As part of her work on a Congressional panel overseeing the Treasury Department’s economic bailout plan, Harvard Law School Professor Elizabeth Warren is testifying before the House Financial Services Committee today. Staff members predict that Warren will testify after noon today.
The hearing marks the first report issued by the Congressional Oversight Panel for Economic Stabilization, which Warren chairs. The report outlines 10 topics for both lawmakers and the panel itself to address as the Treasury Department’s Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) is implemented. Detailed questions are raised, which the panel says have not yet been answered by the administration.
“These are the tough questions that people all over the country are asking,” Elizabeth Warren said in the Washington Post today. “We are issuing the official report asking those same questions. They are tough. This is $700 billion we are talking about. I ask tough questions when I buy a car.”
Representative Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), the lone Republican on the panel, voted against recommendations in the report, setting up a possible partisan debate about the use of TARP funds. Hensarling will join Warren in testifying today.