Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008

Floor Speech

EMERGENCY ECONOMIC STABILIZATION ACT OF 2008 -- (House of Representatives - September 29, 2008)

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Mr. BISHOP of Georgia. Madam Speaker, Never in my 16 years in Congress have I so grudgingly voted ``yes'' on a piece of legislation. And hopefully, with this action, never again will I have to do so.

The so-called financial titans of this country and those who for years have favored lax regulatory oversight put us up against a wall. For some time now, Wall Street has been turning a tidy profit by playing with other people's money, manipulating balance sheets, and using complex financial instruments that few people, if anyone, understood. And through it all, the Bush administration has turned a blind eye and insisted that our ``fundamentals were strong.''

It turns out they were fundamentally wrong. And now we are all going to pay because of it.

I certainly do not disagree with the many constituents who have called my office and exclaimed, ``$700 billion!'' It is, without a doubt, an enormous sum. But it is less expensive than a deep economic recession.

During the Great Depression, the Federal Government waited too long to aid the battered banks. Today, the whims of a Wall Street Gone Wild have so afflicted our credit markets that I am convinced if we don't do something soon--and more importantly, if that action is not taken responsibly, and with strict oversight--we will regret it for a long, long time to come.

Everyone in this country, from individuals, to small businesses, to farmers, and multinational corporations, relies on credit. The local supermarket needs a reliable credit line to stock its shelves, farmers need to borrow money to plant their crops, students and parents have to borrow for college, and, right now at this very moment thousands of Second District residents facing foreclosure desperately need a chance to keep their homes by drawing upon a re-financed line of credit.

We must learn the lessons from history and act quickly to prevent an economic calamity. And, we are staring down the barrel of a gun that, if fired, would wound our economy so badly that even those with impeccable credit histories will not be able to secure a loan.

Members from both parties have come together to craft this consensus package. Each side made its views known. Neither party got everything it wanted. But I think we have a good plan in place to prevent a deepening of the current crisis and put us back on our feet.

And, we have secured the taxpayer protections absent from the administration's initial proposal: Taxpayers will have an ownership stake in these investments with profit-making opportunities, will be given a priority position to recover assets in the event a company fails, and will be included in a plan to recover any potential remaining costs from Wall Street firms after five years.

Taxpayers will also benefit from six different oversight entities, including an oversight board, an inspector general to monitor the Treasury Secretary's decisions, a review and audit program within the Government Accountability Office, public disclosure of any bailout-related transaction by the Treasury Secretary, and monthly reports to Congress on every $50 billion spent by Treasury. The Treasury Secretary's actions will also be subject to judicial review.

For the poor, for those who have been financially prudent, for the unemployed, for those who saw their 401(k)s dwindle--this is not the end. In the coming months, it is my hope that Congress pours as much effort into investigating the financiers whose actions precipitated this crisis and who walked away with millions for themselves, as they have put into crafting this bill. Meantime, I encourage my colleagues to join me in supporting this first step toward regaining our financial footing and setting in place a new system, one that lacks the greed and the excess that brought us to this point in the first place.

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