Foster Votes to Help Homeowners, Increase Accountability for Financial Rescue Plan
Press Release
Foster Votes to Help Homeowners, Increase Accountability for Financial Rescue Plan
Today, Representative Bill Foster (IL-14) voted to pass legislation to strengthen accountability of the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) and require the Treasury Department to move forward on reducing the amount of foreclosures.
Back in October, Congress enacted an emergency financial rescue package to stabilize the financial market, and although Congress included accountability measures in this package, the Bush Administration has failed to adhere to and enforce these measures. Last week, the Senate voted to allow the second half of the money to be released - making essential the need for accountability measures.
"The rescue package that I voted for included stipulations that protected the taxpayer and created suitable accountability measures," said Foster. "Unfortunately, the Bush Administration has failed to follow Congressional intent on the spending of this money, has not been able to fully explain how the money was spent, and has not enforced any lending obligations on the financial institutions. This is simply unacceptable."
Foster voted to pass H.R. 384, TARP Reform and Accountability Act, a strong accountability measure to overhaul TARP. The bill requires banks to tell Congress how money received is being used, and also places tough restrictions on executive compensation. In addition, the bill requires the Treasury, TARP participants and the institutions' regulators to agree on how the funds are to be used and set benchmarks to achieve the goal of making credit more available to consumers.
The bill also requires the Treasury Department to take significant steps on financial mitigation, calling for spending a minimum of $40 billion, and up to $100 billion, of TARP funds to help homeowners.
"To strengthen our economy, we must not forget that we must stabilize both our financial markets and our housing industry," said Foster. "By taking steps to mitigate the foreclosure crisis, we can keep more Americans in their own homes, providing assistance to those who need it most."
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