Senators Scold S&L Lobby For Role in Starting Crisis; Savings League Lists Objections to Bush Plan
The chief opponents of the Bush administration's plan to bail out the savings and loan industry presented Congress with a list of objections to the proposal yesterday but became the target of criticism for the role they played in creating the crisis.</br></br>Officials from the U.S. League of Savings Institutions, the largest lobby group for S&Ls and the chief critic of President Bush's plan, were criticized by members of the Senate Banking Committee who said the league contributed to the problem.</br></br>"If anyone has been irresponsible on this issue, it's the U.S. League," said Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Tex.). Gramm said that the league's actions were rivaled only by members of Congress who have sympathized with the lobby group's positions.</br></br>Shelby, Gramm and other senators asked league chairman Barney Beeksma why the league told the Senate two years ago that $5 billion was all that was needed to resolve the S&L problem, which is now expected to cost at least $157 billion over the next 10 years.</br></br>But Gramm persisted and quoted from a letter the league wrote on March 6, 1987, to the General Accounting Office, supporting the appropriation of $5 billion.