GOP Financial Services Committee Member Strongly Opposes BailoutRep. Scott Garrett (R-NJ), a member of the House Financial Services and Budget Committees, is strongly opposed to the administration’s plans to bail out Wall Street an aide confirmed to TPMmuckraker.
“There aren’t any amendments that I have heard of that would make him turn around and support it,” said Erica Elliott, Garrett’s press secretary.
As Congress struggles to understand the implications of the Treasury Department’s $700 billion bail-out solution proposed last Friday, there is considerable uncertainly on Capitol Hill about the alternative measures that will be proposed and where individual lawmakers stand.
“It really is a big ongoing conversation with a lot of different members,” Elliott added. “Trying to get everyone together who says ‘We don’t like the $700 billion bailout, what do we like in place of that.’”
This afternoon, the House Republican Study Committee, of which Garrett is a member, held an emergency meeting to discuss alternative plans to the administration’s proposal.
Earlier this morning, Garrett also stepped into the fray currently overtaking Capitol Hill, circulating an email with three attached articles by economists with bailout alternatives.
Last week, Garrett and Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) came across the aisle to call for the formation of a bi-partisan Select Committee on Bailouts to investigate the actions taken by the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department with regard to bailouts.