Congressman Dave Reichert

Washington, D.C., Mar 19, 2009 -

Thank you, Chairman Lewis.

I’d first like to recognize the absence of our Ranking Member on Oversight, Dr. Boustany, whose father passed away earlier this week.  The thoughts and prayers of all of our committee members are with him and his family.

The Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, was intended to open up credit for families and businesses, but it was also supposed to restore confidence in the market. 

Yet every week brings new questions and new concerns about how these tax dollars are spent, from the millions for AIG bonuses and spa retreats to the billions that simply went missing.

Worse, TARP continues to change and multiply before our eyes.  From buying toxic assets to buying stakes in banks, there is no clear plan and no consistent application of the program.  Those involved have no idea if, how, or when TARP will change... or change again.

One particularly troubling change is the apparent transfer of authority from Treasury to the Federal Reserve, without any new congressional oversight.

The complete lack of transparency in TARP has produced a credibility crisis that undermines the very confidence it was meant to restore.  Without transparency, investors have little reason to participate in a program that changes faster than the Dow.  Without transparency, we are left with outrageous abuses like bailout bonuses for companies surviving on the backs of taxpayers alone.

To restore confidence, two things must be made clear: (1) exactly how TARP money is being spent; and (2) what specific metrics Treasury will use to measure the effectiveness of the program.

Taxpayers have every right to be angry that the results of the $700 billion bailout are as blank as the check that authorized it.

We have an obligation to them to find answers, to collect facts and data, and to hold accountable the policies and people that led to abuses like those at AIG.

We can all agree that TARP money has been misspent.  Our options are to stay mad at wrong-doers, or to identify how the wrongdoing occurred and find solutions so it never happens again.

We must also remember that the lack of transparency and accountability in TARP happened in the first place because Congress acted on raw emotion before looking at all of the facts.  That’s one of many reasons why I opposed it.  We must be careful not to let our collective outrage prevail over good judgment and common sense.

After all, we all know the mistakes that can happen when government panics and rushes to act, rather than working to get that action right.  This is not the time to again shoot first and ask questions later.

I hope that we can all work together, Democrats and Republicans, to get to the bottom of this, to get real answers, and to stop the abuses.  The American taxpayers deserve it.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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