August 3, 1994 - Part 2
August 3, 1994 - Part 2
(11:55:53) Let me say that in all the years I was in the Senate, I never accepted, for me, an honorarium, not once. I can remember Dale Bumpers talking about coming up to my office, because I had a management consulting firm work on the organization of my office. And I think we had a reputation for having an efficient one. And he said, he was interested if the telephone operator was taking down and checking calls to see which of them were my personal calls, so I could reimburse for them. So I have worked at that one, and that is why I made it the first meeting that we had in Treasury. Time and time again, I consult with the ethics office in Treasury, can we do this, or cannot we do this. And I appreciate your counsel. Senator BENNETT. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The CHAIRMAN. Senator Bryan. OPENING COMMENTS OF SENATOR BRYAN Senator BRYAN. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Secretary, welcome. It is nice to have you with us this morning. I must say that I wish we were discussing some other issues, because under your leadership the Department of Treasury has been most, most helpful in dealing with some of the regulatory paperwork burdens on the CTRs in terms of our credit crunch and the situation we have in my own State in dealing with 6(a), and I think that that is a result of your leadership. I want to acknowledge that publicly and commend you for what I consider a very refreshing approach in dealing with a number of these issues. Secretary BENTSEN. Thank you. Senator BRYAN. I want to ask you a question about a structure, if I may, first. Without going into all of the things that occurred and some of the contacts which are troubling for us all, I think those of us on this Committee that worked on the FIRREA. legislation back in 1989 had an understanding that we were being much more clear than in fact the law is in establishing a separation in terms of the independence of the operation of the RTC and the Treasury. Mr. Ryan has commented, for example, that when he first came aboard that he was-I do not think "surprised" was his word, but are less clear. My question, Mr. Secretary, is prospective, not retrospective. That is, have you undertaken the establishment of any guidelines to make sure that that separation that you have testified to and that was the import of it that the lines of authority 39 that I think is so important, that there are some guidelines that are clear in terms of the contact between Treasury and the RTC as these cases may be developed and processed? Secretary BENTSEN. I have had them call the Attorney General's Office to tell them that we are going to ask for their guidance and their advice and their counsel. I will do the same thing with the Office of Government Ethics. I will do that with the Inspector General. And such counsel as you have for us, we will be happy to have. Then, we will be working to have better guidelines and more clarity in that regard. Senator BRYAN. I would like Secretary BENTSEN. Now let me further state that one of the big problems was having the Deputy Secretary having to serve as the Chief Executive of the RTC at the same time. Now that will not be the case anymore. But somebody else made the point about the Vacancy Act. I think we should do some things there, too, to further assure that this or other agencies do not have that kind of a problem. Senator BRYAN. And I have acknowledged in my opening statement, as well as in my discussion yesterday with Mr. Altman, that I do think that he was placed in an untenable position because of the inherent responsibilities both of those positions involved. That is unique. It will not occur again, I am sure.