WASHINGTON, Sept. 11 (UPI) -- Consideration for winding down a $700 billion U.S. bailout coincided, on the Treasury Department Web site, with new rules on lobbying for TARP funds.
The Treasury Department posted the Troubled Asset Relief Program lobbying rules on its Web site the same day Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner explained to members of the House Oversight Panel that U.S. recovery efforts would enter a "new phase," meaning it was time to think about phasing out some of the financial recovery programs, The Hill newspaper reported Friday.
The Treasury may elect to keep the TARP option available. But Geithner's message Thursday was that the worst of the financial crisis was in the past and an economic recovery had begun.
The lobbying rules were posted eight months after Geithner said they would be made public.
The rules prohibit conversations between lobbyists and Treasury officials once an application for money has been submitted.
That didn't sit well with a key bank lobbying group.
"Our concern is with the limitations and new restrictions on free speech and the constitutional right to petition your government," said Scott Talbott of the Financial Services Roundtable.
