House Republican Conference Secretary John Carter (TX-31), a vocal opponent of a taxpayer bailout of the auto industry, says blind justice demands House leadership now call every firm that has received funds from the $700 billion federal bailout to appear in congressional hearings to face the same grilling endured by the auto industry over their request for $34 billion.

“We put Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors through the ringer - rightfully - over their request for $34 billion in federal emergency loans,” says the former Texas Judge. “Yet there are an unknown number of Wall Street banks and insurers that have already received over ten times that amount and haven’t answered a single question as to how they’ve spent it.  All we know is AIG spent $400,000 on a company party and $80,000 to fly their executives to Scotland to play golf.  The taxpayers demand we ask the same questions of this crowd as we asked our car makers, determine right now if there has been wrongdoing, and whether it has been civil or criminal in nature.”

Carter voted against the original $700 billion bailout.  He joined House Republican Leader John Boehner and the entire Republican Conference Leadership in a letter today to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (R-CA) and Ways and Means Chairman Barney Frank (D-MA) calling for congressional hearings.

As you know, pursuant to its authority under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), the Treasury Department has distributed – or made commitments to distribute – some $335 billion to a wide range of U.S. financial institutions, including $40 billion to prevent the failure of American Insurance Group (AIG) and a total of $50 billion in capital and loss protection to Citigroup.  To date, not a single Chief Executive Officer from any TARP participant has been called to testify before the Committee on Financial Services regarding their need for – or use of –  the hundreds of billions of taxpayers’ dollars they have received.

By contrast, the Chief Executive Officers of the Ford Motor Company, General Motors, and Chrysler have each testified twice before the Committee – as well as twice before the Senate Banking Committee – in connection with congressional consideration of possible bridge loans or lines of credit to those companies. 

To avoid a double standard and ensure accountability and taxpayer protection in the implementation of the TARP, we request that you immediately invite the appearance of CEOs from institutions that have received TARP funds before the Financial Services Committee to explain:

1.  How their institution’s actions may have contributed to the credit crisis, and whether their institution's decisions not to use TARP funds to extend consumer, commercial or other credit may have prolonged the credit crisis unnecessarily;

2.  What remedial steps, if any, their institution has taken before, during, and after the credit crisis to address risk management failures and to protect consumers and taxpayers;

3.  How their institution has utilized and will utilize TARP funds received to date, including the extent to which the funds have been or will be used for lending purposes; and

4.  How and when their institution expects to be able to repay taxpayers.

We look forward to your response and to working with you on behalf of the American people.