[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 141 (Monday, October 3, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            NOMINATION OF RICKI RHODARMER TIGERT TO THE FDIC

  Mr. RIEGLE. It looks to me as if we have about 32 minutes, 16 minutes 
apiece. I will start with my statement, and I assume we will rotate 
back and forth. It would be my intention to call on the Senator from 
Washington, [Mrs. Murray], on our side.
  I rise to strongly support the nomination and confirmation of Ricki 
Tigert to be Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Federal Deposit 
Insurance Corporation. The Banking Committee voted 17 to 1 in favor of 
her confirmation back on February 10 of this year. That is many months 
ago, and I think she deserves today that same overwhelming vote of 
support.
  The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is one of the most 
important independent agencies in our Government. It is the primary 
Federal regulator for over 8,800 State-chartered banks, and it has been 
without a confirmed chairperson since the tragic death of Bill Taylor 
back in August of 1992. This kind of delay and stretching on year after 
year is really inexcusable, and the steps today that the Senate should 
take are to immediately confirm Ms. Tigert to this position.
  The FDIC also has the responsibility for insuring the safety of more 
than $2.5 trillion of deposits in thrifts and banks, $2\1/2\ trillion 
of outstanding insurance in that form. To perform that particular role, 
the FDIC has more than 12,000 employees and an operating budget of 
about $2 billion a year. In fact, the agency's task will increase next 
year when it takes over the responsibility for resolving failed thrifts 
from the Resolution Trust Corporation.

  Ms. Tigert is extremely well qualified to take over these 
responsibilities and provide the necessary strong leadership that is 
called for now at the FDIC.
  Ms. Tigert graduated magna cum laude from Vanderbilt University and 
is an honors graduate of the University of Chicago Law School where she 
served also as a member of the law review. She served from 1985 to 1992 
as a senior official for international banking at the Federal Reserve 
Board. She also served as a senior counsel for international finance at 
the Treasury Department from 1983 to 1985.
  Most recently, Ms. Tigert has been a partner at the law firm of 
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, a well-known firm highly respected. She has 
also taught international finance at Georgetown University Law Center 
and taught comparative international banking regulation as a visiting 
professor in Germany. In addition, she has published a number of 
articles relating to international banking and other financial services 
topics. Ms. Tigert has devoted the vast majority of her professional 
career to public service and financial services and has also been 
active in various civic and professional organizations.
  She enjoys very broad support from numerous banking organizations and 
individuals. For example, Ms. Tigert has the overwhelming support of--
among others--the Independent Bankers Association of America, the 
Conference of State Bank Supervisors, and the Coalition for Women's 
Appointments and Women in Housing and Finance.
  Ken Guenther, who serves as the executive vice president of the 
International Bankers Association writes about her that Ms. Tigert:

       * * * is clearly an experienced, independent professional 
     with previous high-level regulatory experience. She 
     understands the workings of government and her confirmation 
     would restore much-needed balance to the banking regulatory 
     agencies.

  Gerald Lewis, who serves as chairman of the Conference of State Bank 
Supervisors writes:

       * * * the timely confirmation of Ms. Tigert as Chair of the 
     FDIC is necessary for the future stability of the banking 
     system.

  The Coalition for Women's Appointments and Women in Housing and 
Finance write to us as follows:

       As professionals in the financial services industry, we 
     strongly urge you to act before adjournment of the 103d 
     Congress on the nomination of Ricki Tigert to chair the 
     Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

  They go on:

       Ms. Tigert's educational and professional experiences, 
     including many years of dedicated public service, make her an 
     excellent choice to be the next Chair of the FDIC.

  The letter goes on as follows, and I quote again:

       We note that never before in our Nation's history has a 
     woman been nominated to head one of the four principal 
     banking agencies. The United States Senate now has the 
     historic opportunity to approve the nomination of this 
     exceptionally well-qualified and capable woman to chair the 
     FDIC. In the best interest of our banking system, we 
     respectfully request your support.

  Now listen to a distinguished Republican. That is Beryl Sprinkle, 
former chairman and Council of Economic Advisors member in the Reagan 
administration, and Peter Wallison, former counsel to President Reagan, 
and S. Linn Williams, former Deputy U.S. Trade Representative in the 
Bush administration who together on Monday wrote a letter to the Wall 
Street Journal--the three of them together--and what they said is:

       We have all known Ms. Tigert for at least a decade and have 
     worked with her closely in her government service and private 
     law practice. Two of us worked with her in the Reagan 
     administration. She has had a distinguished career and is 
     held in high esteem as an internationally-recognized expert 
     in banking law and regulation. She is committed to the 
     complete independence and integrity of the bank regulatory 
     process.

  Now why would these three distinguished Republican persons come 
forward with that statement? It is because she is such an exceptionally 
qualified candidate to have the former chairman of the Council of 
Economic Advisors for Ronald Reagan come forward now with a letter to 
the Wall Street Journal supporting this candidate. It shows you the 
kind of broad support that she has.
  And the letter went on to say:

       She deserves to have her nomination considered by the full 
     Senate and she deserves to be confirmed.

  As I say, that is signed by three high-ranking Reagan and Bush 
appointees, and I fully agree with them. They are dead on the mark. And 
that is just a sampling of some of the support that Ms. Tigert has 
received.
  She has the knowledge, experience, and character to be a superb chair 
of the FDIC, and she deserves that opportunity. As I have previously 
noted in hearings that we had before our committee and the vote taken 
in the committee, she was reported out of the Senate Banking Committee 
by a vote of 17 to 1. That was back on February 10 of this year.
  I believe the FDIC has been without a permanent Chair now far too 
long. It is high time that the full Senate voted to confirm Ms. Tigert, 
and I support her nomination without reservation.
  I yield the floor and reserve the remainder of my time.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the Senator 
from New York [Mr. D'Amato].
  Mr. D'AMATO. I yield 10 minutes to my distinguished colleague from 
North Carolina, Senator Faircloth.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from North Carolina 
[Mr. Faircloth], is recognized for 10 minutes.
  Mr. FAIRCLOTH. Mr. President, I oppose the nomination of Ricki Tigert 
to head the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. I have met with Ms. 
Tigert, and found her to be bright and capable. However I believe that 
she is the wrong person for this job, and I will explain why.
  Mr. President, over the next 2 years the American people will hear 
more and more about Whitewater. The term Whitewater has come to 
encompass a web of interconnected scandals in which personal and 
political friends of the Clintons have attempted to enrich themselves 
at public expense.
  One of the vehicles for that enrichment was the failed Madison 
Guaranty Savings & Loan. As Jim Leach put it, Madison Guaranty Savings 
& Loan was used as a piggy bank to divert money to the Clinton for 
Governor campaign, and to the Whitewater land development. The 
Whitewater development was, in turn, one of the Clintons' business 
partnerships.
  That diversion of money helped cause Madison Guaranty to fail, 
ultimately costing the U.S. taxpayers some $60 million.
  The recently concluded first round of Whitewater hearings was not 
about what went on at Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan. It was about 
efforts by members of the Clinton administration to stop an 
investigation before it even started.
  Those hearings were about an effort by highly placed friends of Bill 
to bury criminal referrals which named the Clintons as possible 
beneficiaries of criminal activity. They were about an effort to keep a 
friend of Bill, Roger Altman, as head of a bank regulatory agency, so 
that he could be in a position to let the statute of limitations on the 
Madison Guaranty civil cases run out.
  Mr. President, there is a pattern of doing whatever it takes to stop 
the investigation that Hillary Clinton has said she does not want--the 
investigation into 20 years of public life in Arkansas. Because of this 
pattern, people are understandably concerned about personal 
acquaintances of the Clintons who would be in a position to stop the 
investigation into the Whitewater scandal.
  The RTC has been headed by a friend of Bill, Roger Altman, with 
disastrous results. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is 
headed by another friend of Bill, Eugene Ludwig. Now, the Clinton's 
want to put Ricki Tigert, another friend of bill, in charge of the 
FDIC.
  Mr. President, the FDIC is intimately involved with the investigation 
into Whitewater, Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan, Hillary Clinton's old 
firm--the Rose law firm, and others.
  At a minimum, until the Senate commits to fully examine those 
interconnected scandals, then it is wrong to put a personal friend of 
the Clintons in charge of the FDIC.
  At her confirmation hearing, Ricki Tigert testified that she had 
known the President and Mrs. Clinton for 8 years. She goes to 
Renaissance weekends with them. Yet today, with her confirmation in 
trouble, she contends that she barely knows them.
  According to her handlers, she is not only not a close personal 
friend of the Clintons, she is now not even a personal friend of any 
description. She has been transformed from the person who testified 
that she had known the Clintons for 8 years, into one who has allegedly 
only been with them in large groups, and then only been by shear 
coincidence.
  But whatever her relationship with them, given what we know about the 
Whitewater scandal and the role of the FDIC in resolving that scandal, 
Ricki Tigert is the wrong person for the job.
  Ricki Tigert says she has recused herself from Whitewater matters. 
But in the very letter in which she recused herself, Ricki Tigert uses 
her personal recusal as an excuse to affect agency policy.
  In effect, she uses her recusal as a dodge to prevent Senator D'Amato 
and Representative Leach from getting documents that the FDIC does not 
want them to have.
  Her legalistic recusal is not a trivial matter, and at a minimum 
needs to be further examined by the Banking Committee in light of what 
we have learned regarding Roger Altman's recusal. The decision about 
Ricki Tigert's recusal was mentioned by no fewer than 12 different 
witnesses at those Whitewater hearings, raising further questions.
  Yet instead of answers, we get half-truths and falsehoods. Just last 
week, Deputy White House legal counsel Joel Klein told the Wall Street 
Journal that he had the only White House conversation with Ricki Tigert 
about the recusal issue. Yet we know from the Whitewater hearing 
documents that this is simply not the truth.
  Mr. President, I have right here a March 7, 1994, White House memo 
from David Gergen. In this memo David Gergen says--and I quote--``I 
received a call at home from Ricki Tigert, a friend, who wanted to 
discuss her pending appointment to the chairmanship of the FDIC.'' He 
went on to say that--and again I quote--``She asked if I would discuss 
her interest in a recusal with others in the White House and I said I 
would.''
  Mr. President, who did David Gergen discuss Ricki Tigert with in the 
White House? Who else besides David Gergen and Joel Klein did she have 
discussions with? Why did Joel Klein tell one thing to the Wall Street 
Journal, when something else is obviously true--especially after all we 
have learned during the Whitewater hearings?
  Mr. President, these are questions that Ricki Tigert has had months 
to answer. Instead of answering them, she has chose to spend her time 
networking with her friends from Renaissance weekends, getting them to 
lobby and call Senators' offices to tell them that they should just 
ignore all of the questions that keep being raised.
  Mr. President, we do not need an FDIC nominee who must recuse herself 
from a laundry list of individuals and firms in order to try to make 
people believe that she would not stonewall the investigation. Rather, 
we need an FDIC Chairman with the independence to go after wrongdoing 
wherever he or she finds it.
  Ricki Tigert is the wrong person, for the wrong job, at the wrong 
time. Her nomination should be rejected, and a nominee with no ties to 
the Clintons, Madison Guaranty, or the Rose law firm should be 
submitted.
  Mr. President, before I conclude, I would just like to tell my friend 
from Michigan how much I have enjoyed getting to know him and serving 
with him in the Senate. I will miss the leadership that he has given to 
the Banking Committee.
  I yield the floor.


              statement on the nomination of ricki tigert

  Mr. DURENBERGER. Mr. President, I rise in support of the confirmation 
of Ricki Tigert, nominee to serve as Chairperson and member of the 
Board of Directors of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
  The FDIC is the Federal regulator of about 7,800 State-chartered 
banks which are not members of the Federal Reserve System. The FDIC 
regulates these nonmember banks with the States. Strong leadership at 
the FDIC is necessary for maintaining the future stability of the 
banking system.
  We are now into the third year the FDIC has been administered by an 
Acting Chairman of a Board of only two other members, both of whom 
report to the Treasury Department. The fact that Treasury appears to be 
running the show does not give me confidence that the FDIC is being run 
in an independent manner. There is also a serious morale problem in the 
agency exacerbated by the lack of permanent leadership, also compounded 
by the need to reorganize the FDIC to absorb the operations of the RTC. 
The Acting Chairman is currently awaiting his own confirmation as Vice 
Chairman. That nomination is tied to that of Ms. Tigert.
  Ms. Tigert's nomination is supported by the Conference of State Bank 
Supervisors and by the Independent Bankers Association of America, 
including my own constituent Al Olson, an independent banker who took 
some of his own valuable time to campaign for Ms. Tigert last week.
  What really concerns me is the quality of Government--in this case 
the FDIC--and the seeming willingness of the Congress to disregard the 
importance of providing leadership for Government agencies. The 
confirmation process, which GAO is currently examining, has played a 
role in discouraging good people from seeking public service. There 
simply is no way we can ensure the quality of our Government by denying 
it the best leadership possible.
  I understand that the nominee for another open Board position has 
withdrawn her name, because her nomination was tied with Ms. Tigert's, 
and she simply was not willing to wait any longer. This is not the best 
way to ensure the appointment of quality candidates.
  Ms. Tigert had every reason to believe that her nomination would not 
be controversial. She has an excellent background for the position. She 
has served 2 years at Treasury and 7 years at the Federal Reserve 
Board. She has had 16 years of experience on banking-related issues. 
Since nominated a year ago, she has given up 95 percent of her practice 
in her law firm at great personal sacrifice. The nomination process has 
been a painful experience for her--and, again, there is absolutely no 
evidence that she does not possess all of the qualifications and 
attributes needed to serve effectively.
  In fact--in February the Banking Committee voted 18 to 1 to recommend 
Ms. Tigert's confirmation. Her nomination was sent up last November. 
Here we are nearly 1 year later finally debating the nomination on the 
floor, but only after a cloture vote was necessary to close off the 
debate.
  Ms. Tigert's nomination was held up initially to express 
congressional concern about the Whitewater-Madison issue. As a result, 
this body did hold limited hearings on Whitewater. However, my friend 
and colleague from New York, and others, remain strongly opposed to her 
nomination until Congress fully examines all of the issues related to 
Whitewater. Ms. Tigert was the target because the FDIC supervises the 
Resolution Trust Corporation, the agency which investigated the failed 
Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan. While Ms. Tigert had no involvement 
with any of the Whitewater-Madison related issues, she recused herself 
from any FDIC action that might involve the Clintons. This action 
apparently caused some Senators to question her involvement in White 
House discussions of these matters as well as her relationship to the 
Clintons.
  In my review of this nominee, I have found no reason to believe that 
she has any kind of conflict of interest or that her relationship to 
the Clintons would be a cause of concern.
  In my judgment, Ms. Tigert's nomination is a vehicle for expressing 
the minority's concern about the need for further investigation into 
Whitewater-Madison issues. I share some of my colleagues' concerns. 
But, I strongly disagree that the FDIC should be the victim of this 
battle.
  Mr. President, all of us hope and expect the President to appoint the 
best people he can to all top administration positions. Ms. Tigert was 
a good choice. I am pleased that she decided to fight the opposition--
many would not. We should expect a lot of people who take these 
positions which serve the public--but we should not expect them to be 
pawns in this kind of political game playing.
  Ms. Tigert is the kind of nominee I would like to see in all of the 
President's appointments. Let's limit the debate and find other fora 
for our concerns about Whitewater-Madison.
  I appeal to all of my Republican colleagues to vote with me to 
confirm her nomination today.


                statement on nomination of ricki tigert

  Mr. MATHEWS. Mr. President, I join my colleagues who praise the high 
abilities of my fellow Tennessean, Ms. Ricki Tigert, and urge her 
confirmation as Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Commission.
  Rarely, Mr. President, have I seen a candidate for public service so 
amply qualified to hold the post for which she has been nominated.
  Her credentials speak for themselves: service with the Federal 
Reserve as associate general counsel for international banking, senior 
counsel for international finance at the Treasury Department, private 
sector law practice concentrating on financial regulation and 
compliance, a distinguished record as university lecturer and writer, 
service in the nonprofit sector and professional associations, and her 
own distinguished academic history.
  She has shown a career-long progression of competence that has earned 
her not only successively higher responsibilities but also successively 
greater recognition and regard. That regard, as our colleagues have 
already noted, includes Republicans and Democrats, regulators and the 
regulated, academics and practitioners alike.
  As the distinguished members of the Senate Banking Committee have 
observed, the post of FDIC Chair is one that must inspire high trust 
among the millions of Americans who have deposits and loans with 
institutions regulated by the FDIC. As Ms. Tigert herself has noted, 
the FDIC is in the early stages of a major transition from assuring the 
banking system's survival to assuring its growth. Ms. Tigert has the 
integrity, the experience, and the knowledge to serve this post at the 
time when those qualities are most in demand.
  I urge her speedy confirmation and thank the Chair.
  Ms. MOSELEY-BRAUN. Mr. President, the Senate has a responsibility to 
see that Federal regulatory agencies have the kind of strong leadership 
necessary to meet their responsibilities. In the case of the Federal 
Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Senate has been prevented from 
meeting that responsibility.
  The FDIC has been left with an Acting Chairman for over 2 years now. 
That fact, it seems to me, is a travesty. We need to get a Chair who 
has been named by the President and confirmed by the Senate, into 
place.
  We have a very well-qualified candidate that the Senate Banking 
Committee acted on a long time age, one who was recommended to the 
administration by the distinguished Chairman of the Federal Reserve 
Board, Alan Greenspan, and by Beryl Sprinkel, the Chairman of the 
Council of Economic Advisers in the Reagan administration. That 
candidate, Ricki Tigert, has the experience, the expertise, and the 
ability to lead the FDIC. In fact, I am not aware of any reason that 
goes to her qualifications or her abilities that would suggest that she 
is not fit to serve as the head of the FDIC. However, she is still not 
confirmed. Despite the broad support she demonstrated before the Senate 
Banking Committee, the Senate has been blocked from acting on her 
nomination.
  Ricki Tigert has sacrificed a lot to go into public service. She has 
given up all her banking work at her law firm, which has been the 
overwhelming bulk of her practice. She has gone on salary, even though 
she is a partner at the firm, in order to prevent even any hint of a 
suggestion that she would benefit from any increased work her firm 
might be doing in the financial services area. Frankly, it seems to me, 
that, in human terms, the continuing hold on her nomination for reasons 
that have absolutely nothing to do with her or her unquestioned ability 
to make a first-rate Chair of the FDIC, is unfair and unconscionable.
  There was an initial reluctance by some to act on Ricki Tigert's 
nomination because of a controversy totally unrelated to her 
qualifications; she became a hostage to the Whitewater controversy. But 
the conditions set out in the letter sent by some of my colleagues 
outlining this issue have been met. The Senate Banking Committee has 
held 6 very long days of hearings on aspects of the Whitewater-Madison 
Guaranty matter, and the only reason that additional hearings have not 
yet been held is because the independent counsel conducting the 
investigation into these matters, Mr. Fiske, was replaced by the court 
of appeals, and the new independent counsel, Mr. Starr, has not yet 
concluded his investigation of the Washington aspects of the 
Whitewater-Madison matter.

  Just last week, Senator Riegle, the chairman of the Banking 
Committee, and Senator D'Amato, the ranking Republican member of the 
committee, issued a joint press release stating. ``As required by 
Senate Resolution 229, the committee will not schedule further public 
hearings until we believe such hearings will not impede his, Mr. 
Starr's investigation.''
  That leaves only one issue for the opponents of her nonmination--that 
she happens to know the President and the First Lady. Now, if she knew 
them well enough, a friendship with the President and the First Lady 
might be disqualifying for some very few positions in Government. But 
Ricki Tigert isn't being appointed to be the special counsel 
investigating the President. She is not being appointed to the court 
overseeing the special counsel. She is nominated to head the FDIC.
  The FDIC is not a key agency in the investigation of Whitewater-
Madison--the independent counsel, and the RTC are the leads. Moreover, 
Ms. Tigert has recused herself from any potential FDIC involvement in 
that matter.
  Mr. President, if we do not act on the Tigert nomination before this 
Congress adjourns for the year, it will likely be at least 6 more 
months before we will be able to act on her confirmation next year. 
That would be nothing short of a disgrace. The FDIC is at the heart of 
our system of bank regulation. It is the guardian of the life savings 
of millions and millions of Americans. It is the guardian of the 
taxpayers' interest in seeing that we never, have a repetition of the 
kind of insurance fund debacle we saw in the 1980's.
  The FDIC needs permanent leadership. It needs a head who has been 
confirmed by this Senate to head that organization. We need to act on 
the nomination of Ricki Tigert to be the new Chair of the FDIC now--
before we adjourn. That is our responsibility and that is our 
obligation. I strongly urge my colleagues to join me in supporting the 
nomination of Ricki Tigert to head the FDIC.
  Mr. MITCHELL addressed the Chair.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The majority leader is recognized.

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