Most observers in Washington and for that matter the whole country too often lack clarity in noting that the Federal Reserve truly is the ultimate policy entity to modify, adjust, and re-define key elements of the world’s richest and most powerful economy. Moreover, the Fed’s board is independent of the Executive branch and is supposed to be free of political influence. The US Congress has oversight responsibility over its actions. The Federal Reserve Board like so many of the regulatory boards in Washington is safeguarded by this independence.

The stated reason for the creation of the federal reserve in 1913 just as Woodrow Wilson took over the presidency: to provide the nation with a safer, more flexible and more stable monetary/financial system. The four duties (areas) of the federal reserve are commonly known as the following:

• conducting the nation’s monetary policy by influencing the monetary and credit conditions in the economy in pursuit of maximum employment, stable prices, and moderate long-term interest rates
• supervising and regulating banking institutions to ensure the safety and soundness of the nation’s banking and financial system and to protect the credit rights of consumers
• maintaining the stability of the financial system and containing systemic risk that may arise in financial markets
• providing financial services to depository institutions, the U.S. government, and foreign official institutions, including playing a major role in operating the nation’s payments system

The Federal Reserve System with Washington as its headquarters has twelve (12) regional banks. Interestingly enough, these regional banks are privately owned but are members of the Federal Reserve System. These include the first among equals (primus inter pares) New York, then Boston, Richmond, Cleveland, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Chicago, Kansas City, Dallas, Minneapolis, San Francisco and St. Louis. Many of these cities or regions have vast numbers of Latinos. Out west, San Francisco is the only regional Federal Reserve Bank west of the Rockies. The next three mid-western regions are Minneapolis, Kansas City and Dallas. The numbers of Latinos in these western states is most impressive and growing. Certainly Dallas, New York, Chicago, and Atlanta have also huge portions of the 46 million Hispanics nationwide. The current census being conducted and analyzed will help provide a clearer picture of the numbers and where they are living. But it can be argued that as of now out west with San Francisco as the only geographically western Federal Reserve Bank, the Hispanic congressional representation breaks down this way: the west has the majority with six in California (Roybal-Allard, Baca, Becerra, Napolitano, the two Sanchez sisters); one each in Colorado (Salazar) and New Mexico (Lujan) and two in Arizona (Grijalva and Pastor) and Dallas region has six (Ortiz, Gonzalez, Rodriguez, Cuellar, Hinojosa and Reyes) all in Texas. Chicago region has one Latino congressman (Gutierrez) and the New York region has two (Serrano and Velazquez) plus one congressman (Sires) from Northern New Jersey and the only Latino senator (Menendez) in the country (NJ). Atlanta has three from Florida (two Diaz-Balart brothers and Ros-Lehtinen). Therefore, the San Francisco and Dallas Federal Reserve Regions have over 15 Latino congressmen. Salazar in Colorado belongs to the Kansas City region; Atlanta is the third region to have Latino congressional representation. A closer look at these regional/sub-regional Federal Reserve Banks reveals few if any Latino representation on the regional bank boards.

In examining the composition of the scores of directors of these regional Federal Reserve Boards, only Dallas appears to have more than one Latino director. At the regional level, there is one (Roberto Estrada) of the main Dallas bank and at its sub-regional level San Antonio has four: Jorge Bermudez, Ricardo Romo, Ygnacio Garza and C. Treviño. Atlanta has one, Carol Tome at the regional director level. In the Atlanta region, Miami is touted as the banking center for Latin America, yet only one, Latino director is detected (Carol Tome). San Francisco has none at the regional or sub-regional level. Boston has one Luso-American (Portuguese: Cunha) on the board. Richmond, Cleveland, St. Louis, Minneapolis and Philadelphia don’t have any Latino sounding names on their boards. Interestingly enough, the leader of the regional pack, New York has one at the substantive level of director, Richard Carrion from Puerto Rico’s Banco Popular, but alas no other…More revealing is Kansas City with Lu Cordova from Boulder, Colorado as a key director, but uncertain that this board member is considered to be Hispanic. The sum of Latino representation in the Federal Reserve System’s decision-making circles is at best bleak.

As for the Fed’s board in Washington, the most powerful and key tool in the US economy, there is no Latino and never has been one. Yet, the Hispanic population is estimated now at least to be over 15% of the US overall population. The contribution by the Latino community to the US multi-trillion dollar economy is increasingly significant. It is rarely heard among the Hispanic congressional and Civic leadership on how the Fed affects the community in its operations or implementation of public economic policy. Plainly, the Fed’s actions affecting the money supply, credit, the cost of money, interest rates and how remittances are affected by supervising the flow of money transfers or exchange fluctuations have an increasingly important impact on the Latino community. Perhaps, the Obama administration will discover or find a qualified high-flyer Latino economist or financial type to serve on the Fed’s board. If we continue to wait for the nominal Hispanic leadership or self-styled Latino advocacy groups to discover the wondrous powers of the Federal Reserve, we could be in for a long wait. The growing awareness of the functions of the US economy in the context of the recent financial crisis and housing bubble along with high unemployment rates behooves the Latino community to seek greater representation and participation at the highest levels of the decision-making process.

One of the most troubling indicators is the rapid rise in the unemployment rates. In some states, like Michigan, Rhode Island, and California, it is already over 10% unemployment. Many of the country’s top economic analysts predict that the worst is yet to come. President Obama is using a lot of political capital in the so-called ‘stimulus bills’. Yet many economic pundits are noting that the new Administration must try every means to stem the increasing economic threats. Hence, stimulus bills may be a shot in the dark, but most reasonable people submit that it is better than doing nothing.

When one begins to consider the Latino plight in this dire economic situation, it becomes clear that both US Latino citizens and immigrant Latinos are feeling the pangs of this crisis like all other groups. But the real challenge is that even when the times were good, our socio-economic indicators demonstrated that we were fast becoming the underclass in many categories. These indicators included: highest school drop-out rates, higher than average unemployment rates and suggestions of a definite high under-employment rate (informal economy), poverty levels, increasing teenage pregnancies, other health concerns have become alarming with growing obesity and diabetes rates. Yet it can be easily demonstrated that the Latino community has progressed notably in the last two generations: home-ownership increased, two family incomes are increasingly common, vastly increased numbers of college and university graduates, many more small Latino businesses have flourished, infinitely more Latino elected officials at every level and infant mortality figures have dropped. Now this current economic crisis will be equally devastating to both poor and more affluent Latinos. The challenge is how to get our Latino community engaged in the serious discussion of actionable proposals that affect directly the livelihood of the Hispanic population.

The fact that three trillion dollars may be spent on rescuing our economic well-being is almost unfathomable; yet the Latino community needs its Washington leadership in Congress and the Administration to engage full force to make certain that these gargantuan spending bills provide some cover to the Latino community. This must become the primordial concern on the national Latino agenda.

Hispanic Congress-persons on the Appropriations Committee like Jose Serrano, Ed Pastor, Lucille Roybal-Allard and Ciro Rodriguez are in strategic positions to lead the dialogue within the community. Senators like Bob Menendez and Mel Martinez, who are both on the Banking and the Energy Committees, are also key to any effort for Latinos. Senator Menendez is also on Budget Committee. Nydia Velazquez is well-positioned as Chair of the Small Business Committee; and like Luis Gutierrez, Joe Baca, Ruben Hinojosa and Albio Sires, Velazquez is also a member of the Financial Services Committee. Loretta Sanchez has notably served in the powerful Joint Economic Committee of Congress as the only Hispanic and hopefully continues to be an active member. Mario Diaz-Balart even though a minority member serves on three powerful committees: Budget, Science and Technology and Transportation and Infrastructure. Xavier Becerra’s membership on the Budget Committee and the powerful Ways and Means Committee suggest perhaps that he is the lead on this urgent economic discussion affecting the Latino community. Taking up Hispanic educational challenges on Committee on Education and Labor would include Hinojosa, Raul Grijalva and Linda Sanchez. Charlie Gonzalez remains on the influential Committee on Energy and Commerce which oversees the Health care coverage, telecommunications and trade issues. Lastly, the Hispanic members of the important Agriculture Committee taking up the national nutrition issues in the country include Joe Baca (chair of Sub-Committee on Nutrition,) John Salazar and Henry Cuellar. These Congress people mentioned are key in this massive stimulus spending process.

Moreover, Hilda Solis, as Labor Secretary, should take up the mantle as the lead Hispanic in the Administration to ensure that our community gets a fair shake in the recovery efforts being put forth. Solis along with Cecilia Munoz, the Assistant to President Obama for Inter-Governmental Affairs must quickly master the intricacies of the OMB (Office of Management and Budget) process in the White House. OMB is the spending  or allocating traffic cop in any administration and has powerful authorities to determine the amounts and who gets the monies and  how they should be spent within the legislative language provided.

The Hispanic advocacy groups like National Council of La Raza, LULAC, the Cuban National Council, the National Puerto Rican Foundation and other Latino national and regional or local advocacy organizations must insist on action. The Hispanic Caucus should immediately form if it has not yet a structured working group within its organization to identify the Latino community needs in this economic crisis, the monies available, the mechanisms involved, and communicating the intricacies of the processes to the local governmental level. Nydia Velazquez the new Caucus Chair should move swiftly to ensure that the Latino representation is effectively felt and that the constituencies’ needs be addressed. A multi-trillion dollar spending program must include the basic and necessary resources for the Latino community to alleviate the impending hardships. A national discussion and consultation process among the Latino community is imperative to provide a better understanding of the deepening recession (for some) and depression (for others). These are extraordinary times, and the Latino leadership must step up to the challenge in an organized and effective manner.

Due to their immigration status, thousands (in excess of 60,000) of high school graduates across the country have not been able to take advantage of the opportunities that make a higher education a possibility. In-state tuition rates, private scholarships, state and federal grants and loans, the ability to work in order to support themselves and pay for college are all denied to these young people, who came to our country as children and have been living here and attending school without immigration status.

The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, also called the DREAM Act, is a proposal for federal legislation that attempts to address the federal barriers to both education and work for undocumented young immigrant students. The House version (HR 1275) was introduced on March 2007 by Howard Berman (D-CA). As of 2007,  it is cosponsored by  Rep. Rubén Hinojosa (D-TX), Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-TX), Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), Rep. Solomon Ortiz (D-TX), Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY), Rep. Kathy Castor (D-FL), Rep. Charles Gonzalez (D-TX), Rep. Hilda Solis (D-CA), Rep. Linda Sánchez (D-CA), Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-NY), Rep. José Serrano (D-NY), Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-CA), Rep. Joe Baca (D-CA), Rep. Albio Sires (D-NJ), Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (D-IL), Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL), Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL), and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) plus 67 other Democrats and 1 more Republican. The question raised is:  Will these same sponsors, especially the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, in the House stay the course in carrying the bill to final approval?

The Senate version was introduced earlier this year by Richard Durbin (D-IL), Chuck Hagel (R-NE), and Richard Lugar (R-IN). The legislation would restore states’ rights to offer in-state tuition to immigrant students residing in their state and ultimately provide a path to citizenship for those who qualify. The students must be of sound moral character, have graduated from a school in the US or have obtained a GED, have been here continuously for at least five years and be 12-30 years old prior to the bill’s enactment. The students would obtain temporary residency for a period of six years, during which they must attend college, earn a two year degree or complete two years of a four year college career, or serve in the military for two years. The immigrant students could not receive federal higher education grants, but they would be able to apply for student loans and work study. Once the six year temporary period was over, the student who has completed one of the educational or military service requirements would be eligible to apply for permanent residency, if he/she does not meet the requirements, their temporary residence would be revoked and they would be subject to deportation. Several versions of the bill have been introduced in both houses of Congress, although the House has never brought it to the floor alone. In order to bring forth the DREAM Act for debate in the Senate, a vote was scheduled on October 24 that would require a “filibuster proof” count of 60 yes votes. That day on the floor of the Senate, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) , who previously opposes consideration of the DREAM Act, announced that she and Sen. Durbin would work to make changes that she felt were necessary to gain Republican support for the proposed legislation. It was announced that if the debate of the DREAM Act was allowed, the bill would be rewritten in favor of Sen. Hutchison’s suggestions, which included that students should be allowed to hold a temporary student visa with a renewable work permit instead of conditional permanent residency. By a very small number of votes, the Senate rejected an attempt to begin the debate on The DREAM Act proposal, which would have offered an opportunity to the thousands of young undocumented immigrant students an opportunity to pursue higher education and an option to resolve their current lack of immigration status. The DREAM Act obtained 52 votes in favor, falling eight votes short of the 60 needed. Senate rules require a super majority of 60 votes to advance most bills. President-Elect Obama  released the following statement on the Senate’s failure to move forward to consider the DREAM Act (S.2205):

“We need comprehensive immigration reform in this country – reform that promotes our national and economic security and creates a pathway to earned citizenship for the 12 million undocumented immigrants in this country. We should not punish undocumented children who were brought to this country illegally through no choice of their own by keeping them in the shadows. The DREAM Act would have given these young people the opportunity to earn a degree or serve in our military, and eventually become legalized citizens. Failing to pass the DREAM Act only compounds the immigration crisis by continuing to drive thousands of young people every year into hiding.

Today is another missed opportunity in the battle to solve the immigration crisis in this country. The immigration debate has been wrought with the politics of division and fear, and been exploited by some politicians, blocking the real reform we need. Today’s vote proves that we need to do more to transcend these divisions – especially to provide solutions to help the most vulnerable in our society. I will continue to work with Senators Durbin, Hagel, Lugar and Kennedy on this issue, and will fight to bring this legislation back for another vote as soon as possible.”

Clearly, plenty will be on the new President’s agenda this coming year. But one hopes that this important legislation is not jettisoned for budgetary reasons or biased rejection of granting immigrant youth any chance for educational improvement or the lassitude of our Latino congressional members.  

Note: You can exercise your on-line activism by voting to make The DREAM Act one of the top priorities for the next administration at Change.org. You can also get involved at DreamACTivist.org.

Here is Seneca’s update:

As Obama goes into home stretch just before the holidays on his first tier appointments, which include the Cabinet, top White House Staff and a few other lesser appointments, it looks like Latinos will now have three Cabinet slots: Commerce (Richardson) , Interior (Salazar),  and Labor (Solis), two White House upper middle selections Cecilia Munoz (Inter Government Affairs) and Louis Caldera (White House Military Office). Rep. Becerra is not accepting USTR. Mayor Manny Diaz of Miami is now apparently out of the running for Transportation. Rep. Grijalva lost out on Interior, but another Latino Sen. Salazar was named. Now it remains to be seen if this only Mexican-American US Senator will be replaced by his brother in Congress, John Salazar. With Mel Martinez (R) leaving after one term from Florida and if no Latino replaces Salazar in the Senate, then Bob Menendez (D-NJ) may be the only Latino (Cuban American) US Senator after 2010.

Congress will see in 2009 at least one more Latino Congressman, Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM). Also the newly elected Connecticut Democrat Jim Himes defeated the last remaining GOP Congressman from New England, Chris Shays. Himes, who is Peruvian born to white American parents and grew up in Lima and Colombia, speaks fluent Spanish. But will he join the Congressional Hispanic Caucus? If he does, he will be the first Rhodes scholar in the Caucus.

In the next Congress the Cuban-Americans will retain their six people in Congress: Sen Menendez (D) and Sen Martinez (R), two GOP Diaz Balart brothers (Mario and Lincoln) and Ileana Ros Lehtenin (R) from Florida and Albino Sires (D) from New Jersey who replaced Menendez in the House. The three Democrat Puerto Ricans will remain unchanged in numbers: Jose Serrano and Nydia Velazquez from New York and Luis Gutierrez of Illinois. The Mexican-Americans will have 17 members with New Mexican Lujan’s election. Texas has Democrats Hinojosa, Ortiz, Gonzalez, Rodriguez, Cuellar and Reyes, add Arizona’s Democrats Pastor and Grijalva and California’s Democrats Roybal, Napolitano, Becerra, Baca and two sisters Loretta and Linda Sanchez and Colorado’s Rep. John Salazar and his brother soon to be Secretary of Interior, US Senator Ken Salazar. Now we have to wonder who will replace Hilda Solis. It looks like CA State Senator Gloria Romero is interested in the seat. The current national grand total is three Latino US Senators and 23 Latino Congress-persons (House) plus ‘honorary’ Hispanic Caucus members Reps Costa and Cardoza. Unfortunately, the four Cuban GOP members and the two Sanchez sisters are not members of the Hispanic Caucus (see Joe Baca’s name calling, but it looks like the Sanchez sisters will rejoin now that Nydia Velazquez is the chair of CHC), another painful indication of the Latino lack of unity and penchant for squabbles.

The Obama sub-cabinet (Deputy Secretaries, Under Secretaries, Assistant Secretaries, members of powerful federal regulatory agencies and some other independent agencies) basically all the Presidential Appointments with Senate Confirmation (PAS) will be closely monitored. Obama will have the opportunity to name the first Latino to the ultimate Uber-independent regulatory agency: the Federal Reserve Board in Washington. Also, the possible opening of a seat on the Supreme Court thus enabling Obama to name the first Latino to that August body. Meanwhile all eyes in the Latino community will be on the rest of the Obama PAS appointments. The primary focus will be in the Education, Health, Labor and immigration areas. Also will the Congressional Hispanic Caucus get to ‘vet’ or at least meet as a whole with the nominees for Homeland Security (Secretary) and its two (Under Secretaries) Latino key component agencies: Immigration (CIS) and Immigration Enforcement (ICE)? And will the CHC get to vet the Health, Education, Justice and Labor nominees for Secretaries? And will the CHC be consulted regarding the Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere, the nominee for US Ambassador to Mexico, the OAS Ambassador, Special Envoys and others?

Latino advocacy groups should ensure that these nominees address their NGO groups and appear before the Congressional Hispanic Caucus members and staff to review the Hispanic agenda (if one can be agreed upon) and provide ‘top cover’ to the Latino appointees and Latino career personnel be moved upwards. One expectation, which should be conveyed to the senior Latino appointees (Cabinet), is that they should periodically gather the senior Latino PAS appointees and other identifiable high fly-er Latino appointees and career types i.e. diplomats and senior civil service (SES). Latino numbers among military General/Flag rank officers should be reviewed to provide interest and top cover in the DoD selection and promotion process. Also the process of gathering Latinos federal movers and shakers is to ensure that it helps tremendously to improve the Latino esprit de corps among the Hispanic federal work force as well as the appointee group. The national Hispanic issues agenda should be reviewed, promoted, changed or modified as needed and addressed publicly whenever required. Immigration, for instance, will most likely not be addressed in the first year or two of the new Administration because of the high political costs. Obama will need to preserve his ‘going-in political capital’ for the most urgent national needs: the economy and extracting ourselves out of the quagmire of Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Yet, the fact that Latinos are over 60% of the undocumented immigrants in the US, which is a reality and requires attention especially in an alarmingly declining economic situation, could provoke an ugly and contentious anti-Latino backlash from the US body politic. This tangle’s remedy cannot be postponed indefinitely. To avoid or duck the immigration challenge would be highly irresponsible.

Forceful leadership at the highest level of the Executive and the Congress will be indispensable for an inevitable Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR). In sum, Obama has his work cut out. The expectations are high within the whole Latino agenda. Hence, the appointments and social/economic issues will be paramount. The challenge for the Latino community is to wisely articulate its expectations, its needs, and its vision of the role of the Latino population in the out years. This will require unity of purpose, focus, constant reminders to the Administration, public commentary and provide top cover to Latino public servants, similarly judicious cooperation and coordination with Latino advocacy groups are necessary to address the Latino community’s needs and the hurdles posed. Lastly, the palpable tomfoolery among some of our Latino Congress people is readily viewed as a lack of seriousness. The recent antics of the Sanchez Sisters, Joe Baca and former California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez’s madcap caper are dreadful examples…por lo tanto veremos!

Photo Credit: AP Photo/Ron Edmonds, Hilda Solis at DNC 08/27/08

As for the rest of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Rep. Charles A. Gonzalez is the next vice chair, Rep. Hilda Solis will serve as second vice chair and Rep. John Salazar is the whip.

In other congressional news, Rep. Xavier Becerra was elected vice chairman by House Democrats. He is the only Latino on the Congressional Democratic party leadership team. Congrats to Congressman Becerra. And Rep. Raul Grijalva was elected co-chair of the House Progressive Caucus, where he pledges to, “to move (the CPC) to the next level and continue to advance our progressive agenda in an effective and pragmatic manner.” Onward with your progressive self, Congressman Grijalva!

Photo Credit: Congresswoman Velazquez’s official photo