Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Daniel K. Akaka.(D-Hawaii), a member of the Banking Committee, delivered the following statement at a hearing today on Turmoil in US Credit Markets: Recent Actions Regarding Government Sponsored Entities, Investment Banks and Other Financial Institutions.
"Mr. Chairman, I understand the need to act to stabilize the markets. However, we must not give the Secretary of the Treasury a blank check with no accountability or oversight. We must deliberate and provide a solution that protects taxpayers as much as possible and limits the potential for this new authority to be abused. $700 billion is a huge sum of money.
"I know the President has said that the whole world is watching Congress now. I remind all of you that the members of this Committee, and the rest of the taxpayers, will be closely watching the development of the troubled assets program. The purchase and sale of assets has great potential to be abused and lead to corruption. Members of Congress, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a Treasury Inspector General, and the public must review the activities of Treasury authorized by this proposed Act. We must make sure that this situation, which has been caused partially by greed, will not be exploited to enrich individuals or corporations.
"In addition to stabilizing the markets, we must do more to help working families. We need to help those that have already suffered the consequences of the current economic downturn. We must do more to try and keep people in their homes. Assistance should be provided to states so that they can meet the increased social service and health care needs of their communities. Consumer protections must be improved to better protect families from being exploited by predatory lenders.
"Mr. Chairman, we are here today due to a massive market failure. In addition to this emergency legislation, we need a complete reexamination of our financial services oversight system in order to strengthen regulation and prevent the need for future bailouts. While most of those issues will be considered in the next session of Congress, I look forward to working with all of you to bring together a fair proposal to stabilize the markets, improve the lives of working families, and overhaul the financial services regulatory system."
An mp3 audio file of Senator Akaka's statement is available here: http://demradio.senate.gov/actualities/akaka/akaka080923_1.mp3
The hearing continues this morning with Senators questioning Henry M. Paulson, Secretary of the Treasury; Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve System; Christopher Cox, Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission; and James B. Lockhart, Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
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