Rep. Foster Votes To Increase Oversight And Ensure Transparency In Spending Of TARP Funds

Press Release

Rep. Foster Votes To Increase Oversight And Ensure Transparency In Spending Of TARP Funds

Today, in an effort to increase oversight and ensure transparency, Rep. Bill Foster (IL-14) voted to pass H.R. 1242, the TARP Accountability and Disclosure Act. The vote passed the House by an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote of 421-0.

"I voted for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) to ensure that businesses would continue to have access to their operating lines of credit, so that they would be able to remain in business and avoid layoffs," said Foster. "Significant oversight and controls were attached to this program. As financial institutions utilize these funds, it is imperative that Congress and the American public have a transparent mechanism to hold these institutions accountable."

H.R. 1242 requires the creation of a centralized, web-accessible public database system in a consistent, standardized format within the Department of Treasury, so that TARP funds will be easily visible and traceable. Treasury will be required to combine the reported, government data with data that is collected by independent sources, including corporate press releases, news articles, indexes, corporate profiles and other non-government financial information. Currently, this data is compiled by various agencies, but it is not available in a centralized location for public consumption.

"The misuse of funds can be discovered and deterred when we are able to track and account the activity of our tax dollars, and this legislation gives us the tools necessary to increase the oversight and transparency of TARP," said Foster.

The compilation of government and third party data will create as full and complete a profile as possible of the institution's financial application of TARP funds. It also provides the crucial ability to monitor inconsistencies in near real time that could indicate the misuse of such funds at both the corporate and individual officer level.

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