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Sen. Maria Cantwell says there has been likewise much secrecy, too little planning and too little oversight surrounding the infusion of billions of federal dollars into the U.S. banking system.

“Transparency is critically of moment,” said. Cantwell, D-Wash. “We need to know where the currency is going, and how it is actuality exhausted.”

In the fall, Cantwell voted against the initial release of $350 billion to the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Earlier this month, Cantwell was common of nine Senate Democrats who voted against the remit of another $350 billion. That money had been requested by then President-elect Obama, who seeks to funnel more financial aid to homeowners, consumers and students seeking loans.

Obama’s lance was enough to bring most senators over to his edge, including Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.

But Cantwell says she is uneasy through the role that the government has played in picking winners and losers in the banking industry. Before approving the supporter $350 billion, she wanted to see guidelines established that lay out the public-policy goals behind the distributions.

“There’s been basically not one aim,” Cantwell said.

Cantwell said she does not long for to see the banks pressured into making bad loans with the treaty funds. But Cantwell also is troubled by some complaints she has received about viable businesses struggling to obtain financing from banks that have current money from TARP.

This month, she has been fielding complaints from businesses caught up in the Jan. 16 failure of Bank of Clark County in Vancouver. These businesses hoped to be seized of their credit lines picked up by Umpqua Bank, based in Oregon, which had received $214 million in TARP funds and took over the ensured deposits of the Bank of Clark County.

But there has been in no degree quick abalienate of lines of credit. It will be weeks before Umpqua sorts through the Bank of Clark County loan portfolio, and finalizes decisions on the sort of customers to take from the failed bank. In the meantime, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has stepped in to thrust what’s left of the Bank of Clark County, and suspended home-equity lines of evidence of debt.

“We had these businesses complain that their lines of power were shut down,” Cantwell said.

Dan Sullivan, some Umpqua executive vice president, said there are several hundred loans left behind by the failed bank and it will take weeks to review them. He said scrutiny is needed.

“There’s a pretty hard process you go through, especially in these relating to housekeeping times,” Sullivan said.

Hal Bernton: 206-464-2581 or hbernton@seattletimes.com