April 21, 2009.  Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Granite Bay) today introduced legislation that allows banks to immediately pay back Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds to the U.S. Treasury.  Banks which were pressured to accept TARP funding are now facing serious obstacles, uncertainty and continued government control in their efforts to return the funds to taxpayers.

 “It is a travesty that banks seeking to repay taxpayer money should be prohibited from doing so after taxpayers were promised that repayment would be made as soon as humanly possible,” McClintock said.

The bill is narrowly written to amend the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act to require the Secretary of the Treasury to unconditionally and immediately accept such repayments, and does not otherwise interfere with existing regulations of the banking system.

“The Administration says it wants out of the banking business but when it is presented with that opportunity it seems to balk.  When banks want to give us our money back we shouldn’t argue the point,” McClintock said.  “The TARP bailout was the wrong thing to do and getting that money back to the Treasury is the right thing to do.  Our Treasury Secretary needs to ‘Just say Yes’.”