Dunford Is Leading Contender for Chairman of Oversight Panel

(Bloomberg) -- Retired Marine General Joseph Dunford, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is the leading candidate to head the bipartisan Congressional Oversight Commission that’s policing about $500 billion in coronavirus rescue loans made to industries, according to four people familiar with the matter.

The selection of the chairman is the shared responsibility of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and the choice of Dunford hasn’t been finalized. One person said Dunford was going through background and ethics checks. Spokesmen for Pelosi and McConnell would not comment.

Dunford was chairman of the Joint Chiefs from 2015 until 2019, and before that he served as Marine Corps commandant.

A key focus of Dunford’s vetting process is resolving any conflict he may have with his role on the board of Lockheed Martin Corp., according to a fourth person familiar, who like the other people requested not to be named to discuss a process that is not public. Dunford was appointed to the defense contractor’s board in January.

Dow Jones and Politico reported earlier that Dunford was the top contender for the post.

The panel’s other four members were named in April and they already have issued two reports. They were appointed by Pelosi, McConnell, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy. They are: Democratic Representative Donna Shalala of Florida; GOP Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania; Bharat Ramamurti, a former aide to Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts; and GOP Representative French Hill of Arkansas.

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Shalala told reporters Thursday that the biggest hindrance from the panel’s lack of a chairman has been the inability to hire staff. But she said the commission would meet the deadline to issue its third report.

“We are working closely together, collegially. And we’re going to get the work done,” she said. “The most important thing is we’re filling our responsibility and we’re clearly issuing reports.”

In a report issued earlier this month, the watchdog panel said pandemic relief efforts by the Treasury and the Federal Reserve bolstered the corporate bond market, but might be falling short in helping small business and state and local governments get access to loans.

The commission was created at the insistence of congressional Democrats during negotiations with President Donald Trump’s administration over the $2.2 trillion coronavirus stimulus legislation known as the Cares Act.

The panel has a term of five years, and it’s modeled after a similar temporary oversight commission that reviewed the Troubled Asset Relief Program in the wake of the 2008 economic crisis.

The oversight commission is one of several bodies created to monitor the flood of spending intended to help struggling airlines, corporations, main street businesses and hospitals amid the pandemic’s shutdown of the economy.

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