Washington, D.C. -  Today, Congressman Joe Donnelly lauded the Federal Reserve’s announcement on Friday that the final terms of the TALF (Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility) program will include consumer loans and dealer floorplan loans for recreational vehicles (RVs) during a House Financial Services Committee hearing. During the hearing, Donnelly also questioned Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke on how soon the RV industry can expect to see results.

“I was pleased to learn that the recreational vehicle industry was included in the final terms of the TALF program,” Donnelly said. “The RV industry is the lifeblood of our area, and I fought hard to make sure that RV dealers can access loans to buy inventory and consumers can access loans to buy RVs. Today, I asked Fed Chairman Bernanke exactly how the TALF program is expected to benefit RV consumers and businesses and how soon we will see results. This is the first step toward getting this essential industry back on its feet.”

The TALF program was announced this past November as a way to increase liquidity and free up credit through the act of lending investors money to purchase asset-backed securities (ABS) from financial institutions. When ABS are purchased from banks, the banks are then free to make more loans to small businesses and consumers to help the flow of liquidity.

As originally proposed in November, the Federal Reserve included automobile loans, student loans, credit card loans and small business loans to comprise asset-backed securities purchased through the TALF program.  Donnelly fought to get RVs included as qualified automobile loans and to expand help to RV dealers.  This past Friday, Fed officials finalized their guidelines and included RV floorplan loans, so dealers can purchase inventory, and loans to those consumers wishing to buy an RV. 

Yesterday, during his visit to Elkhart and during his national press conference last night, President Obama recognized the importance of freeing up credit to the survival of the RV industry. 

“You've got a bunch of RV companies that have customers who want to purchase RVs, but even though their credit is good, they can't get the loan. Now, the businesses also can't get loans to make payments to their suppliers. But when they have consumers, consumers can't get the loans that they need,” President Obama said.

Today, Donnelly questioned the Fed Chairman Bernanke on how soon the RV industry can expect to see results from the new provisions included in the TALF program.

“As President Obama stressed yesterday, we must free up credit in order to make the RV industry profitable once again,” Donnelly said. “The new provisions announced in the TALF program are designed to achieve this goal. I look forward to continuing to work to make sure we see the benefits of these provisions as soon as possible.”

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