Maybe now would be a good time to pass "Maloney/King"?

(the following is cross-posted at www.fiscalaccountability.org)

Neil Barofsky, the IG for the TARP program will tell Congress today that the government's "basic attitude" on the transparency and accountability of the program "remains a significant frustration," reports The Hill.

"We remain puzzled as to why Treasury refuses to adopt our recommendation to report on each TARP recipient's use of TARP funds," Barofsky will say.

One good way to begin fixing the problem would be for Congress to pass the TARP Accountability and Disclosure Act (H.R.1472)  sponsored by Reps. Maloney and King or its senate counterpart.

The fact that relevant data is currently widely dispersed over various agencies and in various formats hinders appropriate oversight efforts.

From a letter we sent on the bill a while ago, here's what that bill would do:

The bill would consolidate and transform that data into a serialized database hosted by the Department of the Treasury and accessible to the Special Inspector General of the Troubled Assets Relief Program, the Comptroller General, and the Congressional oversight panel. Consequently, those tasked with monitoring the implementation of the program will be provided with a useful tool to better monitor and trace transactions, and thereby spot potential problems in a timely fashion.

We continue to maintain that beyond establishing this database, Congress should make sure that more information is not just disclosed to Congress and the watchdogs, but also to taxpayers who are picking up the tab, but creating this database would be a huge step in that direction.

Here's a coalition letter in support of the bill we circulated a while ago.

Oh, and by the way, Barofsky will also say the following, according to The Hill:

"It is extremely unlikely that the taxpayer will see a full return on its TARP investment."

Anybody surprised?