Chairman Brown, Ranking Member Toomey, and other members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. I would like to thank President Biden for nominating me to serve a second term as Chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. I would also like to thank my colleagues throughout the Federal Reserve System for their dedication, perseverance, and tireless work on behalf of the American people. Their commitment and expertise were essential to the Fed's response to the COVID-19 crisis and remain vital to the implementation of monetary policy as our economy continues to progress. Particular thanks go to my wife, Elissa Leonard, and our three children, Susie, Lucy, and Sam. Their love and support make possible everything I do. My five siblings are all watching, and we are thinking of each other and of our parents today with love and gratitude.

Four years ago, when I sat before this Committee, few could have predicted the great challenges that would soon become ours to meet.

On the eve of the pandemic, the U.S. economy was enjoying its 11th year of expansion, the longest on record. Unemployment was at 50-year lows, and the economic benefits were reaching those most on the margins. No obvious financial or economic imbalances threatened the ongoing expansion. But this attractive picture turned virtually overnight as the virus swept across the globe.

The initial contraction was the fastest and deepest on record, but the pain could have been much worse. As the pandemic arrived, our immediate challenge was to stave off a full-scale depression, which would require swift and strong policy actions from across government.

Congress provided by far the fastest and largest response to any postwar economic downturn. At the Federal Reserve, we used the full range of policy tools at our disposal. We moved quickly to restore vital flows of credit to households, communities, and businesses and to stabilize the financial system.

These collective policy actions, the development and availability of vaccines, and American resilience worked in concert, first to cushion the pandemic's economic blows and then to spark a historically strong recovery.

Today the economy is expanding at its fastest pace in many years, and the labor market is strong.