Rep. Edolphus Towns, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman, is calling on the Treasury Department to implement accountability and transparency recommendations. In a letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner Thursday, Towns, D-N.Y., asked him to listen to the recommendations of Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Barofsky testified before the committee Wednesday, recommending that all TARP agreements include requirements that receipients of federal dollars must provide Barofsky and other oversight authorities information on how the money has been spent. He also urged creation of internal controls and clarifying compliance with TARP rules. He…
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We’ve written before about the lack of oversight in the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Things have improved a bit — the special inspector general, Neil Barofsky, seems extremely capable, and President Obama has promised more transparency — but we still don’t know much about how companies are spending money received through TARP. But there’s news of another encouraging step, a bill introduced by Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Max Baucus, D-Mont.: The bill introduced today – the Troubled Asset Relief Program Enhancement Act – would require any private entity that receives federal funds through the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP)…
The Senate just voted to confirm Timothy Geithner as Treasury secretary. Senators on both sides of the aisle praised his financial expertise, but some Republicans withheld their support over a problem with some back taxes. The final vote was surprisingly close, 60-34; several Democrats were among the “nay” votes, including Sens. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., and Tom Harkin, D-Iowa.
The Senate Finance Committee approved the nomination of Timothy Geithner to be Treasury secretary a few minutes ago by an 18-5 vote, according to our congressional reporter Rebecca Neal. The committee’s approval was expected despite concerns by many senators that Geithner failed to pay more than $30,000 in self-employment taxes earlier this decade when he worked at the International Monetary Fund. Geithner apologized for the error, repaid his owed amount, and said it was an unintentional mistake. Some senators including Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said it sends a bad signal to appoint a Treasury secretary — which oversees the IRS…
… but he doesn’t blame the tax preparation software for his tax problems. Just one of many exciting facts from the Treasury secretary-designate’s confirmation hearing this morning. Geithner, by the way, is likely to be confirmed despite the tax issue. Senate Finance committee chairman Sen. Max Baucus, D-Montana, plans to hold a vote tomorrow, despite objections from several Republican committee members. The nomination would then go before the full Senate.
We’ve been wondering why the Senate Finance committee took so long to schedule a confirmation hearing for Treasury secretary-designate Timothy Geithner. It may have to do with a tax problem: Timothy F. Geithner, President-elect Barack Obama’s choice for Treasury secretary, failed to pay more than $34,000 in federal taxes over several years early this decade, and also faces questions about the employment papers of a former household employee, suddenly complicating what had seemed to be an easy confirmation process in the Senate. Hard to know what to make of this. Geithner repaid the back taxes, with interest, after the Obama…
12:27 PM: Obama pledged more “transparency and accountability” for the government’s rescue efforts under his administration. 12:18 PM: Obama called on the next Congress to put together an economic stimulus plan in January; he also promised to unveil proposals from his economic team in the next few weeks. Obama also acknowledged that any government stimulus plan could require cuts to other government programs: We’ll have to scour our federal budget, line by line, and make meaningful cuts and sacrifices. 12:10 PM: Not that it was much of a secret, but now it’s official. The president-elect just finished his speech at…
NBC News today reported that Timothy Geithner, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, will likely be Barack Obama’s Treasury Secretary. Along with current Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, Geithner has been a central figure in formulating the government’s response to the recent economic turmoil. The choice of Geithner may have boosted confidence on Wall Street. In the last hour of trading, stocks shot up and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up nearly 500 points at its close. The Washington Post has this to say about Geithner: Geithner, who is 47, is most closely…
FedLine noted last week that Treasury secretary Henry Paulson had spent almost half of the $700 billion allocated as part of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (or “the bailout,” as we like to call it). The Obama administration apparently gets to spend the other half. At a contentious House Financial Services committee hearing today, Paulson said he didn’t think spending the other $350 billion in the next two months was the best plan: We have decided the best course of action is to preserve half of the TARP fund for flexibility, and for the next administration. This sets up an…
You could say Sen. Ron Wyden is unhappy with Treasury’s actions on the Troubled Asset Relief Program. “It’s like Dodge City before the marshals show up,” said Wyden, D-Ore., bemoaning the lack of oversight into Treasury’s spending of $700 billion intended to unfreeze the credit markets. This analogy was thrown out at today’s Senate Finance Committee hearing regarding the nomination of Neil Barofsky as the special inspector general for TARP. The committee doesn’t have jurisdiction to deliberate on Barofsky’s nomination — that falls to the Senate Banking Committee on Wednesday — but its members wanted to discuss their concerns with…