U.S. Senator Michael Bennet attended confirmation negotiations on Tuesday for two of President-elect Joe Biden’s cabinet candidates, addressing child poverty and space-related intelligence security issues.

As a member of the Senate Finance Committee, Bennet, D-Colo., Interviewed Janet L. Yellen, Biden’s election as Secretary of the Treasury. If this were confirmed, Yellen would be the first woman to hold the position of finance minister.

“I have great respect for the task of this committee: to rebuild the American economy after its worst downturn in history,” said Yellen in her opening address. “If I am fortunate enough to be validated I would endeavor to be a good partner in this work.”

In a hearing that mainly focused on economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, Bennet asked Yellen about child poverty and a possible expansion of the child tax credit included in the Biden government’s COVID-19 relief plan.

“We have a crisis in our country because so many of our children are growing up in poverty,” Bennet said during the hearing.

Expanding the child tax credit has been on Bennet’s agenda for years. He and Senator Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, first introduced their American Family Act in 2017 and again in 2019 to improve child tax credits and reduce child poverty.

“Childhood poverty is way too high in America, and one of the best ways to reduce it is to provide a refundable child tax credit at levels that really affect it,” said Yellen.

Yellen agreed with Bennet that child poverty is an urgent problem and said she would investigate some of the possible solutions Bennet had suggested.

Bennet expressed his support for the candidate in a post-hearing tweet:

“@JanetYellen is an exceptionally well-qualified candidate whose leadership at @USTreasury will be of vital importance in bringing our country out of this once-in-a-lifetime crisis.” Bennet said in the tweet. “It should be confirmed immediately.”

Bennet also participated in Avril Haines’ confirmation hearing with the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Haines, Biden’s election as Director of National Intelligence, previously served as Deputy National Security Advisor to the White House during the Obama administration and was the first deputy director of the CIA.

During the Haines confirmatory meeting, the senators raised issues such as increasing competition with China, the role of social media in cyber threats, and the threat posed by national intelligence to national intelligence.

Bennet raised the problem that space was a future intelligence problem. Haines agreed that intelligence agencies should continue to focus on potential threats that a growing presence in space poses to national intelligence agencies.

Space has been a major issue for Bennet, especially in the last few days since President Donald Trump announced on Jan. 13 that the US Space Command headquarters would be relocated from Colorado to Alabama. This decision has been criticized by both Democrats and Republicans in Colorado. Shortly after the decision, Bennet tweeted that he did not think the choice was best for America’s “ability to face threats in space”.

At the Haines confirmation hearing, Bennet also raised US competition with China, a growing global competitor.

“I look forward to working with (Avril Haines) to restore US global leadership,” Bennet said in a tweet after the hearing.

Grace George is an intern at The Durango Herald and The Journal in Cortez and a student at American University in Washington, DC