Helping Families Save Their Homes Act Of 2009 - Continued

Floor Speech

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Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, then let me speak off the cuff. What we have here is following on the President's promise for more transparency in Government--a promise to put everything dealing with bailouts on the Internet. There is more money involved with Federal Reserve and bailouts and stabilizing the economy than even in what we appropriate. So this is to bring transparency to what the Federal Reserve is doing, without affecting monetary policy whatsoever.

I ask us to agree to this amendment to bring transparency because the public's business ought to be public, including taxpayers' money spent by the Federal Reserve.

In March, the Finance Committee held a hearing on the progress and oversight of the Troubled Assets Relief Program, TARP. At that hearing the Government Accountability Office--GAO--testified that it is not just firms that take taxpayer money under TARP who can say ``no'' to GAO's requests for information, prior to my other amendment on this bill. The Federal Reserve can also refuse to cooperate.

The GAO's ability to audit the Federal Reserve is restricted by law. Perhaps those restrictions could be defended back when the Federal Reserve focused only on monetary policy. However, today it is routinely exercising extraordinary emergency powers to subsidize financial firms far above the levels Congress is willing to authorize through legislation. The Federal Reserve is taking on more and more risk in complicated and unprecedented ways. That risk is ultimately borne by the American taxpayer.

Congress authorized $700 billion in funds under TARP. However, the total projected assistance in various initiatives by the Federal Reserve could be up to $3.4 trillion by GAO estimates.

This modified version of the amendment does not give GAO authority to look at all of that additional taxpayer risk. It is much narrower than the one I originally filed, but it is a reasonable step in the right direction, and it does not threaten monetary policy independence.

Although I would have preferred to include all of the Fed's emergency actions under 13(3), in consultation with Senator Shelby I agreed to limit my amendment to actions aimed at specific companies. I will ask to submit for the Record a list of those actions currently covered by the new language, according to Federal Reserve staff. Future actions of the same sort would also be subject to GAO audit.

The goal of this amendment is extend GAO authority to cover the Federal Reserve's emergency actions that are most similar to the TARP--in other words actions aimed at specific companies like Bear Stearns and AIG.

I appreciate the support of Senators Shelby and Dorgan who are cosponsoring this amendment. I urge my colleagues to support amendment No. 1021. Let's not give GAO an important mission to do with a blindfold on. Let's take off the blindfold get a good hard look at what the Federal Reserve is doing.

I ask unanimous consent that the actions currently covered by the new language to which I referred be printed in the Record.

There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the Record

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