Press Releases

Oversight Hearing Scheduled to Question Stimulus Waste

WASHINGTON D.C. – House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Ranking Member Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Subcommittee Ranking Member Jim Jordan (R-OH) today, at a House hearing featuring Interim Assistant Secretary for Financial Stability Neel Kashkari, demanded that the Treasury Department take immediate steps to increase transparency of TARP funds approved by Congress as part of the $700 billion bailout. “After two Administrations and roughly six months of the blind ...

WASHINGTON. D.C. – House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Ranking Member Darrell Issa (R-CA) made the following statement on Chairman Edolphus Towns’ announcement that committee attorneys will begin a detailed investigation into allegations that Merrill Lynch provided misleading information to Congress regarding bonuses for its top executives: “Providing false or withholding key information from congressional investigators is a crime that ...

WASHINGTON. D.C. – House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Ranking Member Darrell Issa (R-CA) provided testimony today calling on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to deny the State of California’s request to institute and enforce its own vehicle emissions standards. “One uniform national standard for fuel economy is in every way preferable to a patchwork of state standards,” Issa said in his testimony. “Duplicative fuel ...

WASHINGTON. D.C. – While speaking today about the need to reform the federal contracting and procurement process, President Obama talked about the fiscal disaster he “inherited” and spoke about the need to “turn the tide on an era of fiscal irresponsibility so that we can sustain our recovery.” “If President Obama wants to do more than cast partisan blame for deficits created and expanded in a slowing economy by Congressional Democrats he should ...

WASHINGTON. D.C. – House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Ranking Member Darrell Issa (R-CA) today, released a letter to the attorney of former Fannie Mae CEO Franklin Raines advising him to revise statements in his testimony indicating that he did not receive preferential treatment as a “Friend of Angelo” and member of the Countrywide VIP program. “The involvement of Countrywide’s VIP unit in the refinancing of Mr. Raines’ mortgage and ...

WASHINGTON. D.C. – House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Ranking Member Darrell Issa (R-CA) who was named to the newly-formed House-Senate Fiscal Responsibility Working Group, today sent Vice President Joe Biden a letter requesting his office to “provide this Committee with its plan to oversee the implementation of nearly $800 billion in taxpayer funds” by March 12th. “If the Troubled Asset Relief Program (“TARP”) is any ...

WASHINGTON. D.C. – House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Ranking Member Darrell Issa (R-CA) today, at a hearing on problems identified by a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on the GSA’s Excluded Parties List System (EPLS), called for new training and technology to play a role in eliminating serious mistakes in the awarding of Federal contracts. “In the past six months, this Congress has approved a $700 billion bailout of Wall ...

WASHINGTON – Today, Congressman Patrick McHenry, Ranking Member of the House Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census, and National Archives sent the letter below to President Obama’s nominee for Secretary of Commerce. In anticipation of former Washington Governor Gary Locke’s confirmation hearing, Congressman McHenry asks, “Do you intend to comply with the partisan ambitions of the President or to fulfill your constitutional obligation as Secretary of Commerce and ...

WASHINGTON. D.C. – House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Ranking Member Darrell Issa (R-CA) released the following statement on President Obama’s address to a Joint Session of Congress this evening: “Across the ideological spectrum, Republicans and Democrats alike recognize the need for what President Obama called an ‘unprecedented oversight effort’ to ensure that taxpayer dollars are accounted for and spent wisely.  At a time when the ...