WASHINGTON (AP) — The House’s major investigative committee will explore financial bailouts and the foreclosure crisis on Jan. 26, in the panel’s initial hearing this year.
Chairman Darrell Issa (ice-uh), of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, invited special inspector general Neil Barofsky and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to testify.
Barofsky has investigated failures in the government’s financial bailout program and problems with the Obama administration’s Home Affordable Mortgage Program to alleviate foreclosures.
The inspector general’s next quarterly report is to be released the day of the hearing.
A Treasury Department spokesman, Steve Adamske, said the oversight of TARP is welcome.
“The secretary welcomes the committee’s interest in our management of TARP, a successful program that was initiated under the prior administration,” Adamske said.
He added Tim Massad, the assistant secretary who oversees the TARP program, would be made available for the quarterly updates, and Geithner himself would brief the committee at a mutually convenient time on “the considerable progress we have made in lowering the cost of TARP.”
The bailout program began under President George W. Bush, a Republican, and now operates under a Democratic president.
Issa said, “It’s a fitting subject for bipartisan oversight.”