Lucas Urges Fed to Support Needs of Rural Communities

Cheyenne, OK – Congressman Frank Lucas (OK-03) today questioned Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell at a House Committee on Financial Services hearing on monetary policy and the state of the economy. Lucas asked Chairman Powell about the Federal Reserve’s ongoing efforts to support our nation’s rural economies, households, and businesses through the Fed’s various lending facilities.

Recently, the Federal Reserve Board expanded its Municipal Liquidity Facility to help state and local governments better manage cash flow pressures in order to continue to serve households and businesses in their communities. The MLF was established under Section 13(3) of the Federal Reserve Act, with approval of the Treasury Secretary. It will offer up to $500 billion in lending to states and municipalities to help manage cash flow stresses caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Excerpt:

On support for rural America through lending facilities (4:10- 5:05)

Lucas: Representing a substantial part of rural area of Oklahoma, making sure that Fed programs work as well in the countryside as they do in the money-centers in the big, urban areas is critically important from my perspective. Making sure those facilities are available to everybody helps assure the robust recovery- we don’t want to leave any particular regions or parts of society behind as we come out of this. And I believe you’re working aggressively in that area.

Powell: We have tried to, and in fact I would point to the things we’ve done with the Municipal Facility where we have made sure that states that have more rural populations, that don’t have a lot of big cities, nonetheless, have the benefits of that facility. And we will continue to adjust all our facilities to try to serve that goal.