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AFL-CIO Silvers Named by Congress to Panel Reporting on Bailout |
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Our own Damon Silvers, AFL-CIO associate general counsel, is one of three members appointed to the Congressional Oversight Panel, an entity mandated by Congress as part of the initial Wall Street bailout bill passed in October. The panel is charged with reporting on the Treasury Department’s effort to stabilize our nation’s financial system and make recommendations to improve it.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) appointed Silvers, along with Harvard professor Elizabeth Warren, best known for her work on bankruptcy issues, and New York Superintendent of Banks, Richard Neiman. House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) have not yet made their two appointments to the panel.
The panel must report to Congress every 30 days and issue final recommendations by Jan. 20, 2009 (otherwise known as the day President-elect Barack Obama is inaugurated).
Silvers brings considerable expertise to the panel. He holds a J.D. (with honors) from Harvard Law School, an M.B.A. (with high honors) from Harvard Business School and is a graduate of Harvard College, summa cum laude. He’s a member of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board Standing Advisory Group and the Financial Accounting Standards Board User Advisory Council. He led the AFL-CIO legal team that won severance payments for laid-off Enron and WorldCom workers.
Silvers says that while securing severance for Enron workers was difficult, the fluidity of the market makes evaluating management of the multibillion-dollar bailout a challenge.
I think the American public wants right now to know the answers to some of these questions, and we have some obligation to move as fast as we can while being thoughtful about the complex issues involved.
The Congressional Oversight Panel, which is empowered to hold hearings, will analyze whether the bailout, formally known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), has been well managed. Also analyzing TARP are the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a special Inspector General appointed last week and a committee of senior regulators.
Much as it would have been great to hear from Silvers that he has a list of TARP failures he planned to go after, he made it clear he plans to approach his duties evenhandedly. As he says:
It’s really, really important right now not to prejudge the findings. I’m trying very hard not to be dug in, to listen to everybody and be open minded in doing this. I think this is what it means to be asked to protect the public interest.
Hope the Republican appointees will prove to be as balanced.
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It is great that labor has a seat at the table. I look forward to some constructive dialog and recommendations that are good for the country.
We need to Act Now considering the state of this Country. Here if my suggestion: Begin now! Have the Unions begin training people now in their Apprentice Programs to fill the jobs needed to build the 21st Century Infrastructure. Citizens should be able to go to any Union Hall and be hired into the Apprentice Program anywhere in the USA. We would not only have instant Union workers but workers in training for the future upkeep of the new 21st Century Infrastructure. That would provide 5 million jobs right there. Unions should get at least 100 Billion of the 700 Billion Dollars available to begin this program. (2 1/2 million would be new Union Workers for life).
We cannot wait to start putting people to work. There is no time to waste. People eat every day. Some of you may think there is plenty of time and you may think two more months isn’t that long, you are wrong! If your eating and working and bringing home a paycheck and have no fear of losing your home that is great. I am happy for you. Feel the urgency and need that is out there, you cannot move ahead quickly enough if you started today. But, please call the Unions tomorrow or better tonight call the newspapers tonight to print that if anyone out there does not have a job go to the Union closest to you and get that job today. Start the healing in this country now.
Save some time and effort and just audit what has happened so far - the bailout is a complete failure. While we need oversight to check what the Wall Street crooks and their Democrat and Republican partners have done to screw the public, a far better task would be calling for a General Strike to demand that all the bail out funds go to the unemployed, the poor and homeless, and low wage workers. Lift the economy from the bottom up by giving folks on the ground money to spend and invest in themselves. Otherwise labor’s seat at the table will be one of those deck chairs being rearranged as the Titanic sinks into the deep dark sea. Only a complete rejection of capitalism and a demand for worker control of the economy will get us out of the mess created by the twin parties of big business. How about a Labor Movement - and a Labor Party - that works to demand real change and action, not a partnership with CEOs and corrupt politicians?
We should have federal funding of the union apprentice programs to train new construction and building trades members. We badly need to rebuild our infrastructure.
Additionally, as part of the auto industry emergency loan bill, there should be federal funding of union-run training programs for downsized workers. All the auto workers should have training in Microsoft Office and other computer skills made available.
The National Training Center in Newark, Delaware should get training funds from the federal government since the Chrysler plant closed a year ahead of schedule. Job training is badly needed for the members of UAW 1212, UAW 1183 and UAW 404 representing that plant.
Soon the members of UAW 435 working at the GM plant in Wilmington, Delaware might face the same issue.
All auto workers from closed plants or laid-off workers from downsized plants will need job training.