*  *  *  Chairman Frank, Ranking Member Bachus, and other members of the Committee, I appreciate this opportunity to review some of the activities to date of the Treasury's Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, and to discuss how additional funding could be used to strengthen our financial system and promote economic recovery.
A well-functioning, stable financial system is essential for healthy economic growth. Unfortunately, as you know, after the collapse of a credit boom that encompassed both mortgage lending and other major credit markets, the financial systems of the United States and of a number of other industrialized countries came under severe strain.