A pair of bills designed to improve oversight of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) has been introduced in the Senate. The first would place restrictions on the use of federal funds and provide greater transparency, and the second would strengthen the role of the Special Inspector General for TARP (SIGTARP). TARP was created by the $700 billion financial bailout bill that Congress passed before the election.

As the anticipated severity of the recession increases and unemployment estimates for 2009 reach as high as eight percent, Congress is under increased pressure to enact an extension of unemployment insurance (UI) benefits, perhaps as early as the current lame-duck session. Yet a broader overhaul of the UI program is needed to improve this important safety-net program for American workers.

Although enactment of an economic stimulus package could push the federal budget deficit above $1 trillion, political consensus on its necessity is emerging. Political factions are split on the issues of how large and what form a stimulus package should take. Economists, however, indicate that targeted spending can be a powerful weapon to address recession and the effects of economic hardship on American families, even if it increases the deficit. Now is exactly the time to be enacting such fiscal policy.