H302 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE January 14, 2009 

bailout money. They called it the 

TARP. Some people would call it the 

‘‘TRAP.’’ That was adopted without 

hearings, without debate or amendments, and without proper justification, safeguards, or oversight. Fortunately, the Secretary of Treasury 

abandoned the intended purchase of 

troubled assets and has used the money 

instead to purchase capital in banks; so 

banks are buying banks now. But that 

funding should have gone to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to 

purchase the capital rather than Treasury. He didn’t use the money to do anything about the central part of the 

problem: mortgage workouts, the foreclosure crisis. 

So why do we now have a proposal 

here to give the Secretary of Treasury 

another $350 billion to spend on only 

God knows what? The bill says that $40 

to $100 billion, and that’s a $60 billion 

spread, my friends, is intended for 

some kind of foreclosure relief but 

doesn’t specify how it’s to be accomplished. Congress’s job is to specify. Is 

a $60 billion swing between those two 

numbers the best we can do in estimating the cost of this program? What 

is the remaining $250 billion to $310 billion to be used for? Who decides? Just 

Treasury? If we are going to continue 

putting capital into financial institutions, shouldn’t we at least order the 

Securities and Exchange Commission 

to stop destroying capital through 

market value accounting? What an opportunity for the special interests on 

Wall Street to take control when no 

one here seems to be in control, 6 days 

before our new President is sworn in. 

Today, trying to correct the huge inadequacies of this bill, I went to the 

Rules Committee to prevent more damage and outright financial crimes associated with this, and I asked for two 

amendments, and both were denied. 

The first amendment would have suspended any more money being expended from the first $350 billion, if 

there’s any left, and would stop the 

next $350 billion until the Congressional Oversight Panel established in 

the original law has forensically accounted for each dollar of the original 

$350 billion. Why not examine the effects of the first $350 billion on the 

economy? Why not assess the effect of 

what the Federal Reserve policies in 

lowering their interest rates has been 

on our economy? That amendment, to 

follow the money, was denied. Now, 

here you have an agency that’s selling 

trillions of dollars of our debt, and 

they’re not telling Congress what they 

have done with $350 billion? 

The other amendment that I offered 

would have increased oversight and 

strengthened the role of the Federal 

Deposit Insurance Corporation overseeing TARP funds. It would have provided for oversight by the FDIC directly into the boardrooms of the 

banks that are getting our taxpayer 

money. Don’t we have a right to know 

what they’re doing with it? The FDIC 

is the right agency to oversee that. 

So the Rules Committee denied me. I 

wasn’t expecting they would approve it 

because this seems like a greased deal 

to me, but it shouldn’t be a greased 

deal for the American people. Before 

we send another $350 billion out of the 

door, there ought to be some accountability here. 

The legislation that will be before us 

provides no plan to stop foreclosures, 

which is the root of the problem. In 

fact, there is nothing in there about renegotiation or holding the banks and 

the servicers accountable. The bill continues to do more of the same, which 

simply has not been working, but it 

gives all this power to Treasury, this 

secretive agency that isn’t sharing 

anything. 

The legislation does not help homeowners to defend themselves against 

criminal acts of massive fraud being 

perpetrated against them by Wall 

Street banksters in processing foreclosures. 

The legislation continues to shift 

both the risk and the cost of the program off corporations and their boards 

of directors and their executives who 

perpetrated this scheme on the taxpayers. And the legislation does not address the root of the problem: foreclosures themselves. So it will be just 

as ineffective on Main Street as the 

first round of TARP in addressing the 

core problems. 

Truly TARP is a trap. 

Mr. Speaker, I would like to place in 

the RECORD additional comments about 

the impact, sadly, of the original bailout bill on my district and end with 

saying the intent of TARP was to stabilize our financial system, which 

means our housing industry. It’s not 

happening, and we shouldn’t give them 

more money. 

RECOMMENDATIONS

This bill is not correcting the root of the 

problem and will not achieve the goal of preventing foreclosures and keeping people in 

their homes. There are many effective foreclosure prevention strategies being deployed 

by attorneys and advocates and we need to 

translate these into systemic solutions. 

This Congress must embark upon a full investigation of how the ‘‘Shadow Banking Sector’’ created by the Wall Street Investment 

Banks post-repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act 

(Gramm-Leach-Bliley) constructed a private 

money-creation system that in 10 short years 

equals or exceeds the assets of all regulated 

banks nationwide. 

In short, there are solutions. We need a 

consumer-centric model. What we have now is 

so creditor-centric it will eventually lead to a 

complete collapse because consumers/taxpayers cannot handle the burden. 

OHIO’S NINTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT

My district has been hard hit by the foreclosure crisis. Last year, in my home county of 

Lucas, another 4,100 homes were foreclosed, 

part of the 10 percent of my district’s local 

housing stock that has been lost over the last 

2.5 years. As foreclosure rates continue to rise 

in Ohio and across our Nation, it’s pretty obvious that the Federal responses, such as the 

$700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program 

(TARP) rescue, are not working on the Main 

Streets of our communities. 

The intent of the TARP bailout was to help 

stabilize our financial system, which includes 

in large measure our housing industry. Yet, we 

see financial institutions foreclosing on families 

rather than working to stabilize families in their 

homes. A stable home permits people to focus 

on obtaining and maintaining employment, 

purchasing food, and contributing to society in 

positive ways rather than relying on social 

services funded by State and Federal dollars. 

Furthermore, we see communities falling 

apart. Community members and local banks 

are effectively locked out of the opportunity to 

bid on these properties and reinvest in themselves because monies from the Department 

of Housing and Urban Development which 

would allow community banks and members 

to purchase foreclosed homes have not yet arrived. We all know that you are more likely to 

do something for your neighbor than for someone you do not know across the country. Too 

often, Wall Street’s actions engage out of town 

developers and investors who purchase 

homes anywhere they can, not just in their 

hometown—without any connection to the 

people and the community. This situation cannot continue. 

We have the opportunity to direct positive 

change to restore our Main Streets and communities. 

f 

WINSTON-SALEM DASH—WINSTONSALEM’S NEW MINOR LEAGUE 

BASEBALL TEAM 

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a 

previous order of the House, the gentlewoman from North Carolina (Ms. FOXX) 

is recognized for 5 minutes. 

Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, I suspect 

that every Member of this body would 

stand up here at some point and say 

that he or she lives in the best place in 

the United States or has the best district. I know that I have the best district in North Carolina, the Fifth District. It is a very diverse district, populated by many great people. The district has many, many attributes that 

people come to visit us for and come to 

live in the district. 

But I want to highlight tonight one 

of the very positive things that’s happening in my district this year and to 

call attention to that because so often 

we’re talking about negative things on 

the floor. It’s not the best of times economically in our country. But I think 

we need to talk some about positive 

things that are happening, and I want 

to talk tonight a little bit about a very 

positive thing that’s happening in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. 

Winston-Salem, and it’s two towns 

that came together many years ago, 

those two towns were settled in the 

mid 1700s by a group of very devout, 

hardworking Moravians, and many of 

their descendants still live in the area. 

What Winston-Salem has decided to 

do in the last couple of years is to work 

on building a new stadium, a new ballpark, for its minor league baseball 

team and also has been working on 

coming up with a new name for that 

minor league baseball team. Later this 

year we expect to see a new ballpark in 

downtown Winston-Salem, which will 


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January 14, 2009 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE H303 

be a state-of-the-art facility, and the 

foundation of this ballpark area will 

develop into an entertainment district 

over the next few years. The new stadium will feature a 15,000 square foot 

kids’ zone, full-scale restaurant, 16 luxury suites, and numerous additional 

components that will make it a showcase for the city. The ballpark is the 

result of a public-private partnership 

in not only the town of Winston-Salem 

but also in Forsyth County. 

Now, the people who own the baseball 

team thought that it might be an interesting time to consider a new name 

for the baseball team, and so they had 

a ‘‘Name the Team’’ contest in which 

they received over 3,000 submissions in 

just 2 weeks. After reviewing the suggestions and receiving over 70 submissions for one particular name, the people in charge selected ‘‘Dash’’ to be the 

new team name. The idea behind that 

is Dash is what brings the two words, 

Winston and Salem, together, and the 

vision of the owners is to make the stadium a family-friendly environment 

and gathering place for entertainment 

within the Winston-Salem community. 

Now, the Winston-Salem Dash is a 

minor league baseball team which 

dates back its franchise to 1945. 

They’re a class high-A team in the 

Carolina league, and they have been a 

farm team of the Chicago White Sox 

since 1997. They’ll begin playing in the 

new Winston-Salem ballpark beginning 

in 2009. 

With its family-friendly entertainment and plain old American style fun, 

I’m sure the Dash is going to be a great 

success. And just as importantly, the 

new name for the team and the new 

ballpark are going to be an anchor for 

future development as the team stadium is completed and the players take 

the field this spring. 

I’m looking forward to visiting a 

home game this spring to enjoy this 

most American of pastimes and support this addition to the WinstonSalem sports team. And I invite all my 

colleagues to join me there sometime 

and see that I live in the best district 

in the country. 

f 

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a 

previous order of the House, the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. BURTON) is 

recognized for 5 minutes. 

(Mr. BURTON of Indiana addressed 

the House. His remarks will appear 

hereafter in the Extensions of Remarks.) 

f 

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a 

previous order of the House, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. WOOLSEY) 

is recognized for 5 minutes. 

(Ms. WOOLSEY addressed the House. 

Her remarks will appear hereafter in 

the Extensions of Remarks.) 

f 

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a 

previous order of the House, the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. FRANKS) is 

recognized for 5 minutes. 

(Mr. FRANKS of Arizona addressed 

the House. His remarks will appear 

hereafter in the Extensions of Remarks.) 

f 

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a 

previous order of the House, the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DEFAZIO) is 

recognized for 5 minutes. 

(Mr. DEFAZIO addressed the House. 

His remarks will appear hereafter in 

the Extensions of Remarks.) 

f 

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a 

previous order of the House, the gentleman from California (Mr. SHERMAN) 

is recognized for 5 minutes. 

(Mr. SHERMAN addressed the House. 

His remarks will appear hereafter in 

the Extensions of Remarks.) 

f 

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a 

previous order of the House, the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. WOLF) is 

recognized for 5 minutes. 

(Mr. WOLF addressed the House. His 

remarks will appear hereafter in the 

Extensions of Remarks.) 

f 

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a 

previous order of the House, the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. BOOZMAN) 

is recognized for 5 minutes. 

(Mr. BOOZMAN addressed the House. 

His remarks will appear hereafter in 

the Extensions of Remarks.) 

f 

THE ECONOMY IN AMERICA 

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under 

the Speaker’s announced policy of January 6, 2009, the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. AKIN) is recognized for 60 

minutes as the designee of the minority leader. 

Mr. AKIN. Mr. Speaker, we have an 

interesting topic that we’re going to be 

talking about and developing over the 

next hour. I’m here representing the 

Republican Study Committee, and we 

would like to talk about the subject of 

our economy and the nature of the 

problems that we are facing but also 

what kinds of solutions are possible. 

I’m going to be joined by a number of 

other congressmen this evening, and 

I’m going to invite them to jump into 

our discussion. And, Mr. Speaker, I 

hope that you find the hour interesting 

and enjoyable. 

Now, one of the problems with having 

Congressman AKIN here is I’m a former 

engineer and I get a little pedantic 

sometimes and I think it’s important 

to exercise some discipline. And the 

discipline in this case is to define the 

nature of the problem in the economy 

in America. 

b 1945 

So before you go offering legislation 

or try to fix something, it’s good to 

know what it is you are trying to fix, 

and that will allow you to answer the 

important question whether or not it’s 

going to work, which is not exactly a 

small question. Unfortunately, we have 

spent an awful lot of money without 

really defining the problem on solutions which have not worked. And so 

that’s why we need to take a little bit 

of time to talk about what’s going on. 

As perhaps many people are aware, 

there are two quasi-governmental organizations called Freddie and Fannie, 

Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, and they, 

of course, have home mortgages which 

they take care of financially for more 

than half of the different people in 

America that have homes. So these are 

huge organizations, but they are not 

quite government, and they are not 

quite private. They are sort of in a 

gray zone, and they were created, ostensibly, to try to provide decent home 

loans for American citizens. 

The problem, though, with Freddie 

and Fannie, because they are not really 

government, they were also outside of 

the administration’s authority to be 

able to deal with them. 

So Freddie and Fannie started to get 

more and more innovative over the 

past years, and they started to make 

all kinds of loans to all kinds of people. 

As those loans were made, what happened was there was not good control 

to make sure that the loans were being 

given to people that could actually afford to pay the loans. 

In fact, we had, intentionally, Congress started to pass laws and put pressure on these organizations, as well as 

banks, to encourage them to make 

loans to people who could not afford to 

pay. Now, how that would be called 

compassionate, I am not quite sure, 

but Congress did that. 

So what started to happen, in combination, as this was going on, you 

have the Federal Reserve lowers the interest rate, so money is easy to get, 

and all kinds of people jump on the 

housing bandwagon, and you create 

this real estate bubble, people taking 

out loans, which they don’t have jobs 

or the finances to pay off these loans. 

And pretty soon, as we got toward the 

more recent years, this bubble explodes 

and all of these loans, people are starting to default on them. 

Now, those loans had been packaged 

up and cut in pieces by Wall Street, 

sold all over the world. And now you 

have got one whale of a mess on your 

hands. Now, the question should be 

asked, then, well, didn’t somebody see 

this coming, didn’t somebody know 

that Freddie and Fannie were doing 

things that they shouldn’t have done? 

Well, in fact, in the New York Times, 

the President, President Bush, the 

headline on the article in the New 

York Times, in case anybody wants to 

look it up, it’s on September 11, 2003, 

well before any of this came down. It 

says here the Bush administration 

today recommended the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings 

and loan crisis a decade ago. 

So here you have the President saying Freddie and Fannie are out of control, we need to get regulations on 


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