Chris Dodd

I don't know Mr. Stevens personally. I have never met the man. But he comes highly recommended, I must say, by people who are knowledgeable.

I would like the consultation and advice of my colleagues, as well, on a matter like this rather than just kind of bringing up the matter without any.

The resolution mechanism is clearly something we have got to deal with.

I think that this will be an issue debated within Congress.

Now that we have the flexibility, looking at a range of ideas that would give us additional options.

But the servicers need to do this as well.

What is extremely important in dealing with the mortgage crisis is to reach out to as many people as possible.

It is going to take time to really ramp up and reach full scale.

I fully share your concerns about this crisis of foreclosures and defaults in mortgages across the country.

There's always a resistance I think, to some degree, on overburdening these efforts with minute conditionality, because it would be counterproductive.

I have been under the impression we were going to try and craft something legislatively to deal with the resolution mechanism generally.

The major thrust here was to try and get resources--75 members of this body, many of whom knew the political consequences.

This is an industry that has been devastated in terms of employment.

I have just got to say, Mr. Secretary--and then I am going to move right on to Senator Corker--when you see what access we have to Chinese markets with U.S. products, it is terribly frustrating, to put it mildly.

This is a subject matter that is going to consume a lot of this Committee's time and attention.

It seems to me we ought to be pursuing this more aggressively than paying 100 percent on the dollar to this.

If this is going to take time for the normal private commercial lending operations to open up their doors, something better needs to be done by the SBA, because it is just not seen as an ally and a friend on their side in this matter.

But the fact is that this program--I know some efforts have been made to increase to 90 percent the guarantees and do other things under the 7(a) program. But it basically is not seen as a great friend in a moment like this.

I do not want to dwell on the SBA, but I got to tell you, you mention the word 'SBA'--and all of us have done this to audiences back home--and you get a roll of the eyes.

We are not quite there yet.

I hope that TARP can be wound down in the right way at the appropriate time in manner more deliberative and well thought out than the process by which it was created and implemented.

I cannot remember a time when the need for strong, independent leadership at the FDA was more critical.

I have authored the legislation on pediatric medical devices as well for much of the same reason.

I think probably this job--I know the Secretary of Health and Human Services is obviously a critical job as is the Secretary of Education.

Make no mistake about it--this position is as important as any that this committee we will consider.