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Congressional Oversight Panel: Congressional Oversight Panel Holds First Field Hearing

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Home > Press > Congressional Oversight Panel Holds First Field Hearing

Congressional Oversight Panel Holds First Field Hearing
December 16, 2008
For immediate release

Contact
Caleb Weaver

Clark County, NV—Ground Zero of the
Housing and Financial Crises
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Today, the Congressional Oversight Panel held its first field hearing
in Clark County, Nevada, the center of the housing and financial crises that have buffeted
the country during the past year. Data released last week showed that Nevada has been the
state with the highest foreclosure rate for 23 straight months. Clark County has been the
center of the foreclosure crisis in the state, with an expected 30,000 foreclosures in Clark
County in 2008, an increase of nearly 300% from last year.
"An important part of the Congressional Oversight Panel's job is to make sure that the
voice of the public is heard, and there is no better place to hear what the American people
have to say than in the county that has been ground zero of the foreclosure crisis," said
Elizabeth Warren, Chair of the Panel. "Addressing the financial crisis can't be just about
Wall Street, or even just about Main Street, it has to be about the 30,000 homeowners in
Clark County alone that have lost their homes this year and the families that are struggling
all over the country."
At the hearing, which is the first of several hearings to be held over the next few months,
the Panel sought information from a broad spectrum of independent sources and expertise
about the nature and cause of the current financial situation, the impact of federal
government actions to date to address the economic crisis, and local initiatives to address
the crisis.
The Panel was scheduled to hear testimony from the following witnesses:
George Burns, Commissioner,
Nevada Financial Institutions Division
R. Keith Schwer, Director,
Center for Business and Economic Research, UNLV
Bill Uffelman, President & Chief Executive Officer,
Nevada Bankers Association
Gail Burks, President and Chief Executive Officer,
Nevada Fair Housing Center
Julie Murray, Chief Executive Officer,
Three Square Food Bank
Danny Thompson, Executive Secretary-Treasurer,
Nevada State AFL-CIO
Alfred Estrada, Resident of Clark County
The Panel was also scheduled to hear from the following elected officials:

http://cybercemetery.unt.edu/archive/cop/20110401231610/http://cop.senate.gov/press/releases/release-121608-firsthearing.cfm[12/15/2015 11:40:51 AM]

Congressional Oversight Panel: Congressional Oversight Panel Holds First Field Hearing

Harry Reid, United States Senate Majority Leader (D-NV)
Shelley Berkley, Congresswoman (D-NV)
Dina Titus, Congresswoman-elect (D-NV)
The hearing was held at the Thomas and Mack Moot Court at the University of Nevada-Las
Vegas Law School, and was broadcast live on the Panel's website at www.cop.senate.gov.
Three of the Panel's four members attended the hearing: Elizabeth Warren, Richard H.
Neiman, and Damon Silvers.
Members of the public unable to attend the hearing are encouraged to pose their own
questions, make their own suggestions, and share their personal stories through the Panel's
website at www.cop.senate.gov.
The Congressional Oversight Panel was created to oversee the expenditure of Troubled
Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds authorized by Congress in the Emergency Economic
Stabilization Act of 2008 (EESA). The Panel is required by law to review the "current
state of the market and the regulatory system" and provide reports to Congress and the
American public on the effectiveness of the Treasury Department's management of the
Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and offer recommendations for regulatory
reform. The Panel members are: Congressman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), Richard H.
Neiman, Superintendent of Banks for the State of New York, Damon Silvers, Associate
General Counsel of the AFL-CIO, and Elizabeth Warren, Leo Gottlieb Professor of Law at
Harvard Law School. The Panel is currently awaiting the appointment of the fifth and
final member.
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