|  | | 2008 News and Press Releases | | |
HEADLINE NEWS:
Lawmakers, Investors Ask Fed for Lending Disclosure
Alison Fitzgerald
Bloomberg. November 13, 2008
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EXCERPT: Members of Congress, taxpayers and investors urged the Federal Reserve to provide details of almost $2 trillion in emergency loans and the collateral it has accepted to protect against losses. At least five Republican members of Congress yesterday called for the Fed to disclose which financial institutions are borrowing taxpayer money and what troubled assets the central bank is accepting as collateral. More than 300 more investors and taxpayers also pressed for more disclosure in e-mails and interviews with Bloomberg News. ``There cannot be accountability in government and in our financial institutions without transparency,'' Texas Senator John Cornyn said in a statement. ``Many of the financial problems we are facing today are the direct result of too much secrecy and too little accountability.'' House Republican leader John Boehner and Republican Representatives Jeb Hensarling of Texas, Scott Garrett of New Jersey and Walter Jones of North Carolina also are pressing Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke to elaborate on the Fed's emergency lending. Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said in September they would comply with congressional demands for transparency in the separate $700 billion bailout of the banking system that was approved by Congress last month. Bloomberg News has sought records of the Fed lending under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act and filed a federal lawsuit Nov. 7 seeking to force disclosure. `Full and Fair Disclosure' The Fed ``should comply with this Freedom of Information Act request, and in the interest of full and fair disclosure, they must begin providing lawmakers and taxpayers all information about how they are using federal tax dollars,'' Boehner said in a statement. |
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