House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy announced Friday he had named Rep. French Hill (R-Ark.) to the five-member congressional panel overseeing the Trump administration’s implementation of a massive new coronavirus relief law.
Hill, in this third term, is a businessman from central Arkansas and member of the House Financial Services Committee. He’s just the second appointee to a bipartisan commission meant to be Congress’ main tool to monitor a $500 billion Treasury fund for distressed industries and businesses amid the pandemic.
McCarthy revealed the selection of French during a call with the House GOP caucus Friday and later cited the lawmaker’s experience as a Treasury Department official and private banker in a news release.
The panel has so far languished in disuse as congressional leaders have yet to choose enough members to constitute a quorum.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer announced his pick last week, choosing former Bharat Ramamurti, a former aide to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, to join the panel. But Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have yet to choose their appointees. McConnell and Pelosi are also charged with jointly picking the panel’s chair but haven’t settled on a selection.
Pelosi told reporters Thursday that she would be making her choice “pretty soon,” calling the panel “important” and “immediate.” She declined to indicate how long it may take for her to reach agreement with McConnell on a chair.
The Congressional Oversight Commission is one of three mechanisms created in the $2.2 trillion coronavirus emergency relief package known as the CARES Act to monitor implementation of the law. The others also are not yet fully operational.
President Donald Trump has nominated a newly established inspector general for pandemic response — meant to monitor the same $500 billion fund as the congressional panel — but his choice of a White House lawyer for the post has generated controversy and is unlikely to be confirmed for weeks, since lawmakers are not in Washington.
And a panel of current inspectors general was upended by Trump earlier this month when he demoted Glenn Fine, the Pentagon watchdog picked to be the new committee’s chairman. A successor has yet to be named, and inspectors general have been talking to lawmakers about changing the criteria of who may serve as the committee’s leader.
Pelosi has indicated she intends to launch a new select committee, to conduct oversight of the CARES Act, chaired by Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.), but she has yet to name its members and likely will need a House vote to formally establish the panel.
Hill’s long career as a community banker was preceded by stints as a Treasury official in George H.W. Bush’s administration, where he was involved in technical assistance to Eastern and Central Europe after the collapse of the Soviet Union. He also helped Bush coordinate economic issues on the Economic Policy Council.
