Today, President-elect Obama asked Congress to release the remaining $350 billion in TARP funds. (Or, rather, Obama asked President Bush to ask Congress for the money.) In a letter to Congressional Leadership, Director-designate of the National Economic Council Larry Summers requests the release of the funds and promises to "impose tough and transparent conditions on firms receiving taxpayer assistance."

Well, no need for promises when you can pass a law!

House Financial Chair Barney Frank (D-MA) introduced legislation (HR 384, TARP Reform and Accountability Act of 2009) on Friday (Jan. 9) that would, among other things, strengthen TARP transparency and oversight.

This bill will amend the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) provisions of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (EESA) to strengthen accountability, close loopholes, increase transparency, and require Treasury to take significant steps on foreclosure mitigation. It further requires that Treasury act promptly to permit the smaller community financial institutions that have been shut out so far to participate on the same terms as the large institutions that have already received funds.

If Obama is serious about the sentiment expressed in Summers's letter, he would do right by seriously considering Frank's bill. Based on TARP Congressional Oversight Panel's most recent report (also released on Friday), it's clear that the current administration has given little thought to providing real transparency to TARP.

The good folks at OpenCongress break the bill down here.

Image by Flickr user [phil h] used under a Creative Commons license.