What I want to know, what I really want to establish here is this the oversight panel, and the thing that I really care about is whether the law is being followed.

Okay. And that is what we want, because these are companies that we need to succeed not only because they are employing the middle class people that work there, but also because we need to get back our bailout money.

Like most Americans, I was troubled to learn how the structure of compensation packages on Wall Street helped to create incentives for taking the unnecessary and excessive risks that led to the financial crisis in the first place.

I believe we are totally cooperative with all the interviews they have requested and all of their written questions.

I appreciate very much the opportunity to address that point.

Congress also required that Treasury prohibit golden parachutes, or exorbitant departure payments, to senior executives.

One thing that we have talked about is the elimination of bonuses as executive compensation, the elimination of golden parachutes as executive compensation.

We held our noses because it cost so much money, so much federal taxpayer money indebted us so deeply to do that, but it turned out to be a good gamble because we have recovered, as Ms. Geoghegan has said, 93 percent of this money.

So, in essence, their reward is the success of the company that they are running.

Well, I think it is fairly clear that Treasury has upheld the law that Congress passed on limiting executive compensation of companies receiving assistance from TARP.

Sequestration is going to and it's designed to impose across-the-board spending cuts to an economy that is still slowly recovering.

If we in Congress are serious about making sure our Federal Government is effectively addressing unemployment, we have to avoid these broad cuts.