CARES Act panel still has no leader

The Congressional Oversight Commission, created by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, still lacks a chairman, more than a year after the legislation’s passage.

But one of its members, U.S. Rep. French Hill, R-Ark., said the body has performed its duties, despite the vacancy.

Last week, the commission released its 11th report on CARES-related lending programs.

“I don’t think our work has been inhibited,” the former Little Rock banker said.

The bipartisan body was designed to monitor up to $500 billion in covid-19-related relief funds that were earmarked for business loans, loan guarantees and other investments.

That money had been entrusted to the Treasury Department, which was working with the Federal Reserve to shore up an economy battered by the global health pandemic.

Since its formation, the commission has scrutinized many of the lending programs, including a fund of up to $17 billion that was targeted “for businesses critical to maintaining national security.”

Under the legislation, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.; Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.; House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.; and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., were each authorized to appoint one member.

The chairman was supposed to be jointly selected by Pelosi and McConnell, but they failed to find a candidate who was acceptable to both leaders and willing to lead.

With Democrats in power, the task now falls to Pelosi and Schumer, the new Senate majority leader.