Senators say path now clear to confirm bailout IG

[The Straight Story]

Senators say path now clear to confirm bailout IG
CongressDaily December 4, 2008

An anonymous senator has lifted a hold that delayed confirmation of an attorney tapped to oversee use of Troubled Asset Relief Program funds, senators said Thursday.

Senate Banking Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., announced Nov. 21 that a secret hold by a Republican senator prevented the Senate from voting before Thanksgiving to confirm Neil Barofsky, a prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's Office for New York's Southern District, as special inspector general for TARP.

The post was created under the bailout bill to oversee the use of TARP funds. Pressure to confirm Barofsky has since ratcheted up amid criticism of Treasury's use of TARP money and a Government Accountability Office report citing lack of oversight over program spending.

In announcing the removal of the hold Thursday, Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. and Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., urged the Senate to quickly confirm Barofsky by unanimous consent, should it convene next week. "Time is short and the stakes are high," they said in a joint statement.

The senator who placed the hold has not been indentified.

A spokesman for Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., who was publicly critical of Barofsky's nomination, has declined to say if the senator placed the hold.

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