September 23, 2008 <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Any Federal Financial Industry Rescue Package Must Be Transparent<\/strong> <\/p>\n <\/font><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Honorable Christopher J. Dodd 534 Dirksen Senate Office Building The Honorable Richard Shelby Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs <\/p>\n 534 Dirksen Senate Office Building <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Dear Chairman Dodd and Ranking Member Shelby: We the undersigned, as advocates for open and transparent government, strongly oppose section 2(b)(2) and section 8 of the Legislative Proposal for Treasury Authority to Purchase Mortgage-Related Assets. While we hold many different views on the causes of and remedies for the current turmoil in financial markets, we are united in the belief that the legislation confers unacceptably broad powers upon the Treasury to conduct activities without transparency and accountability to the public. As written, the proposal would make any decisions by the Secretary non-reviewable by courts or administrative agencies – a certain prescription for the very kind of opacity that has contributed to the financial policy woes we face today. Equally troubling, public contracts associated with the proposal could be created outside of existing laws normally governing such actions. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Few proposals in the 110th Congress can match this one for its impact on the American people. For the sake of democratic discourse, citizens deserve vigorous, timely, and accessible disclosure of all details surrounding any government decisions in response to financial market problems. Congress should respect this vital civil right by rejecting section 2(b)(2) and section 8 of the proposal now before you. <\/p>\n <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n Access Info Europe <\/p>\n Allied Daily Newspapers of Washington <\/p>\n American Association of University Professors <\/p>\n American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression <\/p>\n American Civil Liberties Union <\/p>\n American Library Association <\/p>\n American Policy Center <\/p>\n Association of Research Libraries <\/p>\n Californians Aware <\/p>\n Center for Financial Privacy and Human Rights <\/p>\n Citizen Outreach Project <\/p>\n Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington <\/p>\n Common Cause <\/p>\n Defending Dissent Foundation <\/p>\n Downsize DC <\/p>\n Essential Information <\/p>\n FreedomWorks <\/p>\n Fund for Constitutional Government <\/p>\n Government Accountability Project <\/p>\n International Association of Whistleblowers <\/p>\n Liberty Coalition <\/p>\n Minnesota Coalition on Open Government <\/p>\n The Multiracial Activist <\/p>\n National Coalition Against Censorship <\/p>\n <\/p>\n National Freedom of Information Coalition <\/p>\n National Taxpayers Union <\/p>\n National Whistleblower Center <\/p>\n 9\/11 Research Project <\/p>\n OMB Watch <\/p>\n OpenTheGovernment.org <\/p>\n Project on Government Oversight <\/p>\n Public Citizen <\/p>\n Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press <\/p>\n Scientific Integrity Program, Union of Concerned Scientists <\/p>\n Semmelweis Society International <\/p>\n Society of Professional Journalists <\/p>\n Special Libraries Association <\/p>\n Taxpayers for Common Sense <\/p>\n U.S. Bill of Rights Foundation <\/p>\n Washington Coalition for Open Government <\/p>\n Washington Newspaper Publishers Association <\/p>\n WhyCongressCantRead.com <\/p>\n Woodhull Freedom Foundation <\/p>\n Scott T. Edmondson, AICP, President, Sustainability 2030, San Francisco, California <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Richard A. Knee, Freelance Journalist, San Francisco, CA <\/p>\n Ann Garrison, San Francisco, CA <\/p>\n Vicki Leidner, Real Estate Agent, San Francisco, CA <\/p>\n Daniel Macchiarini, California <\/p>\n Susan Nevelow Mart, UC Hastings College of the Law (affiliation for information only) <\/p>\n Chad Scherr, FOI Advocate West New York, NJ<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Harrison Sheppard, Attorney, San Francisco, CA <\/p>\n Dr. Laurence H. Shoup, Oakland, CA <\/p>\n Marie J. Summers, Textile Artist, San Francisco, California <\/p>\n Paul Wertz, Journalist, retired. Eugene, OR <\/p>\n <\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/span><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" September 23, 2008 Any Federal Financial Industry Rescue Package Must Be Transparent The Honorable Christopher J. Dodd Chairman Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs 534 Dirksen Senate Office BuildingWashington, DC...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":4169,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[60,9],"tags":[142],"class_list":["post-1653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-letters-to-government-agencies-signed-by-tma","category-advocacy-and-letters","tag-advocacy-letters"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Advocacy-Work.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p89tuq-qF","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1653"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1653\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3957,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1653\/revisions\/3957"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n\n
\n \n
Chairman
Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs<\/p>\n
Washington, DC 20510<\/p>\n<\/td>\n\n
Ranking Member <\/p>\n
Washington, DC 20510<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
<\/span><\/p>\n
At a minimum, any credible solution must address one of the current crisis’ fundamental causes – corruption and other abuses of power sustained by secrecy. Otherwise, the taxpayers could end up giving $700 billion more to repeat the same disasters. Congress must prove it has learned this lesson. Any genuine solution must be grounded in transparency, with all relevant records publicly available and best practice whistleblower protection for all employees connected with the new law. Secrecy worsened this crisis, and taxpayers will not accept a law for secret solutions. What happens to our money is <\/u>our business. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
Thank you for your attention to this important matter. If you have any questions, please contact Patrice McDermott, OpenTheGovernment.org, at 202 332 6736, or Pete Sepp, National Taxpayers Union, at 703-683-5700. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
Sincerely, <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n