News List

Several months ago this blog noted that Australia’s richest citizen secured a nearly $700 million loan for a new mining project from American taxpayers thanks to the U.S. Export-Import. Now the Australian Business Review is reporting that the project “is set for very large losses.” In the short term, the capital costs for Gina Rinehart’s Roy Hill mine are almost certain to… Read more »

Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) today announced the committee’s hearing schedule for this week: Wednesday, February 11 at 10:00 A.M. - A full committee hearing with Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro to discuss the financial status of the Federal Housing Administration.  This hearing will take place in room HVC-210 of the House Visitors… Read more »

Subcommittee Examines Legal and Ethical Violations at HUD The Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee heard testimony at its hearing on Wednesday that senior officials at the Department of Housing and Urban Development broke federal law and faced minor consequences for various ethical and legal violations. In its coverage of the hearing testimony, the Washington Post reported the… Read more »

Senior officials at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) – some of whom were presidentially-appointed and Senate-confirmed – broke federal law and violated employment practices, according to investigators from HUD’s Office of Inspector General and the Government Accountability Office (GAO). In testimony today before the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight… Read more »

Allegations that senior HUD officials violated federal law and obstructed investigators’ efforts to uncover potential wrongdoing will be discussed at tomorrow’s 10 a.m. hearing of the Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. Both HUD’s inspector general and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) have recently investigated and reported on potential ethical… Read more »

Washington ‘Rolling the Dice’ Again on Risky Housing Schemes At a hearing on Tuesday, members of the committee voiced their strong concerns to the Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency regarding recent FHFA actions that could repeat the same mistakes that led to the financial crisis. "Contrary to the fable told by the left, the root cause of the financial crisis was not… Read more »

  CLICK HERE TO WATCH Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) delivered the following opening statement at today’s full committee hearing with Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mel Watt:   As Yogi Berra once famously said, “It's déjà vu all over again.” Memories are clearly… Read more »

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) appeared on C-SPAN’s Newsmakers this past Sunday to discuss his thoughts on the President’s State of the Union speech, fundamental tax reform, the economy, and the need for Congress to pass sustainable housing finance reform. You can watch the entire interview by clicking below. Excerpts that may be of interest: Tax… Read more »

  CLICK HERE TO WATCH In this week's FSC Video Message, members give their thoughts on the president’s State of the Union speech.  Read more »

Committee Adopts Oversight Plan On Wednesday the Committee voted unanimously to adopt the Committee's oversight plan for the 114th Congress. "No one in Washington – Republican or Democrat – should ever be allowed to carelessly spend the hard-eared taxpayers’ money. And that is why this committee will continually and vigilantly monitor every agency and every program under our… Read more »