Dodd's Legislative Proposal From Treasury Department for Authority to Buy Mortgage-Related Assets
Title I - Authorizing the Treasury Department to Buy Mortgage-Related Assets
Sec. 19. Disclosures on exercise of loan authority.
IN GENERAL.Not later than 7 days after the date on which the Board exercises its authority under the third paragraph of section 13 of the Federal Reserve Act ((12 U.S.C. 343), relating to discounts for individuals, partnerships, and corporations) the Board shall provide to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on Financial Services of the House of Representatives a report which includes
the justification for exercising the authority; and
the specific terms of the actions of the Board, including the size and duration of the lending, the value of any collateral held with respect to such a loan, the recipient of warrants or any other potential equity in exchange for the loan, and any expected cost to the taxpayer for such exercise.
PERIODIC UPDATES.The Board shall provide updates to the Committees specified in subsection (a) not less frequently than once every 30 days while the subject loan is outstanding, including
the status of the loan;
the value of the collateral held by the Federal reserve bank which initiated the loan; and
the projected cost to the taxpayer of the loan.
CONFIDENTIALITY.The information submitted to the Congress under this section may be kept confidential, upon the written request of the Chairman of the Board, in which case it will made available only to the Chairpersons and Ranking Members of the Committees described in subsection (a).
APPLICABILITY.The provisions of this section shall be in force for all uses of the authority provided under this Act occurring on or after March 1, 2008, and reports shall be required beginning not later than 30 days after the date of enactment of this Act.
General Comments on Dodd's Legislative Proposal From Treasury Department for Authority to Buy Mortgage-Related Assets
section e: All information disclosed per subsections a and be will be made available online to the general public at no cost within 72 hours except where deemed confidential per subsection c.
At least, that, or something like that, is what SHOULD be in subsection e, perhaps written in better legalese.
I agree with section e with the removal of section c. Why should any transaction be able to be hidden from the folks purchasing it? (Namely US citizens)
The Committee's listed are all democrat controlled and chaired by sponsors of the bill. NOT a good idea. At the least it should report to general session of congress. Burying this in committee which is at least half off the legislative path is scary.
I totally agree with all these comments:
I think we are in total agreement in online at no cost. Transactions should not be hidden as I expect Pork Barrel withdraws. Even when its not listed we all know it happens. We are bailing out faulty practices. We require specifics not more roadblocks.
Section c is an anathema to this bill and should be removed unless someone can cogently explain why it is absolutely necessary and even then should be provided to some publicly created oversight board, not Congressional committees. I can't understand the need for secrecy, but perhaps there is some economic reason to avoid dislocation in the market. But trust us is just not an answer from the Congressional leaders who stood by and allowed our government to spy on us, torture prisoners, and take us to war with llittle provocation.
section c:
In addition to the elimination of the confidentiality allowance, all items pertaining to any bailout of any mortage and/company must be posted online so that all taxpayers can see where their funds are being used.