The Congressional Oversight Panel, led by Harvard Law School Professor Elizabeth Warren, held a hearing with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner yesterday.
The hearing came on the heels of a new report that the panel released Wednesday discussing the Treasury Department’s use of TARP funds in support of the auto industry. Since the Treasury Department used TARP money to bailout the auto industry, the American taxpayers now own 10% of Chrysler and 61% of GM.
In order to protect taxpayers interests, the Panel recommends that the Treasury department be completely transparent in actions associated with the companies. The Panel further urged Treasury to consider placing its GM and Chrysler shares in an independent trust that would be insulated from political pressure and government interference.
The Congressional Oversight Panel was created to oversee the expenditure of Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds authorized by Congress in the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (EESA). The Oversight Panel members are former Securities and Exchange Commissioner Paul S. Atkins, Congressman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), Richard H. Neiman, Superintendent of Banks for the State of New York, Damon Silvers, Associate General Counsel of the AFL-CIO, and Elizabeth Warren, Leo Gottlieb Professor of Law at Harvard Law School.