Congressional Leaders Given Short Notice for AIG Briefing, Senator Says
TUX
New Hampshire Union Leader
Jenny Paul
Boston University Washington News Service
September 18, 2008
WASHINGTON – A Tuesday night meeting called to brief congressional leaders on the federal government’s $85 billion takeover of insurance giant American International Group, Inc. was pulled together so quickly that Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) didn’t have time to change out of the tuxedo he had planned to wear to a black-tie gala that evening.
Gregg, the senior Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, attended the 6:40 p.m. meeting at the Capitol dressed for an award ceremony at the National Archives to honor Civil War historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning author James McPherson. Gregg said an aide told him about the meeting at 6:15 p.m., so he rushed from his Washington, apartment to the Capitol, where Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and top congressional leaders were gathering.
“It was a very sober meeting,” Gregg said. “I mean, you’re dealing with a major economic event, which has massive implications for a lot of people…because AIG is the insurer essentially for most of the banking system of this country, so if it had gone under, it would have taken a lot of banks with it.”
After the briefing, Gregg said he returned to his apartment to pick up his wife, Kathy, who had flown from New Hampshire to attend the gala. They made it to the National Archives in time to hear McPherson’s speech, he said.
“We’re big supporters of the Archives,” Gregg said. “I think they’re really one of the unique resources of our nation.”
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