August 1, 1994 - Part 7
August 1, 1994 - Part 7
(20:20:56) Ms. HANSON. I understand, as I testified, that the RTC is a corporation, that it is overseen by an oversight board of which the Secretary of the Treasury is the Chairman, and that the statute that ou referred to established authority of the RTC and the oversight board and gave the RTC the authority to deal with case-specific and day-to-day operations, among other things, separate an independent from the oversight board. That is, the oversight board is not to interfere with case-specific matters or day-to-day operations. Typically, had it not been for the fact that Mr. Altman had-was also appointed as the Interim CEO under the Vacancy Act, there would have been involvement of staff of the Treasury Department. That has, historically, been the case, giving staff support to the Secretary in his capacity as Chairman of the oversight board, but there would have been much less involvement than there ere had been this last year. The difficulty, sir, and this was a difficult time-I already had a full-time job. I didn't need more work to do. On the other hand, Mr. Altman also had-Mr. Altman had two full-time jobs and he called upon a certain number of people in the Treasury to assist him in carrying out his functions simply because it was physically impossible for him to do it all. As I stated, he had statutory authority, as the Interim CEO, to call upon other Executive Branch personnel, and he also had statutory authority, as the Deputy Secretary, to grant that assistance. It was a difficult situation, I will tell you, sir. Senator BRYAN. I acknowledge that. I think Mr. Altman had a very difficult situation. Ms. HANSON. In fact, one of the happiest days of my life was when Ellen Kulka, who I hold in extremely high regard, joined the RTC as the General Counsel. I would say, if I understood Mr. Roelle correctly as he testified this morning, the case-specific issues were handled at the RTC, the Treasury people were involved in policy issues, and the oversight board does have statutory authority to be involved in policy matters. There was a real attempt made, at the Treasury, to make sure that Treasury staff were only involved to the point of either assisting Mr. Altman in carrying out his. decisions, or advising him, in his capacity as Interim CEO, on Policy issues, and to not interfere with the day-to-day issues or the case-specific matters at the RTC. ., Senator BRYAN. My view was that Mr. Altman, who had a difficult situation wearing two hats, really, had two hemispheres of authority and responsibility. One, was as Deputy Secretary and, as You indicate, that, in and of itself, would be a full-time job and, during some interim period of time, he was also the Acting Head of the RTC. 150 What I find interesting is that, there does not seem to be, least in your thought process, any distinction, am I being asked in my capacity as General Counsel to the Treasury, which is clearly your responsibility, or is Mr. Altman framing a question that more appropriately is with respect to his responsibility as the RTC Head. Did you ever, for example, in conversing with Mr. Altman--not specifically in the context of this case-but did you ever say to him "Mr. Altman, really, that is a RTC responsibility. I think it would be more appropriate if you talked with Ms. Kulka, because she your General Counsel" Ms. HANSON. Absolutely. Senator BRYAN. So you did make that statement?