February 10, 2009

Today, U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter (CO-07), a member of the House Financial Services Committee released the following statement about Treasury Sec. Geithner’s announcement of the Administration’s financial rescue plan.

“These hard economic times are impacting Americans across the board. As Sec. Geithner noted, it took a long time for our economy to get to this level, and it’s going to take work to restore confidence in our markets and get credit flowing to businesses and individuals.

Fundamentally, I support the Administration’s plan for the use of the second half of these TARP funds. The plan includes an important small business and community lending initiative which I have been fighting for since we passed the TARP plan in October. There has been a sharp decline in Small Business Administration (SBA) lending over the last two quarters. Our economy relies on small businesses and their ability to access credit. That is why I look forward to hearing the details of how the Administration plans to finance the purchase of AAA-rated SBA loans and increase the guarantee of SBA loans to 90%.

Furthermore, the plan includes tough transparency and accountability measures to ensure the funds are being used to benefit the taxpayers to stabilize the economy. I strongly support these efforts to require entities receiving funds to show how every dollar of capital received has gone towards increased lending on a new government website: www.Financialstability.gov. Our taxpayers deserve to know how their money is being spent.

The Treasury’s proposal incorporates a number of different methods to address extension of credit beyond simply dealing with banks. Specifically, the joint initiative with the Federal Reserve to expand the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF), will help credit flow to consumers on Main Street seeking lower rates for auto, small business, credit card, and other consumer and business credit, such as commercial real estate.

Also, I commend the efforts to stem foreclosures and restructure troubled mortgages by building onto the work done by the Financial Services Committee (FSC) and Sheila Bair at the FDIC.

I look forward to working on a plan to improve the system to prevent this type of credit crunch from happening in the future. The Administration has asked our committee to provide the President with a template to take to the international community on how to create a regulator of this scale by the G20 summit in April.

I think this plan will get money and credit moving directly to Main Street and loosen credit to businesses, keep people working and keep money flowing."

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