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.  

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.  

"The American taxpayers, as shareholders and investors took an awful lot of downside risk exposure, and we'd like to see some of the upside.  None of us want to be long-time investors in financial institutions." 

He offered a number of ideas that he hopes that the government will consider for an "overall strategy and policy goal" for a repayment system so the taxpayers receive top value for the investment.  

Senator Warner also reminded Assistant Secretary Allison that he has submitted legislation that would require the Administration to create a publicly-accessible, online “one-stop shop” for information on all of the investments made by the TARP program.    

"The administration has gotten better on this, but you still need a technology degree and a finance degree to try to find all this information on various websites and the fact that it could and should be consolidated into a user-friendly single site where the American people can check what we've done with this $750 billion... is very important."

Mr. Allison said that he and Secretary Geithner "share your thoughts" on transparency, but Senator Warner said: "We have heard that response from every individual who has come to testify -- from the Secretary on down – ‘that it's a good idea...’ yet it's still hard to find in a single source and a user-friendly way."

UPDATE: Senator Warner appeared on Bloomberg later in the day to talk about his suggestions for TARP Repayment: