow that to happen? Because you didn't like their politics or you didn't like the products they made? I mean, do you think it would be fair? Senator Warren's not here, so I hesitate to talk about Senator Warren, who was a distinguished professor at Harvard University. Some people don't like Harvard. Some people don't like their politics. How could you possibly allow a bank to have the option? I'm not saying they did it, but to debank someone like Senator Warren. I'm using her as a hypothetical example because you didn't like her politics. And you can say the same thing about gun manufacturers and oil and gas and anybody you don't like and you let the banks do it. What in God's name were y'all thinking? Madam Vice Chair.

But your institution went along with it. The banks proposed it and your institution sucked it up like a Hoover Deluxe.

Let me tell you folks, this isn't over yet. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Chairman Scott and Ranking Member Warren and to the witnesses as well. Chair Hauptman, I'm going to start with you before I turn it over to Vice Chair Bowman. I have a bipartisan bill with Senator Hagerty, the Credit Union Board Modernization Act. It simply updates board meeting requirements for well-rated established credit unions and it currently has 58 co-sponsors in the Senate and passed the House last year by voice vote. Do you think this is a good idea?

Congress, your mic, I think the microphone is...