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Speaker Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd and House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank today sent a letter to President George W. Bush to again urge him to use the authority provided under the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act (EESA) of 2008 to provide limited, temporary assistance to the automobile industry during this financial crisis. The letter notes that the failure of the Big 3 would have a major direct and negative impact on the financial sector, not just on the economy as a whole. The Treasury Department has stated that funding from the EESA should only be used to protect the U.S. financial sector.

Read the letter:

December 4, 2008

The Honorable George W. Bush

The President of the United States

The White House

"President-elect Barack Obama and leaders in Congress are fashioning a plan to pour billions of dollars into a jobs program to jolt the economy and lay the groundwork for a more energy-efficient one."

Despite the high level of continuing unemployment, the Bush Administration and Senate Republicans are still opposed to legislation the House passed in September that would create jobs and address urgent nutrition and health needs for those hurt by the recession.

America needs bipartisan action now to get our economy back on track. Our House-passed legislation would begin the process of economic recovery by investing in job-creating infrastructure projects and helping struggling Americans with emergency food assistance and prevent deep cuts in health care and essential services. At a minimum, President Bush should support providing emergency food assistance and aid to states to maintain health care coverage for millions of Americans this holiday season.

"Democratic congressional leaders, eager to trumpet that change has come to Washington, are looking to enact quickly a series of popular bills in January in such areas as renewable energy, children's health care and embryonic stem-cell research."

Chairman Barney Frank issued the following statement regarding the Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on the Treasury Department's implementation of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP):

The American people received two kinds of news about the TARP program -- bad and worse news.

The bad news was confirmation by the GAO in its first report about the program that Treasury has no way to measure whether taxpayer funds invested in banks are being used in accordance with the purpose of the law -- to increase lending. The much worse news is Treasury's response that it does not even have the intention of doing so.