THIS IS A PRESS RELEASE FROM THE OFFICE OF UNITED STATES SENATOR JAY ROCKEFELLER.

Washington, DC – Senator Jay Rockefeller submitted the following statement into the Congressional Record as part of the Senate’s debate on the landmark Emergency Economic Stabilization bill:

Mr. President, I rise today, at this difficult moment in the history of our nation, as a proud Senator from West Virginia - a state whose people know a thing or two about working hard, playing by the rules, and protecting and defending the American dream in the face of adversity. They believe in looking out for one another, and they deserve just that in return from their government.

For some time now, many West Virginia families have been besieged by rising gas prices, and increased food and utility bills. Already strained paychecks are being stretched to the limit and families are increasingly finding themselves on shaky ground. They know they are one illness, one lost job, one accident away from falling in to a deep hole. People are worried that they’re going to lose their homes, they are watching their property values decrease as neighbors face foreclosure, and they are fearful that this will be the week their job gets cut or their retirement plan goes under. This anxiety is not just being felt by those who make the minimum wage, it is being felt by everyone in every corner of my state. People are angry, and I share that anger.

I have spent my entire career fighting for West Virginians to have a voice and to make sure they don’t get the short end of the stick. The Putnam County factory worker who relies on their job at the plant, the St. Marys High School student who is dreaming of attending college to be a teacher, and the thousands of homeowners across the state who are entitled to real peace of mind knowing that the house they have been paying for every month like clockwork for 20 years will not be taken from them.

As our financial markets have deteriorated, banks have collapsed and credit has begun drying up. Small businesses have had a tougher time accessing capital to operate and keep workers employed. Even prominent American companies such as GE, GM, and Caterpillar are beginning to feel this credit crunch. That means less investing in the future, fewer plants opening, and – what I fear most – massive layoffs, long unemployment lines, and a real run on the banks.

Just yesterday I was contacted by the President of a mid-sized West Virginia manufacturing company that is feeling the pain of this financial crisis. Because of the credit crunch, his customers can’t get the capital to purchase his products, cutting in to his company’s sales. Monday’s huge drop in the stock market, after the House failed to pass a rescue bill, caused his employees’ 401K plans to lose a full year’s worth of value in one day. That means his employees would have to work one additional year in order to recover the value in their retirement plan.

We all knew the economy was weakening but the magnitude of this crisis – watching our financial system crumble – has been shocking. The full impact of this disaster is not yet known, but it is safe to say this is the most troubling series of financial events I have seen in my lifetime.

In response to this crisis, the President sent the Congress a request for a $700 billion blank check – with no details on how the money would be spent, no oversight, no regulations for greedy Wall Street bankers, and most importantly no protections for taxpayers.

With my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, I have been working to determine the best way forward. I have considered the situation and the options very carefully; I have consulted experts in West Virginia and elsewhere; and I have concluded that what we face is extremely serious; and if we do not take action now, the impact on West Virginia families will be devastating.

We shouldn’t be in this situation, the lack of regulation or warning by the Bush Administration is reprehensible – but the challenge is very serious and we must face it together head on. There is no guarantee that a rescue plan will stop the bleeding, but we must try.

From the beginning, I made it very clear that I would only support a rescue plan that looked out for the needs of people on Main Street and for the taxpayers who work to keep this country strong. The rescue plan we have agreed to is designed to help West Virginians get some of the financial help and tax relief they need and will need in the difficult months ahead. The plan is not perfect and we must do more – but it is an important step.

Six key pieces of the legislation were critical for my support:

First, the bill mandates that taxpayers share in any future profits in order to recoup their funding if at all possible.

The legislation gives the Treasury Department the authority to take warrants or equity in companies that participate, effectively acquiring stock in the company. The warrants help reduce the risk to the taxpayers. If the price the government pays for the assets is low and the banks end up benefiting, the government would own a share of that benefit. If the government is unable to recover the money spent by Treasury after five years, the President must submit a plan to recover the shortfall from the financial services industry.

Second, the bill establishes an oversight board and an independent Inspector General (IG) who will watch over the day-to-day operations of the Treasury from the inside out.

I joined some of my Senate colleagues led by the distinguished Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Max Baucus, in calling for this IG. The American people deserve the advocacy of a tough, independent IG who wakes up every morning with one mission in mind: to track the work of the Treasury – in the greatest detail possible – in order to hold the officials executing this plan accountable and protect taxpayer dollars.

Third, the bill limits executive pay for failed CEOs who abused the public trust, and for continuing or future CEOs whose companies participate in the government rescue.

It was recently reported that Wall Street's five biggest firms paid more than $3 billion in the last five years to their top executives while they presided over the sale of the subprime loans and securities that brought down our financial markets. This is offensive and immoral. These are taxpayer dollars – the American people’s money – and we cannot allow this to continue.

The legislation limits CEOs and corporate executives from leaving companies they drove into bankruptcy with “golden parachutes” – especially with taxpayer dollars. The bill cuts the current tax deduction on executive pay in half and then charges a 20% excise tax on any company that gives excessive compensation packages. These restrictions were hard fought, and in my view not enough, but if some companies or executives find a loophole and try to take advantage of taxpayer dollars here, I assure you we will clamp down even further.

Fourth, the bill provides relief to homeowners who have been caught up in the current mortgage crisis and are trying to save their homes.

The bill starts to address the root of this financial crisis – foreclosures – not by giving a pass to individuals who took out loans they could not afford, but by allowing the government to renegotiate mortgage terms. Two million more foreclosures are projected in the next year and it is in everyone’s interest to bring that number down, keeping more families in their homes and paying off their debts.

Fifth, the bill raises the FDIC insurance limit temporarily to $250,000, providing more liquidity to banks and addressing the current crisis of confidence, which is causing people to pull their money out of their banks and contributing to the credit crunch.

This is especially important to small businesses which employ over 50% of our private work force in West Virginia and which rely on banks to loan them the necessary capital to make payroll, stock their shelves, and invest in new projects and jobs.

Sixth and lastly, the bill includes very substantial tax relief, so that working Americans also get the financial help they need in this time of crisis.

Now 24 million families who can’t afford a higher tax bill – including 86 thousand in West Virginia – will be protected from the Alternative Minimum Tax. The parents of almost 80 thousand West Virginia children will now qualify for an even better child tax credit, and families will get help with college costs. Teachers who put out money from their own pocket to buy school supplies will get a deduction to help pay them back, and companies will get a boost to do more research and development and create new jobs.

And very importantly – for a secure future on all fronts – the bill puts in to law a whole host of energy and clean coal provisions: $5 billion for renewable energy, $1.5 billion for clean coal facilities, $1.2 billion for the Black Lung Trust Fund, and an incentive for the steel industry fuel, a $20 credit for carbon sequestration, and more protection for our coal miners with increased investment in mine rescue teams and state-of-the-art mine safety equipment.

As a Governor of West Virginia during the early 1980’s, I saw the crippling and damaging effects that the recession had on the people of my state. I don’t want to see our industries fail, thousands of people lose their jobs, or the kind of fear, uncertainty, and hopelessness that defined those times.

Nothing matters more to me than helping West Virginia families hold on to their life savings, their jobs, their homes, their retirement, and their hopes for the future.

Failure to act will severely hurt West Virginia families and that is a risk I am not willing to take.

I also want to be clear that there are likely more tough times ahead. This plan is intended to prevent an economic catastrophe, but it alone will not put us on the path to prosperity.

We still must turn our attention to broader economic recovery, from healthcare, to increased wages, to expanded job opportunities, to major public infrastructure investments, to restoring fairness to our tax system so that the middle class can once again prosper.

The people of West Virginia deserve lasting solutions and I will fight every day to make sure this happens.