WSJ: Oversight Panel To Question Whether Bailout Is 'Giveaway' -results out tomorrow

[babylonsister]

Oversight Panel to Criticize TARP

By DAMIAN PALETTA and DEBORAH SOLOMON


WASHINGTON -- The panel set up to oversee the Treasury Department $700 billion financial-rescue fund is expected to release a report Wednesday highly critical of the government's handling of the bailout, people familiar with the matter said. It will also press the Bush administration to act more aggressively to prevent foreclosures, these people said.

The report isn't expected to contain any new findings but is expected to raise fresh questions about the program at a time when many lawmakers expect the Bush administration to seek access to the second half of the funds.

The panel's top official, Harvard Law School professor Elizabeth Warren, is scheduled to describe her findings to the House Financial Services Committee Wednesday. Among other things, a draft of the report posed 10 questions to Treasury, which pressed officials for a clearer strategy, asked whether there is sufficient accountability, and why more hasn't been done to help prevent foreclosures.

The roughly 30-page report is also expected to press Treasury to describe whether the money used to inject capital into the banking sector is a "giveaway" or a "fair deal," according to one person familiar with the report.

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