Capital Briefs: Treasury's Rubin Emphasizes Urgency of Fixing Thrift

WASHINGTON - in seven months, the next order of business is fixing the Savings Association Insurance Fund, Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin said Tuesday. In testimony before a House Banking subcommittee, Mr. Rubin did not tip his hand as to how the fund should be saved - but did stress the urgency of the problem. "One of the lessons RTC has taught us is that not providing sufficient funding in a timely manner can result in very costly problems that will ultimately fall on the taxpayers," Mr. Rubin said. The Treasury chief's remarks came at the first RTC oversight hearing in two years. At the hearing, a General Accounting Office official told members of the General Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee that the overall price tag of the savings and loan bailout will come out to something more than $200 billion, while the RTC's share will be between $87 billion and $95 billion. That would leave unspent $10 billion to $18 billion of the $105 billion Congress authorized to the bailout agency, money which some would like to see directed toward solving the problems of the undercapitalized thrift fund.

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