Bill Clinton Returns to U.S. Treasury Department

Date: WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Former President Bill Clinton will return to the U.S. Treasury Department for the first time in nearly 25 years on Thursday to mark the 30th anniversary of a community lending fund launched during his presidency, but which could be put at risk by President-elect Donald Trump's new government efficiency body.

Why It's Important

The Treasury Department stated that Clinton will join Yellen in a program to underscore the importance of the Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund in supporting small businesses and families in minority and underserved communities. This fund was established in 1994. Yellen became chair of Clinton's Council of Economic Advisers in 1997.

Trump has appointed billionaire Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, along with former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, to lead a non-government panel tasked with reducing trillions of dollars in federal spending.

In his initial budget plan for fiscal 2018, Trump proposed eliminating the CDFI Fund's grant money to save $210 million, arguing that the program was unnecessary since community lenders by then had access to capital.

A spokesperson for Trump's transition team could not be immediately reached for comment on whether the program would again face cuts. By the end of Trump's term in December 2020, he signed into law around $12 billion in investments for CDFI lenders to help support small businesses during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

By the Numbers

Since its inception, the CDFI Fund has granted lenders in minority and underserved communities approximately $8 billion, provided $3 billion in bond guarantees, and issued $81 billion in tax credits, benefiting about 1,400 community lenders.

Yellen announced in June that the CDFI Fund would allocate an additional $100 million over the next three years to support the development of affordable housing.

Key Quote

"As we look back over the last 30 years, it is remarkable how significant a role the CDFI Fund has played in fueling economic development in countless communities across the United States, and we look forward to continuing this important work in the years ahead," Yellen said regarding the program's anniversary in September.

> (This story has been corrected to show that Yellen became the Council of Economic Advisers chair in 1997, in paragraph 2.)