WASHINGTON, DC- At today’s Joint Economic Committee hearing, TARP Accountability and Oversight: Achieving Transparency, U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) released the following statement:
“Since early October when President Bush signed the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) into law, the federal government has taken a number of steps to address the economic and financial crisis. All of these plans require oversight, transparency and accountability.
“A lot of Americans and a lot of my constituents don’t have confidence with how the TARP was initially handled, what the Treasury did in the prior Administration and where we are headed now. We must provide the American people with a clearer sense of where we are headed. Without providing that, we risk losing the support of the American people.
“President Obama has taken solid steps to speak directly to the American people and improve oversight. We must, however, continue to be vigilant and continue to make improvements.
“Nowhere is the need for oversight, transparency and accountability more important than within the context of the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Eleven different entities are required to prepare and submit a total of 18 different types of reports to six different entities.
“If we don’t do a better job of explaining the government’s actions to the American people, we risk eroding their confidence. We must look for ways to streamline oversight, have clear and identifiable transparency and provide people with a place where they can go to learn about how their government spends their money.
“Hearings like this one today help, but we have a long way to go in exploring how the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act was implemented.”
###
