Washington, D.C. – Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), Vice Chair of the House Republican Conference and author of H.R. 2313, which would rescind a $100 billion line of credit to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which is being used to bail out European countries, released the following statement today after Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner testified before the House Financial Services Committee on several issues, including the IMF and the “state of the international financial system”:

“I appreciate the Administration’s stated concern about what is going on in Europe.  However, Secretary Geithner was unconvincing in his remarks about America’s role in the European bailouts, including the most recent bailout of Greece announced last week.  With the Administration’s support, the IMF – of which the U.S. is the largest contributor – has already committed tens of billions of dollars to Greece, a country which is technically in default.  As Representative Neugebauer noted today, U.S. money at the IMF is ‘safe’ in the same way that U.S. money at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac was ‘safe’ before the 2008 financial crisis.  By continuing to dismiss the riskiness of these loans - including his own Department’s estimate of a $5 billion loss at the IMF - Secretary Geithner failed to reassure Congress, and more importantly, the American people, that our tax money is safe.”

In addition, Secretary Geithner was asked today if he would seek Congressional approval before rolling in the $100 billion line of credit (known as the “New Arrangements to Borrow”) to fulfill his commitment to double America’s quota at the IMF.  The Secretary replied, “Yes, we will.”

On March 6, Rep. McMorris Rodgers sent a letter to Secretary Geithner insisting that he would need to come back to Congress before taking this action.

H.R. 2313 has 93 cosponsors.

A compilation of the Congresswoman’s work on this issue can be found here.