GOP Rep. Garrett: Quit Rewarding Incompetent Agencies With More Money

A Republican who will play a leading role in the oversight of the Wall Street reform law said federal regulators should not be “rewarded” with budget increases for past mistakes.

Rep. Scott Garrett (R-N.J.) told The Hill in an exclusive interview that it is “troubling” that financial regulators want to be given more funds and staff after failing to prevent the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

“It’s only in government, especially in Washington, where you have agencies that failed in their core assignments in the past, and yet they are rewarded with more authority and bigger budgets,” Garrett said during an interview Thursday.

As chairman of the House Financial Services subcommittee on Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises, Garrett is poised to play a key role in the 112th Congress as an emboldened GOP looks to exert its influence on financial reform and the restructuring of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Agency officials have warned that their current budgets are nowhere near sufficient to meet their new responsibilities, but Garrett is not sympathetic.

“In the private sector, if you had a unit of a company that failed, normally what happens is that unit ... doesn’t exist anymore and you make changes,” he said. “It seems to be the practice of government that there seems to be some sort of reward.”

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