Barney Frank: “First, on the auto issue, let me say I agree that it would have been a mistake to have taken the original TARP vote and…”

“First, on the auto issue, let me say I agree that it would have been a mistake to have taken the original TARP vote and then said, Okay, use that to go to the aid of the three American automobile manufacturers. And this is why Speaker Pelosi correctly insisted that we vote on it. Now it turned out because the Senate didn't act, that it didn't become law. But what this House voted on had a major influence on what the Bush administration did. I was not prepared to support the use of TARP funds if it did not receive the vote of this House for the autos. So with regard to autos, the House has already, by a fairly large vote, decided to do that. That is the model I have in mind for this bill. There's probably some ambiguity as to whether or not the gentleman's amendment would require statutory change. I am in favor of resolving the ambiguity. I'd rather be redundant than ambiguous, as people might know from listening to my speeches. So I will work with him to get that bill passed. But on the basic point, here we are. It is true the Senate at this point says they are not going to pass it. It is true we are doing things here that we wish the Bush administration had done, but didn't do them.”