TARP Oversight Panel

The TARP Oversight Panel (also called the Congressional Oversight Panel) is a bipartisan panel charged with overseeing the Troubled Asset Relief Program funds authorized by Congress in the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 and to provide recommendations on regulatory reform. The panel is chaired by Elizabeth Warren. The Panel members are: 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, former US Senator John E. Sununu (R-NH), and Elizabeth Warren, Leo Gottlieb Professor of Law at Harvard Law School.

The Oversight Panel is empowered to hold hearings, review official data, and write reports on actions taken by Treasury and financial institutions and their effect on the economy.

The Panel must produce regular reports that:

• Oversee Treasury’s actions
• Assess the impact of spending to stabilize the economy
• Evaluate market transparency
• Ensure effective foreclosure mitigation efforts
• And guarantee that Treasury’s actions are in the best interest of the American people.

Congress also instructed COP to produce a special report on regulatory reform to analyze “the current state of the regulatory system and its effectiveness at overseeing the participants in the financial system and protecting consumers.”