WASHINGTON, Jan. 21 (UPI) -- U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., says "there will be oversight" of the second half of the $700 billion financial crisis bailout money.
Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Reid said the American people believe that not enough scrutiny was given to how the first $350 billion was spent, and vowed the process for determining how the next batch would be spent "will be transparent. There will be oversight. I think that's what the American people missed with the first $350 billion."
Reid the second slice of the bailout fund, known as TARP, will be directed by President Barack Obama to helping homeowners pay for distressed mortgages, and, like earlier bailout efforts, some of it will be directed at banks.
Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Wednesday that the Democrats' proposed $825 billion economic stimulus proposal is "kind of drifting in a different direction from what President Obama seems to be suggesting."
He cited a Congressional Budget Office report on the appropriations portion of the House Democratic stimulus package, "which indicates that less than 40 percent of the stimulus will be used in the first 18 months."
