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WASHINGTON – Paul S. Atkins, a former member of the Securities and Exchange Commission and strong advocate of free-market capitalism, has been appointed to the congressional panel overseeing the $700 billion financial bailout.
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., on Thursday said he had appointed Atkins to the vacancy on the Congressional Oversight Panel created after former Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H., stepped down in July.
Former President George W. Bush appointed Atkins, who had served as a staffer for two SEC chairmen, as a commissioner in 2002. He held the position until last year.
Atkins said he looked forward to helping the panel ensure the taxpayer money is serving its purpose, and that taxpayers will get their money back. He said his experience as a regulator, a lawyer on corporate finance deals and a compliance consultant would help him to ask the right questions.
"I think that experience is very relevant," Atkins said in an interview. "I really look forward to rolling my sleeves up and getting to work with the folks who are there, finding out what they've done so far and working with them to help fulfill the mandate Congress has given them."
Atkins said the panel's most important job was to help Congress answer questions from constituents about how the bailouts are being handled.
"You've heard it through some of these town halls on health care and other things," he said. "There are people wondering what's going on with their money they're paying into Washington."
While on the SEC, Atkins criticized regulatory actions he saw as anticompetitive or burdensome — including requiring hedge fund managers to register and forcing mutual fund boards to have independent chairmen.
Atkins said it was too soon to say how his participation might change the panel's priorities, because "it's one thing to be on the outside, but you don't really know what's going on until you actually are in the seat."
Sununu and the other Republican on the panel, Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, have criticized its reports for asking questions about consumer credit and other issues they said went beyond the body's official mandate.
The bailout panel was created as part of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. It is designed to provide an additional layer of oversight, beyond the Special Inspector General for the TARP and regular audits by the Government Accountability Office.
The panel has issued a series of reports on the government's financial bailout programs, raising questions about their management and oversight. It is headed by Harvard Law School professor Elizabeth Warren. The remaining members are Richard Neiman, superintendent of banks at the New York State Banking Department; and Damon Silvers, associate counsel at the AFL-CIO.
"Paul Atkins will bring valuable insights to the Congressional Oversight Panel's efforts to increase the accountability of the Troubled Asset Relief Program," Warren said in a statement. "I look forward to working with him."
