Bill Posey: “as a new Member in the 111th Congress, I did not have the opportunity to vote against the Troubled Asset Relief Program…”

“as a new Member in the 111th Congress, I did not have the opportunity to vote against the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, when it passed last year. At the time, I raised a number of concerns with the program, including the enormous risk to the taxpayer while our Nation's budget deficit skyrockets. While the Secretary of the Treasury warned of catastrophic consequences if TARP failed to pass last year, the case has yet to be made this time that the remaining $350 billion ought to be spent. Let us also remember that after the TARP bill passed, the Treasury shifted its approach away from purchasing troubled assets, as expected by Members of Congress who voted for the bill, and focused instead on giving money to banks. Treasury's use of taxpayer money remains clouded and lacks clear results deserving yet more of our money to spend. I welcome this bill's requirements to increase oversight of the TARP program through reporting requirements and the establishment of TARP objectives and benchmarks. The Congressional Oversight Panel highlighted the Treasury's astonishing inability to explain what banks are actually doing with the taxpayer money that was handed over to them. That is unbelievable and we ought to remedy this. That said, we are asked to vote on a bill that ostensibly improves the TARP program, but is being considered in a rushed process and without proper deliberation. We just received a copy of the 74 page bill on Friday afternoon.”