Elizabeth Warren's TARP panel under scrutiny, members paid $200,000/yr, won't disclose where $10,000,000 in taxpayer funds went

Politico
Sep. 22, 2011

Elizabeth Warren became a hero of the left for her unrelenting pursuit of accountability and transparency with big banks and Wall Street firms that took billions of dollars in federal bailout money in 2008.

But when it comes to how her own bailout watchdog committee spent more than $10 million in taxpayer money, Warren has been a lot less forthcoming.

Warren, who is seeking the Democratic Senate nomination in Massachusetts to take on Republican Scott Brown, has yet to break down exactly how her congressional panel spent the money on travel expenses, meals and consultants, nor has Warren revealed the total amount she was paid while serving as chairman.

The Congressional Oversight Panel, which existed for more than two years, has not yet disclosed any other staff salaries either — even though the five-member panel was created and run by Congress, where nearly every staffer salary and office expense, from plane tickets to bottled water, is publicly available.

In fact, Warren opposed GOP efforts to draft a budget for the bipartisan oversight panel, despite telling The Associated Press in 2008 that she wouldn’t buy a winter coat without a spending plan. [...]

Under the Troubled Asset Relief Program law, members of the oversight panel were paid for each day they worked at the same salary as a Cabinet secretary, roughly $200,000 a year, though the number of days they worked has not been disclosed. And panel members could hire and pay staffers whatever salary they deemed appropriate.

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