WASHINGTON, DC - Today, U.S. Senator Daniel K. Akaka (D-HI) commented on his support of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act (HR 3997).  The Senate approved the bill tonight by a vote of 75-24, sending it to the House of Representatives for consideration.  In supporting the bill, Senator Akaka vowed to closely monitor the program through aggressive oversight by the Banking Committee and other relevant committees.

An mp3 audio file of Senator Akaka's interview is available at http://demradio.senate.gov/actualities/akaka/akaka081001.mp3

A transcript of the interview appears below:

I am planning to support the bill, and the reason for that is: we must take immediate action to calm the credit markets.  This is very serious.  As you know, after the vote on the House side, the stock market just fell, 1.2 trillion dollars.  This is affecting our economy, and it is serious.

This problem is real.  If we don't do anything about it, we are going to be in huge trouble.  Our country really needs our help at this time, and this is the reason I'm supporting the bill. 

We had a 5 hour meeting at the outset with Chairman Bernanke and Secretary Paulson.  And we discussed the whole problem and they convinced me that we must take immediate action to correct this problem that we have in the financial markets.

This bill is not perfect.  But it includes accountability and it includes oversight to prevent abuse, and this is the strong point for me and for many of us here. 

Also in the bill, we are placing the need for an IG [inspector general] to deal with this problem, so we are taking action to protect the taxpayers. 

Should this bill not pass, we will have problems in Hawaii and with families.  The problem that we have now is that we have poor credit markets and with that our families will not be able to get credit to pay for their needs, they will not be able to help their children with their education.  And our state government has had problems with the market and had to delay the sale of bonds.  So there are just the beginnings of a disaster in the marketplace and it will be a disaster for the financial needs of our people.  Our small businesses will have problems, they cannot have credit and this will affect the jobs that are there.  It will affect the wages of people.  And there's a possibility that our small businesses will go out of business and we can't let that happen. 

Senator Akaka's full statement in the Congressional Record is available at: http://akaka.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressReleases.Home&month=10&year=2008&release_id=2448

As a member of the Senate Banking Committee, Akaka was at the table during negotiations and worked with Chairman Chris Dodd (D-CT) to include provisions to provide oversight and accountably to prevent abuse, ensure proper management, and reduce conflicts of interest.  Some of the provisions include:

• Reporting requirements to Congress
• Mandated audits of the program by the Government Accountability Office (GAO)
• The creation of a special Treasury Inspector General to oversee the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP)
• The establishment of a Financial Stability Oversight Board to review and make recommendations regarding the exercise of authority by the Secretary of Treasury under this Act.
• Requiring the Treasury Secretary to publicly disclose the details of any transaction within two business days of exercising his authority.
• The Comptroller General of the United States will conduct ongoing oversight of the activities and performance of TARP, report every 60 days to Congress, and conduct an annual audit of TARP.

Another important aspect of this proposal is that the authorization for TARP is graduated:

• The Secretary will be able to immediately access up to $250 billion, however, for an additional $100 billion, a Presidential certification would be needed.
• The final $350 billion could only be accessed if the President transmits a written report to Congress requesting such authority. However, should Congress pass a joint resolution of disapproval within 15 days of this additional authority, the additional authority given to the Secretary may not be used.  

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