Crenshaw Votes for Accountability in TARP

By Editor on December 4, 2009

Crenshaw Votes for Accountability in TARP

WASHINGTON, DC ‚Äì Congressman Ander Crenshaw supported increased oversight and transparency in the spending of the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) by voting for the TARP Accountability and Disclosure Act (HR 1242). The bill passed the House unanimously on December 2 and now moves to the Senate for consideration.

‚ÄúThe Troubled Asset Relief Program was created to restore confidence in the economy and stabilize our financial markets,‚Äù said Crenshaw. ‚ÄúOur economy was in crisis and the cost of doing nothing was unacceptable. With TARP in place, taxpayers should know exactly how their money is being spent, and this bill helps accomplish that goal. Through a centralized public database, TARP funds can be easily viewed and tracked, providing taxpayers with the transparency they deserve.‚Äù

Specifically, H.R. 1242 amends the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (EESA) to direct the Secretary of the Treasury to provide ongoing, continuous, and near real-time updates on the status of funds through a standardized electronic database. This database would combine all of the necessary information from existing public and private sources to track the status of the funds.

Additionally, the legislation requires the Secretary to: compare the database with any other data for any inconsistent activities; and collect from all federal agencies any regulatory filings, internal models, financial models, and analytics associated with the financial assistance on at least a daily basis in order to help the Secretary to determine the effectiveness of TARP.

If TARP goals are not being met, the bill directs the Secretary to work with the federal agencies to better meet program goals and requires the Secretary to adjust the future uses of TARP assistance if goals are not met after following recommendations.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment below or subscribe to the feed to have future articles delivered to your e-mail and get the latest Amelia Island News, business, tourist activities and videos every morning!

You can also choose to follow SearchAmelia on Twitter to get your daily updates!

Michael Tupper

Rep. Crenshaw should have held the Treasury accountable by not voting to establish the Troubled Asset Relief Program ("TARP") to begin with. The idea that there is an entity that is "too big to fail" is a fallacy. There are bankruptcy and reorganization laws for this purpose. Writing a $700 billion dollar check drawn on our collective accounts was tantamount to a taxpayer funded government takeover of failing banks and automakers. At this time there are 34 banks that are failing to pay their TARP dividends, not to mention that it is unlikely that any recovery will be made from TARP funded automakers.

Ander Crenshaw should be held accountable by the voters in his district.
joachim stiller

Absolutely agree with you, and yet the problem lies in a pressured herd society that the USA has become. When "Weapons of Mass Destruction" was the all convincing keyword, two wars were justified by every politician from both sides of the fence (except for the lonely soul out in the desert plains). When "too big too fail" was invented as slogan for our times, it was not really meant for big business. By creating the acceptance among politicians that "too big to fail" could not be tolerated and deserved TARP and bail out, the government cleared its own justification to being proclaimed "too big to fail". America has effectively killed small government and rendered both the constitution and the ideology of capitalism obsolete. Anders Crenshaw and all his cronies are just ambulance chasers, trying to get mileage for another shot at big government.