04.05.11

Durbin Chairs Hearing on Treasury Department's Budget

Hearing Also Focuses on Economic Policy, Recovery and Budget Battles

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-IL) chaired a hearing today reviewing the FY12 budget request for the Department of the Treasury and the impact of the FY11 Continuing Resolutions.

 

The President’s FY12 budget request for the Treasury Department is $1.39 billion, excluding the Internal Revenue Service and the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, and would fund expanding staff focused on improving the Department’s analytical capacity and for implementing the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner testified before Durbin’s Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Subcommittee.

 

“In the year since the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform bill was signed into law, the Treasury Department has been entrusted with an enormous new level of responsibility,” Durbin said. “Meeting this responsibility by properly implementing the new law will require resources and authorities to manage the government’s finances, promote economic growth and stability, and ensure the safety and soundness of U.S. and international financial systems. We need to be mindful of Federal spending, but there are few places where Federal dollars are more important than in the Department charged with making sure a recession like the one we’re recovering from never happens again.”

 

In addition to reviewing the budget requests for FY12, Durbin and Geithner discussed funding for the Bureau of Consumer and Financial Protection (CFPB) which was created under the Dodd-Frank law. In 2008, Durbin introduced legislation to create an agency whose sole purpose was to protect consumers from the predatory practices of some financial companies. That bill was added to the Dodd-Frank law and the bureau is under creation at the Department of Treasury.

 

Durbin and Geithner also discussed proposed cuts to the Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, which investigates financial crimes including identity theft, terror financing, organized crime and Ponzi schemes. The two also spoke about ongoing efforts toward financial recovery, current budget debates and the debt ceiling.