Sen. Murray: Wants more oversight of bailout money

Sen. Cantwell: Told ya so. (Video link below.)

Last January, when Congress voted on a bill that would have blocked the release of the remaining $350 billion from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), Sens. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA), both concerned about a previous lack of government oversight, took different approaches.

Murray, who had voted for the original $700 billion bank bailout in October, voted to release the remaining funds in January. Cantwell voted 'No'. (Cantwell had also voted against the initial October bailout. She thought the government should buy equity shares in failing banks.)

Murray did voice reservations, though: The bailout process under the Obama Administration needed to be more transparent than it had been under the Bush Administration, Murray said at the time of her January vote, and government oversight of TARP recipients needed to be stronger.

"[I'm] angry about the lack of transparency into how companies [are] using Federal dollars. There has not been enough accountability or transparency, and that must change." she said in January, before she, well, voted for the bill.
 
A promise from President Obama that oversight would be strengthened was enough to convince Murray to put the bailout money in his hands. After assurances at the time from Obama and Treasury Secretary candidate Timothy Geithner, Murray said, "I believe the American people will get the investment and honesty we deserve."

On Tuesday, however, Murray was back on the Senate floor, lambasting the Fed over its announcement that it will send $30 billion more dollars to AIG—embattled insurer and four-time recipient of bailout money. Despite an increase in government transparency, her office says that increased government oversight of bailout recipients still hasn't happened. "She believes in the need to stabilize the economy," said Murray spokeswoman Alex Glass. "She just wants an extra set of checks and balances."

Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA),  wasn't swayed by Obama's gesture in January. Cantwell's office said she was foreseeing the kind of showdown Murray and other Democrats are currently having with the Fed over bank oversight, and so she voted to block the remaining TARP funds.

Now that the bailout money is in the hands of Obama and the Fed, Murray can't do much in terms of insuring an increase in government oversight except to confront decision makers over how they're handling the money. Murray raised her concerns about the oversight at AIG during Senate Budget Committee grill session on Fed Chief Ben Bernanke, who visited the committee as part of an Obama budget charm offensive. During the meeting, Murray called the Fed out on the repeated bailouts and said, according to The Hill , that she was “really troubled by the manner we’re dealing with AIG.”

Murray was joined in her frustration by several other Democratic Senators, who said at the Tuesday hearing that their constituents were nervous about not seeing immediate effects from the financial bailout and were wondering about how money is being spent.

Cantwell, still concerned about the way the TARP money is being spent, is now playing the "I-told-ya-so" card: "This bailout money is still being spent, and we still don't have information," Cantwell spokeswoman Ciaran Clayton told PubliCola. 

And Talking Points Memo is hyping a clip of Sen. Cantwell grilling Treasury Sec. Geithner about AIG.

AIG posted a record-breaking $62 billion loss last quarter, and despite $150 billion in Federal funds that have already been committed to the company, officials announced a new commitment of about $30 billion more in TARP funds for the insurer. Murray's office and Cantwell's office both say they're hoping for an increase in government oversight as the government continues to spend money from the bailout plan.