Congressional Leaders Name Members of Financial Crisis Commission

House and Senate leaders have staffed the commission that will look into the causes of the ongoing economic crisis, naming Phil Angelides, former state treasurer in California, as its chairman. According to the announcement, the commission will look at major financial institutions that "were likely to fail had they not received exceptional government assistance."

American International Group Inc., for instance, received more than $170 billion in federal bailout help (BestWire, July 15, 2009).

"The men and women who we appoint to this commission must help the public gain a full understanding of why our system failed us in the past," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in a statement.

"To avoid a financial crisis of this magnitude in the future, the commission will conduct a thorough, systematic, and nonpartisan examination of the failures in both government and financial markets," Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi explained.

Democrats were entitled to name six of the 10 members of the commission, which was established by Congress. In addition to Angelides, they selected Bob Graham, a former U.S. senator and governor of Florida; Heather Murren, a former senior executive at Merrill Lynch; Byron Georgiou, who is president of Georgiou Enterprises and is on the advisory board of the Harvard Law School Program on Corporate Governance; Brooksley Born, former chairman of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission during the Clinton Administration; and John W. Thompson, chairman of the board of directors of Symantec Corp.

The Republican leadership chose former U.S. Rep. Bill Thomas, who was chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, as vice-president of the commission. The other members will be Peter Wallison, former White House counsel and general counsel for Treasury during the Reagan Administration; Doug Holtz-Eakin, former director of the Congressional Budget Office; and Keith Hennessey, senior White House economic adviser to President George W. Bush.

"It is crucial that, as this institution continues to move forward on efforts to modernize financial regulations and address those problems already uncovered, we simultaneously have an in-depth, independent investigation of what went wrong," said Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn, who is chairman of the Senate's Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, in a statement.