On the recordJune 17, 2010
I reclaim my time to say, the gentleman from Texas began with a great, surprising revelation. A bureaucrat, the Inspector General of TARP, wants to expand his authority. I'm surprised that there were not gasps of wonderment in the House. We have an Inspector General here. They can do it, and the SIGTARP Inspector General, because that program is about to go out of existence, decided to expand his authority. However, it goes beyond in one sense. It says that the Secretary must certify that he is acting solely on the basis of economic fundamentals and not because of any political consideration. So here's the offer I make, with the support of the majority leader. Within a few days, we will bring a suspension to the floor that will require the Secretary to so certify under oath--we'll go you one better in this effort--and the Secretary will be required to certify under oath to the Inspector General of the Treasury, and if Members want, we can have them certify under oath to the Government Accountability Office, and if there are other people you want them to certify to, we'll be glad to do that. But the sole purpose of invoking the Inspector General of TARP here, with his collaboration, so he will continue to have a job, is to discredit the program. If you want this program to go forward, you vote against this.
