[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Pages 15212-15213]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          NOTICE OF OBJECTION

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I, along with Senator Mark Kirk, intend 
to object to proceeding to the nomination of Richard Berner to head the 
Office of Financial Research within the Department of the Treasury.
  We will object to proceeding to the nomination because the Department 
of the Treasury has refused to respond to a letter Senator Kirk and I 
sent on October 2, over 6 weeks ago, regarding the Treasury Secretary's 
actions when he became aware of the manipulation of the London 
Interbank Overnight Rate, or LIBOR. The Department has also refused to 
provide the documents we requested.
  In addition, my staff has, on several occasions, attempted to 
schedule briefing times that are convenient for the Department. The 
Treasury Department has cancelled each of these briefings and failed to 
cooperate in rescheduling at a mutually agreeable time.
  Because everything from home mortgages to credit cards was pegged to

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LIBOR, its manipulation affects almost every American. Given the 
widespread effects of this manipulation, it is disturbing to see that 
the Treasury Department has thus far refused to answer basic questions 
and provide essential documents.
  It is critical for Congress to be able to ask questions and to have 
access to administration documents in order to conduct vigorous and 
independent oversight. It is unfortunate that this administration, 
which has pledged to be the most transparent in history, consistently 
falls short of that goal.

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