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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTrump Suggests He Can Gag Inspector General for Stimulus Bailout Program
WASHINGTON When President Trump signed the $2 trillion economic stabilization package on Friday to respond to the coronavirus pandemic, he undercut a crucial safeguard that Democrats insisted upon as a condition of agreeing to include a $500 billion corporate bailout fund.
In a signing statement released hours after Mr. Trump signed the bill in a televised ceremony in the Oval Office, the president suggested he had the power to decide what information a newly created inspector general intended to monitor the fund could share with Congress.
Under the law, the inspector general, when auditing loans and investments made through the fund, has the power to demand information from the Treasury Department and other executive branch agencies. The law requires reporting to Congress without delay if any agency balks and its refusal is unreasonable in the judgment of the special inspector general.
Democrats blocked a final agreement on the package this week as they insisted on stronger oversight provisions to ensure that the president and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin could not abuse the bailout fund. They feared that Mr. Trump, who has previously stonewalled congressional oversight, would do the same when it came to the corporate aid program.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/27/us/trump-signing-statement-coronavirus.html
spanone
(135,841 posts)motherfucker.
msongs
(67,413 posts)LastDemocratInSC
(3,647 posts)He will use it for pay bribes for his election. He has access to the public cookie jar and won't be able to keep his hands out of it.
Karadeniz
(22,526 posts)Sogo
(4,986 posts)make himself a billionaire.
Who doesn't suspect that he'll be funneling billions into his own pocket.