Toomey and Shalala Named to Coronavirus Oversight Commission
House Republican Who Founded Bank Named to Oversee Virus Funds
(Bloomberg) --
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday announced the appointment of Representative Donna Shalala to serve on the Congressional Oversight Commission intended to police about $500 billion in coronavirus rescue loans made to industries, including airlines.
Earlier in the day, Senator Pat Toomey, a Pennsylvania Republican, was named by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to the five-member panel.
The two lawmakers join GOP Representative French Hill of Arkansas, who was chosen by House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, also on Friday, and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer’s choice, Bharat Ramamurti, a former aide to Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.
Pelosi and McConnell have yet to announce the commission’s fifth and final member, who will serve as its chairman. That person will be selected by them jointly. Pelosi said Thursday that she has been exchanging names with McConnell.
Shalala was elected to Congress from a South Florida district in 2018. She has had a long career in public service, serving as Health and Human Services secretary under President Bill Clinton and as president of Hunter College in New York.
Pelosi called her a “deeply respected and highly accomplished leader in the Congress and country, who has for decades led the fight to defend the health and economic security of the American people at the highest levels of government.”
McConnell said in an emailed statement that Toomey was “one of the sharpest members of the Senate” and “a leader on economics and finance and a key member of the Finance, Banking, and Budget committees. The commission will benefit greatly from his expertise.”
Hill, who became a House member in 2015, served in the Treasury Department under President George H.W. Bush and founded a bank in Arkansas.
McCarthy said Hill’s background “provides important expertise that will guide his advocacy of immediate and effective solutions for the American people struggling from the despair during this crisis. French will do a terrific job.”
The oversight panel 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.
Hill is a member of the House Financial Services Committee and is the top Republican on its subcommittee on national security, international development and monetary policy.
He was founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Delta Trust & Banking Corp., which was headquartered in Little Rock and recently merged with Arkansas-based Simmons First National Corp., according to his congressional biography.
Before his community banking work in Arkansas, Hill served in the Bush administration from 1989 until 1991. He was deputy assistant Treasury secretary for corporate finance.
“We are at a critical moment in our nation’s history, fighting Covid-19 and working to bring swift relief to the millions of affected families and businesses and bring our nation’s economy back to its full force,” Hill said in a statement.
Toomey said in a statement, “My goal will be to protect the taxpayers by ensuring those resources are used in an appropriate, equitable and pro-growth manner.”
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