allison in the back room and i walked out here and i saw his brother george and thought, wow, how did he get out here so quick? >> he's going to be good at this. >> exactly. very, very good. thank you, chairman dodd. i want to thank you for calling this hearing and, of course, welcome mr. allison. i want to echo the chairman's comments on thanking you for your willingness to serve and your willingness to appear before the committee today. it was milton friedman that said nothing so permanent as a temporary government program. we need to make sure that t.a.r.p. does what it needs to do and then wind it down and get the taxpayers back as soon as possible. i know you feel that way. i want to commend you, mr. allison, for your willingness to serve and your efforts at fannie mae. i also want to be mindful of what i think we're going to need to do to get out of this economic recovery. we need to be mindful of the successes of this economic turn around will be driven by small business and middle class families. it is important, as i said earlier, to repay the tax payers as quickly as possibl

my mother's father was sheriff of sioux falls, south dakota, and my brother, george allison, with me today, retired with the rank of captain after 28 years in the u.s. navy. having started my own career in the navy, i'm honored and inspired by the opportunity to return to public service. thank you very much. >> thank you very, very much. in our conversation i didn't know that your dad had been in the fbi. my father was an fbi. >> really, really? >> in fact, his first post was in sioux falls, south dakota. long before i was born, by the way. i might have been raised there. over the years. thank you. we are joined by mark warner, senator warner of virginia. mark, do you have any opening comments you'd like to make? >> senator tester told me since i was late i had to reserve my comments. >> well, john runs the show around here, so we appreciate it. let me start with some questions. i'm going to leave the clock off. i'll invite my colleagues sings there are three or four of us here to have a more informal conversation. if i start a line of questioning and you have a thought along the sam