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WASHINGTON — Democrats will hold sway on a new independent commission to investigate the cause of the financial meltdown and chart the nation's path ahead, with the majority party picking six members and Republicans four.
While a Republican senator helped write the legislation creating the commission and says it's a fair approach, and nearly all congressional Republicans have endorsed the measure, the uneven split on the proposed Financial Markets Inquiry Commission could call into question the group's impartiality and hamper its ability to raise consensus on the issue.
Lawmakers are comparing it to the widely respected 9/11 Commission, which investigated the nation's response to the 2001 terrorist attacks. But that panel, along with the Iraq Study Group, was evenly divided between five Democrats and five Republicans.
While it is not uncommon for a congressionally appointed panel to favor the majority party, high-profile issues often are given an even split to try to generate consensus.
The president hasn't received the bill yet and already the 6-4 split designated in the measure has prompted partisan jabs.
In a statement Wednesday, Republican Study Committee Chairman Tom Price, R-Ga., accused House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., of "political opportunism" for putting the bill on the House floor.
Price did not mention that his counterpart in the Senate, Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., co-sponsored the bill with Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D. He also did not mention that Republicans overwhelmingly agreed in a 92-4 vote to adopt the measure as part of a broader bill to prevent mortgage fraud.
The House on Wednesday followed suit, passing the Senate bill in a 367-59 vote and sending it back to the Senate for a final vote.
"While the American people demand straight answers, the majority has decided that solutions should take a back seat to partisanship," Price said.
Isakson said in an interview late Wednesday that the bill had been changed somewhat from his original proposal, which would have given the Federal Reserve and the administration a chance to nominate members. But, he said, the final bill was carefully negotiated among Republican and Democratic leaders to make sure each side's viewpoints would be protected.
For example, the Senate bill gives each co-chair the power to issue subpoenas and interview witnesses.
"We tried to do it as balanced as possible," Isakson said.
Under the bill, the commission would focus on more than 20 areas, including how the government failed to protect investors and the role financial fraud may have played in the meltdown. The group would report its findings by Dec. 15, 2010.
