Politics and Policy : The Creation of the Resolution Trust Corporation

The RTC created by FIRREA's enactment was recognizably the product of the administration's approach, but the new agency also reflected changes made during the legislative process. The RTC emerged both more defined by statutory requirements and more accountable to the public, but also more cumbersome by virtue of an intragovernmental battle for authority and the potentially contradictory goals that Congress grafted onto the structure. All the changes would significantly affect the way in which the RTC would carry out its work. This paper presents an overview of the administration's initial plan and the changes it underwent. The process by which those changes were achieved is spelled out in detail in subsequent sections. The appendix briefly recapitulates the history of the FADA and the 1988 FSLIC deals and the ways in which FIRREA proposed to dispose of both of them