Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 19, 1990 TAG: 9007190217
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
House Speaker Thomas Foley said Democrats want the package to be even stronger than a similar measure containing new enforcement tools approved by the Senate last week as part of a broader crime bill.
"To bring these S&L criminals to justice, we want to go further and enact provisions that seek to prevent anyone from obstructing the investigators," said Foley, D-Wash.
At the same time, the Democrats urged creation of a national fact-finding commission, along the lines of the 1960s Kerner Commission on urban riots, to probe what went wrong in the savings and loan industry.
The package was the latest in a flurry of legislation that has arisen out of the growing congressional debate and finger-pointing pegged to the multibillion-dollar thrift scandal.
"People want answers and the atmosphere in Congress has gotten kind of rancorous," said Rep. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., the principal author of the legislation. "A commission could look into it and really get the answers to what happened. This is a big enough crisis - like civil rights and the problems of the inner cities were - to deserve that kind of thing."
The 12-member bipartisan study commission would be structured along the lines of the commission established after inner-city riots in Detroit, Los Angeles, Washington, New York and other cities in 1968. That commission was named after former Illinois Gov. Otto Kerner.
Foley said the new Democratic S&L proposals will be included as part of a crime bill he plans to bring to the House floor next week.
Meanwhile, the Resolution Trust Corp. established by Congress last year to manage the thrift bailout said roughly half of the 454 S&Ls seized so far by the government have had suspected criminal conduct turned over to the Justice Department.
James Dudine, assistant director in charge of investigations for the RTC, said the agency estimates that about 80 percent of those cases involved fraud and insider dealing and warrant "major criminal investigations."
In addition to meeting Bush's request to double government spending on investigating and prosecuting S&L fraud, the House Democratic proposal would prohibit bankruptcy courts from excusing thrift operators from making restitution to the government for lost insured deposits.
"Regulators and the legal authorities are now powerless to deal with conveyances, bankruptcies and other practices which allow those well-to-do - who have done wrong - to keep their ill-gotten gains," said Schumer.
by CNB