Thank you very much, Senator Bunning.

the Treasury did not have someone here this morning.

We need AIG to be a vital part of our credit markets.

The Fed is under the authority legally, as I understand it, to only provide resources to creditworthy companies.

I mentioned in my opening statement that the Federal Reserve made a decision to pay off at par value sophisticated investors who owned credit derivative swaps underwritten by AIG.

that we find ourselves in this situation at all is, in my mind, and the minds of many of my constituents, quite frankly, sickening.

it effectively has the world financial system by the throat.

The Fed required AIG to give 80 percent ownership to the government as part of receiving a loan from the Fed in September.

I think all of us wish we were here today instead talking about how to help those struggling to get by.

Public confidence in what we are doing is at stake.

During the fourth quarter of 2008, who represented the government's 80 percent ownership of AIG?

we are here in the wake of the fourth plan to rescue AIG, once again committing tens of billions of dollars.

Thank you, Senator. Those are good questions and ones we have spent a lot of time on over the last 2 years.

There has been an assumption that the Community Reinvestment Act gave mortgages to a lot of poor people who couldn't afford them.

The idea that there is this level playing field between the borrower and the lender... is questionable.

lending decisions should not be made by political correctness or by government fiat or by a law or by regulation.

I just worry about this idea that we are going to exclude the possibility of poorer people becoming home owners.

the purpose of CRA has worked quite well.

It would appear there would be obvious benefits to the principal reduction in that it would allow people to start to accumulate equity back in their homes, the wealth creation idea.

The Committee will come to order, and let me welcome our witness and congratulate you again, Secretary Donovan, for your confirmation and for your willingness to do this.

We are fortunate to have on our Committee, of course, Mel Martinez who knows exactly what it is like to sit in that chair.

We need to find a way to incorporate that into something we do here pretty quickly.

Are we adequately covering the second--are we going to be able to deal with the second lien holders?

Could you share with us briefly why you decided to opt for the affordable payment plan rather than the principal reduction plan?

I think it is critically important that the very people we are trying to help here understand what this is and how it works and what they need to do and can do.