PIERRE, S.D. (MITCHELLNOW) U.S. Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) questioned Chair of the Federal Reserve Jerome Powell this week in a hearing of the Senate Banking Committee. The hearing was Powell’s semiannual appearance in front of the Committee to address monetary policy in the United States.
Rounds asked Powell about revisions to the Basel III Endgame proposal, as well as how the bad policies of the Biden administration have fueled inflation. According to the Joint Economic Committee, the average South Dakota family is paying over $1,000 more per month in living expenses for needs such as shelter, food and energy compared to when President Biden took office.
“Since President Biden took office, gasoline prices have risen over 54%, energy prices have risen 41%, fuel oil prices have risen 37%. Now, I can go on and on, but you understand what I’m saying is that energy has increased substantially,” said Rounds. “I think one of the reasons for this has been additional demand as we’ve come out of a pandemic. But the other part of this has been whether or not investors really want to go back in and invest in traditional energy resources after the President made this specific determination to cancel the Keystone XL Pipeline on the day that he stepped into office. When he did that, he sent one heck of a message to investors about traditional energy, and investing in traditional energy, in the United States. And the fact that a multibillion-dollar contract could be cancelled with a stroke of a pen.”
Watch the full exchange HERE.