- Sen. John Fetterman grilled failed banking execs at a Tuesday Senate Banking Committee hearing.
- He said the GOP is “preoccupied” with spending on food stamps rather than bail-out funds.
- He suggested that bailed-out bankers should have work requirements like families on food stamps.
At a Tuesday Senate Banking Committee hearing, Senator John Fetterman took aim at the GOP and failed banking executives while suggesting business officials bailed out by the government should face work requirements.
As he questioned former CEO of Silicon Valley Bank, Gregory Becker, and the former chair and president of Signature Bank, Scott Shay and Eric Howell, about their banks’ failings in March, Fetterman said the GOP seems “more preoccupied” with federal spending on families on food stamps than it is with bail-out funds.
As part of the debt ceiling bill the House GOP passed last month, Republicans proposed increased work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which offers a monthly stipend to buy food for millions of families nationwide.
“The Republicans want to give a work requirement for SNAP. A hungry family has to have these kind of penalties and same kinds of working requirements,” Fetterman said. “Shouldn’t you have a working requirement after we’ve spent billions on your bank?”
The executives did not respond to Fetterman’s question. After Fetterman finished, Sen. Sherrod Brown, the chair of the committee, quipped that he “didn’t see an eagerness” among the panelists to answer the pointed questions, The Hill reported.
Representatives for Fetterman did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
