Patrick McHenryChairman

Washington, May 16, 2011 - Cassie Wilkinson of Austin, Texas was able to pose a question to a witness during a congressional hearing, even though she’s not a member of Congress.

She asked her question during a House Financial Services subcommittee hearing on Friday thanks to a new feature on the committee’s website called YourWitness.

Unveiled last week, YourWitness invites citizens to submit questions that members of the Financial Services Committee can ask specific hearing witnesses.

Ms. Wilkinson asked for a Committee member to pose a question to witness Julie Pruiett, a Securities and Exchange Commission official who was a whistleblower in the Stanford Ponzi Scheme.

Rep. Randy Neugebauer, the Chairman of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, led off the hearing’s second panel by posing the Texas woman’s question, which was:

“As Allen Stanford's alleged Ponzi scheme began to rapidly grow and it was apparent that the losses to the investors would be massive, was there ever any conversation with supervisors in your department about the impact this was going to have on the investors' lives and what SEC's responsibility is to the investors? If so, who did you speak with and what was the outcome of that conversation?”

To watch a video of the question being asked and the witness’s answer, click HERE.

The YourWitness feature and other information about the Financial Services Committee can be found online at /