the financial crisis stem at least in part from the lack of proper regulation and risk management, unsound lending practices. under such conditions, accounting and valueation are significantly challenged. proper accounting and valueation require that companies identify and understand and correctly value wait risk and returns and be able to ascertain exchange prices. it is not surprising many of our issues we have had to deal with over the last 18 months surround the determination of values and inactive markets and the use of off-balance structures and the overall timelyness and disclosure of risk. regulatory reporting by banks and policy by bank regulators are accounting standards. the impact on financial institutions are vital to the effective operation of the financial system in our economy there seems to be a bit of confusion in the media some times and elsewhere about the relationship of the accounting standards we set. we do not determine regulatory capitol. bank regulators do. however, under the laws enacted by congress, the determination of regulatory capitol by the bank regulators

proposal we thought was fiscally unsound as well as being on sound with respect to retirement security. out of that effort came the decision to found a project which peter lead with the enormous distinction. it was aimed at developing a strategy and policies pursuant to that strategy to promote economic growth. brodeur pace participation in that growth and increase economic security. we then lost peter to what some viewed as a higher cause. peter is the director of the office of management. in that role he is central, he is looking at the immediate economic crisis. in dealing with the enormous shortfalls with critical public investment, and dealing with federal government's unsustainable long fiscal position. and with respect to economic growth. i have no doubt that peter will lead us to successful resolution. let me introduce the distinguished peter rorzak. [applause] >> thank you, good morning. i am delighted to be here. i want to start today with a story which was embodied in a recent new yorker article which i found so, telling, i followed up by asking the researchers for additiona

would be, quote, unnecessary as a legal matter, and i think they're clearly correct there and, quote, unsound as a matter of policy. and i think that's correct. they predicted that the effect of the memos, released, "will invite the kind of constitutional fear of recrim nation that weakened intelligence gathering in the past and then we came solely to regret on september 11, 2001." the lawful and wise thing to do would have been to keep -- would be to -- have been to keep our secrets secret. yet, you did not. instead, you have now given a critical piece of information to our enemies. just in the last three weeks i received word again that -- on may 29, "the washington times" has reported that the department of justice voluntarily dismissed a case against three black panther members for voter intimidation outside a polling place in pennsylvania. in that case three black panthers, armed with a night stick and used racial slurs to scare would-be voters at the polling location. they called it the conduct, "an outrageous affront to american democracy and the rights of voters to participate in an e

written testimony included the following statement -- quote -- "a compliant congress repeatedly blessed unsound executive policies by enacting nominal loophole-ridden bans on torture and cruel treatment and rubber-stamping without serious hearings, presidentially introduced legislation ranging from the patriot act to the military commissions act to the most recent amendment of the foreign intelligence surveillance act." in the same testimony, he argued that congress should revisit the hayesly enacted fisa amendments with less emphasis on the issue of immunity for telephone and internet service providers. he obviously wasn't paying attention. but besides his condescending and inappropriate tone, i think his statements reflect a poor understanding of some of the most important pieces of national security legislation that had been passed since the september 11 terrorist attacks and passed on a bipartisan basis in both houses. as my colleagues may know, i was heavily involved in the legislative process surrounding the passage of the fisa amendments act. i can assure you that that certainly was not

michael haton, wrote a joint article in "the wall street journal" and they was unclear matter and unsound as a matter of policy, and i think that's correct. and they predicted that the memos would be to quote, invite the fear and intimidation that weakened intelligence gathering in the past. and we came solely to regret september 11, 2001." the wise thing to do is to keep our secret, secret. but you did not, and have given a critical piece of information to our enemies. and i have received word again that on may 29, the "the washington times" have reported that the department of justice voluntarily dismissed a case against three black panther members outside of a polling place in pennsylvania. the three black panthers were armed with a stick and scared would-be voters. a civil activist called the conduct

everybody has walked in here in sedar current healthcare system is in shambles, the structurally unsound that it is unsustainable. i think what dr. coburn is focused on his words that we all have selectively used, transparency, accountability, and he treats the health care services commission. it does do away with the hq r cube-- ahrq but it is transformed and i thought that was in the spirit with which we were engaging in a debate on healthcare reform, that we needed to look at things and change them so that they worked in the 21st century. senator coburn's focus on technology on the ability to get real data in the hands of patients, the customers of healthcare. a hsc's purpose is to enhance the quality, the appropriateness and effectiveness of the healthcare services. through the publication of quality and price information. now, we may have a disagreement as to whether we are doing away with work that somebody has already worked on, but make a judgment based upon whether this information is valuable to the healthcare system of the 21st century. it if it is an effort to enhance quality

once it no longer pays certain medicines or treatment it becomes financially unsound for manufacturers to be about to recoup the cost for research and development of the estimate their development of products. similarly innovative research on gene therapy and other personalized madison options will be threatened. second i believe the removal of the conscience protection would threaten the nation's health care access. as americans we believe no one should be forced to act in a way that violates his or her moral or religious beliefs. there are excellent health care professionals and health care facilities that do not believe abortion is their right -- is a white negative coated is right and do not provide that procedure. now the head ministration wants to remove the right to refuse and provide service that violates moral principles and or religion. besides the civil rights aspect of the policy, there will be severe impact on access to health care, catholic hospitals, clinics and medical professionals are the bedrock of the health care delivery system and most parts of the nation. in kans

performance targets without due regard for the risk of the activities can create incentives to take unsound risk. moreover, incentives that reward good performance but that do not adjust compensation downwards when risks are increased or performance targets are met are not effective in limiting risk. third, more can and should be done to improve risk management and corporate governance as it relates to compensation practices. this will involve more active engagement i boards of directors and risk management functions in the design and implementation of compensation arrangements for mise. improvement in compensation practices are likely to be harder to make and take longer than anyone would like. one size will not fit all firms. however, well-crafted supervisory principles can play an important role in moving practices in the right direction. i appreciate the committee's interest in this important topic and i'm happy to answer any questions you may have. >> finally, mr. benny. >> good morning. i am pleased to be with you here today to testify on behalf of the security and exchange commission

i read a story in one of the newspapers today which i thought was one of the most illogically unsound things i've seen or read recently. it compared the times president obama and president bush said the name jesus, as if there is something that is magically going to happen as a result of calling the name. and i think we are going into a slippery slope when we begin to compare people how they call the name of their deity. but in the case of millard fuller, he acted out his beliefs. and we believe in at least my religious tradition that there can be no faith, measurable faith, unless there are word and we say faith without words is dead. and so you see today on the political scene a lot of talk about religion. but after all is said and done, there's always almost more said than done. and so we have reason to stand up and celebrate mr. fuller who put his faith into action. i never had the opportunity to work on more than two habitat homes and i really hate the fact that i have not been able to do more. but i appreciate the fact that former president jimmy carter has become one of the mos