Disapproval of Obligations Under the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008--Continued

Floor Speech

DISAPPROVAL OF OBLIGATIONS UNDER THE EMERGENCY ECONOMIC STABILIZATION ACT OF 2008--Continued -- (Senate - January 15, 2009)

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Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, next week, we will inaugurate a new Commander in Chief. It is a time of hope and opportunity for people across this country.

While many Americans are hopeful today, too many of them are hurting, and they cannot wait another day for the change they have been promised. People in my home State of Washington are feeling the pain.

When I held an economic roundtable in Everett, WA, earlier in December, the room was filled to overflowing with people who came out in the middle of the day to express their concerns and to listen to business owners and families and community members talk about the struggles they are facing.

Unemployment in my State, like States across the country, is at record highs. Businesses, big and small, are struggling to meet their payroll. And too many families are still wondering how they are going to stay in their homes or get a loan to pay for school for their kids.

We stood here on this floor almost 3 months ago debating whether to approve the President's request for economic rescue funds. At that time, communities across my State were hurting. Families were struggling to pay for their groceries, to afford health care, and wondering how they were going to pay for college.

My constituents were angry they were being asked to fork over their tax dollars to cover the consequences of years of reckless abandon on Wall Street and the failure of this administration to regulate or rein in their folly.

Here we are today, 3 months later, and my communities and my families are still hurting. Many people are still struggling with health care and education and foreclosures. Just this week, the people of my State heard Boeing announce plans to lay off thousands of workers in the State of Washington. The Seattle PI--a newspaper that thousands have welcomed into their homes every day--was put up for sale. And today we learn that foreclosures in our most populated county have spiked by 88 percent over last year.

My constituents live 2,500 miles away from here, and they are listening to our debate here today. They are asking why on Earth Congress would approve billions of dollars more after the way the last chunk was handled.

The rescue funds we approved in October prevented economic collapse, but regular people are still struggling. They say they have not felt the impact of these funds on their job security, on their incomes, or their ability to stay in their homes.

I have to say, I understand their frustration, and I share their concerns. I am angry too. I am angry about the lack of transparency into how banks are using these dollars. I, in fact, picked up the phone and called Secretary Paulson to express my outrage when I read stories of those lavish parties held by companies that received our precious rescue dollars.

There has not been enough accountability or transparency to date. That must change. There has not been enough benefit to regular families and small business owners and homeowners. That must change. When I voted in favor of these funds in October, I said it was not a cure-all but an attempt to keep an already very bad situation from getting much worse.

It takes both investment and honesty to get our economy back on track. Unfortunately, we have not had much of either. The disbursement of these funds was the current administration's entire plan to improve the economy. But their philosophy was like using a Band-Aid when the economy needed surgery.

The administration will change next week, but the challenges facing our Nation will not. I spoke with President-elect Obama earlier this week, and I expressed my concerns about how the economic rescue funds had been used up to this point. He agreed.

Today, I met with Timothy Geithner, the President-elect's nominee to head the Treasury Department. He gave me his assurances that transparency and accountability will be improved and that there will be more done to help responsible homeowners avoid foreclosure.

With those assurances, I believe the American people are finally going to get the investment and the honesty they deserve. President-elect Obama is inheriting an economic crisis. That is a very tough place to start. But he told me, in order to move ahead and focus on America's families and businesses, we have to ensure the stability of our financial markets. The President-elect has assured me that while he believes these funds are important, they are only one part of his plan to get America back on track.

So I said yes to those funds today because I believe we can move forward, and I want our new President to have the ability to focus on our economic recovery. The President-elect and Members of Congress are committed to ensuring a full and accurate accounting of how the Treasury Department has allocated the funds spent to date and going forward, and we will ensure that assistance does not just flow to large financial institutions, but will be available to our community banks and small businesses as well. We will take a hard look at the factors that brought us to this point and address them.

Our new President has promised to work with Congress to pass and implement new regulatory measures to better protect consumers and businesses and investors and to ensure that our taxpayers are never again put in this terrible position. We will work with this new administration to quickly implement aggressive policies to reduce preventable foreclosures for responsible homeowners.

This crisis started in the housing market, and we will not dig ourselves out without overhauling the system. I will not be done with this process until Americans who have lost their jobs and their homes are back on their feet.

People of my State know what it will take to get America working again, and so do I. We have to value our workforce and find a way to make health care affordable and accessible. We have to invest in research and development and reward American innovation. We have to implement a smart forward-looking energy policy that ends our addiction to foreign oil once and for all. We have to invest in our roads and our bridges and our highways and the projects that will pave the way for further economic growth. We have to recognize that education is a priority. We cannot fill those great jobs of the future without an educated and skilled workforce.

It is time to put America's families first. It is time to restore their faith that government works for, not against, them. Americans who are hurting today will not see a change overnight. There is a long, hard path ahead of us, but the American dream of owning a home or running a business or going to college is still alive in communities across this country. To pull back now and allow our credit markets to freeze would tie the hands of an incoming administration with plans to invest in America again and potentially cause lasting economic harm.

This is just one step in the process. We will provide these rescue funds to stabilize our financial markets, but we will also implement strict regulatory reforms and pass an economic recovery package that invests in our communities and puts Americans back to work.

I grew up in a country that was there for my family in very hard times. When my father got sick and could no longer work while raising seven kids, there were Pell grants and student loans and food stamps when my family needed them. I will always remember that. That is why I will always work to make sure our country is there now for today's American families.

I supported this rescue package today because we have to keep our country moving forward, and our incoming President deserves the support of Congress to make that happen.

Thank you, Madam President. I yield the floor.

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