Howard Metzenbaum: “this amendment will protect over $1.6 billion in RTC and FDIC claims in the courts. Two weeks ago, the Acting Chairman…”

“this amendment will protect over $1.6 billion in RTC and FDIC claims in the courts. Two weeks ago, the Acting Chairman of the FDIC, Mr. Andrew Hove, Jr., sent a letter to Senator Riegle, with a copy to myself, asking for this legislation. Two days later, the RTC's Acting Chief Executive Officer, Mr. John Ryan, also sent a letter asking for legislation. The FDIC letter said that $500 million in existing FDIC lawsuits was threatened unless we pass legislation. The RTC letter said that over $1.1 billion in RTC claims against officers and directors who are culpable in the failure of savings and loans is at risk without this legislation. The RTC letter also said that without legislation, the statute of limitations legislation that we recently passed is in jeopardy. I think this is important to many of my colleagues. The RTC said that our two recent extensions of the Federal statute of limitations are imperiled. These extensions were in December's RTC Completion Act and in February legislation--authored by Senator D'Amato and myself--in response to the Whitewater-Madison Savings and Loan floor debate. I know that Senator D'Amato feels strongly about this problem, because on April 14, he introduced a bill, S. 2021, containing the language of this amendment. I am an original cosponsor with Senator D'Amato, along with Senators John Kerry and Donald Riegle. When he introduced the bill, Senator D'Amato said that he was concerned about its retroactivity.”