Emerson wins leadership post on panel overseeing Treasury

U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson will be the top Republican on a Congressional subcommittee that directs spending for the U.S. Treasury, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the White House.

Emerson, who has been in Congress since 1996, will be the ranking minority member on the Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government Appropriations. In addition to setting spending amounts for the agencies, the subcommittee has watchdog responsibilities that will cover agencies that are deeply involved in bailing out and watching over the financial services industry.

The Treasury, for example, has spent $350 billion to aid banks in recent months, made loans to car makers General Motors and Chrysler to help them survive the recession and joined with the Federal Reserve to provide billions of dollars to prevent the failure of major financial firms such as AIG. Emerson voted for the bank bailout bill that passed Congress in October. She also voted for the measure to aid automakers that was defeated in the Senate.

"We have a great responsibility to the American people to assure that their tax dollars are being spent wisely and well," Emerson said in a news release announcing her new job. "The Financial Services subcommittee conducts a great deal of oversight to make sure the administration is accountable to the American people. During tough economic times and the recent expansion of the U.S. Treasury's authority, the obligation of the Financial Services subcommittee has never been more important."

In the previous Congress, Emerson was a member of the subcommittees on Agriculture and Energy, Water and the Interior.

Other agencies under the financial services subcommittee's jurisdiction include the Federal Communications Commission, the Small Business Administration and the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The subcommittee conducted inquiries into all three of those agencies, as well as the operations of the Department of the Treasury, during 2008.

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