Watchdogs: Campaign Finance Agency Is AWOL
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on February 18th, 2011 5:44 am by HL
Watchdogs: Campaign Finance Agency Is AWOL
A coalition of watchdog groups are calling for Congressional hearings into what they regard as systematic failings of the Federal Election Commission, the agency charged with enforcing campaign finance law. In a letter to the top Republicans and Democrats on the House and Senate oversight committees, the coalition urges the panels to hold hearings on the FEC’s “frequent refusal to enforce the campaign finance laws passed by Congress.”
Issa Issues Broad Countrywide VIP Loan Subpoena
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, expanded a prior investigation into the Countrywide Financial Corporation’s infamous VIP loan program by issuing a wide-ranging subpoena aimed at exposing the mortgage giant’s efforts to win friends and influence people at the highest levels of government. Issa’s subpoena, announced Wednesday night, was sent to Bank of America, which purchased Countrywide just before the worst of the nation’s economic crisis hit. The subpoena asks for all documents and requests related to Countrywide’s VIP program, which implicated Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND) and former Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT), the then-chairman of the Banking Committee.