Over the past six months, President Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner have worked tirelessly to rescue the U.S. economy from our nation's longest and deepest recession since the Great Depression. As the administration has shifted from crisis management to regulatory modernization, it has sought to vastly expand the powers of an opaque institution: the Federal Reserve. This is a mistake.

Senator Warner spoke on both Bloomberg TV and MSNBC's Morning Joe today about his idea to empower an independent council, rather than giving the additional responsibility to the Federal Reserve, to regulate systemic risk -- "the kind of thing that we couldn't necessarily predict," he said, such as the mess at AIG that played such a major role in the financial industry's near-collapse last fall.

Senator Warner took to the Senate floor today to express his concerns about plans for the Federal Reserve to regulate financial institutions considered "too big to fail."

Senator Warner appeared on Bloomberg Television on June 4, to discuss how before the government begins accepting repayments from financial institutions that have received TARP funds, Senator Warner said that he want to make sure the taxpayers, who are in effect investors in these companies, receive the best deal for their dollar.

During the confirmation hearing for Assistant Treasury Secretary Herbert M. Allison, who has been nominated to serve as the TARP Administrator with the Department of Treasury, Senator Warner continued to urge the administration to provide more transparency and accountability of taxpayer funds used to bailout struggling banks.

During today's Senate Banking Committee hearing, Senator Warner said he is "very troubled" with the government's open-ended involvement with AIG and questioned Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner about his apparent lack of flexibility in reducing payments to the AIG "counterparties" -- those AIG investors who will get 100 percent of their money back.

Senator Warner gave a loud "shout-out" to small businesses in an appearance on MSNBC's The Ed Show on Tuesday night, urging the White House to move more quickly in rolling-out promised programs and funding to help business owners in this challenging economy.