Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.) today expressed her support of President-elect Barack Obama’s request for Congress to release the second half of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds so he can begin creating jobs and helping distressed homeowners, families and small businesses when he takes office next week.

Saying that under the Obama administration, banks won’t be allowed to just “take the money and run,” Senator Mikulski praised President-elect Obama’s commitment to job creation, oversight and regulation of funds, addressing the home foreclosure crisis, and toughness on transparency.

Senator Mikulski also expressed her frustration with the Bush Administration’s handling of the first half of TARP funds, saying, “When I voted for the rescue plan, I thought I was voting for dealing with the credit crisis, and bringing the financial system to some form of stability. But what has happened is, instead of helping with jobs—we’ve been helping with banks.”

“I will vote for the additional TARP money, not because I support the banks and Wall Street—but because I support our new President—and because I support giving him the tools to get our economy rolling again,” she said.

Her full statement follows:

“Before I voted for the bailout I said—regrettably, a bailout is needed. I voted to get credit flowing again to the distressed homeowner, to families and to small businesses. I didn’t vote to give the money to banks to enable them to continue their flawed policies, their hubris and their high handedness. And I didn’t do it so they could be ungrateful—buy other banks— or give out dividends, and to take executives on spa treatments. I was mad as hell that the Wall Street Master of the Universe took us into a black hole. And I’m mad as hell now that they didn’t thank the taxpayer.

“The Bush Administration misled us about what they would do with the money. Now we’re finding both they and the banks misused the funds, abused the taxpayer and squandered both the money and the opportunity. I said if we were going to have a bail out we needed three things—rescue, reform, and retribution. I said, no blank checks and no checks without balances, help homeowners, and guarantee no golden parachutes for the people who got us into this mess. Did the Bush administration listen? No. Paulson dodged and ducked, and the taxpayers got duped. Distressed homeowners were left in the lurch. Bernie Madoff is in his luxurious penthouse and home owners are being foreclosed and evicted. What’s wrong with this picture?

“We’ve already given $350 billion to the big banks—who said they were going to lend it, and said they were going to have transparency. But instead, we’ve gotten hoarding—and resistance. Banks don’t want to tell us what they’re doing with our money. When I voted for the rescue plan, I thought I was voting for dealing with the credit crisis, and brining the financial system to some form of stability. But what has happened is, instead of helping with jobs—we’ve been helping with banks.

“The banks said we want taxpayer money and we want it our way or the high way. But thankfully, on Tuesday it’s going to be a new day and a new way. Obama met with us this week on his economic agenda. We had a robust give and take. The number one priority we agreed upon is job creation. We need to make sure that for people who have jobs, they get to keep them and feel more economic security. And for people who are out of work, not only to provide a safety net on unemployment benefits, but create opportunities for returning to work or even new jobs. We need to give President Obama the tools he needs to get our economy going again. WE shouldn’t hold the misdeeds of the Bush administration against him.

“We need to work together. People don’t want to talk about butting heads, they want to talk about kicking butt with the banks. And the President-elect and I agree on that. I see myself helping President-elect Obama kicking butt, to work with people who are in danger of losing their homes, not with a bailout but with a workout. The banks have to get off the bailout shtick, and start to get on the workout shtick with homeowners.

“This week, the President-elect huddled with us, to talk about how his plan is different than the previous administration. We need vigilance and responsibility that’s what President Obama has pledged. Three major areas that we will work with the Obama Administration are number one, oversight and regulation. We will put real financial cops on the beat to make sure money goes where it’s supposed to. Number two is a sweeping, comprehensive effort to address the foreclosure crisis. We will use TARP money to get to the root of the crisis, keep people in their homes, and save neighborhoods. Number three, get tough and insist on transparence. Banks can’t just take the money and run. The new plan will make them tell us what they’re doing—no dividends, no giving money to banks to buy other banks, no golden parachutes, and no spa treatments.

“I will vote for the additional TARP money. Not because I support the banks and Wall Street, but because I support our new President, and because I support giving him the tools to get our economy rolling again. But we need a major attitude adjustment. It is not only what we hear from the banks, it is what we don’t hear from them. There’s no sense of gratitude. There’s no sense of gratitude that the waitress, the single mother, the farmer, the firefighter, is willing to help. There’s no gratitude, no remorse, no promise to sin no more, no ‘let’s make amends.’ Instead, they pay themselves lavish salaries, bonuses and perks, like lavish spa retreats.

“At $350 billion, I don’t want to be a passive investor. Congress and the new President must tell Wall Street, ‘You need to go to work an dig out of this mess. Help rescue the economy, not the Wall Street managers.’ Work for America, it’s America that’s paying your salaries. Give us your best thinking. Give us your energy. It’s time to restore our economy and restore our national honor. So pull up your pants and your pantsuits, and go to work and let’s rebuild this economy,” Mikulski said.