Issa to Hold Hearings on TARP
The Hill reports:
The Oversight and Government Reform Committee will hold its first hearing of the 112th Congress on bailouts and the foreclosure crisis on Jan. 26.
The main witness will be Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP). The committee, led by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), also invited Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, but the release did not confirm his attendance.
Barofsky will release his quarterly report on the day of the hearing. Previous reports have addressed failures in providing a transparent way to evaluate TARP awards, the continued failure of the government’s Home Affordable Mortgage Program to alleviate foreclosures, and questions surrounding the Treasury Department’s bailout of AIG.
“The Oversight Committee’s first hearing will offer Members the opportunity to question the Treasury Department on concerns that have been raised again and again by SIGTARP Barofsky,” Issa said in a statement. “TARP was conceived by a Republican Administration, approved by a Democratic Congress, and has operated for two years under the current Administration. It’s a fitting subject for bipartisan oversight in the new Congress.”
