On November 14, 2008, Ms. Warren was appointed by United States Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to chair the five-member Congressional Oversight Panel created to oversee the implementation of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act. The Panel releases monthly oversight reports that evaluate the government bailout and related programs.
The Panel's monthly reports have covered foreclosure mitigation, consumer and small business lending, commercial real estate, AIG, bank stress tests, the impact of TARP on the financial markets, government guarantees, the automotive industry, and many other topics. The Panel has also released special reports on financial regulatory reform and farm loans. For each report, Warren releases a video on the Congressional Oversight Panel's website explaining key findings. All reports and videos are available at cop.senate.gov.
In her role as Chair of the Panel, Warren has testified many times before House and Senate committees on financial issues.
In an interview at Newsweek, December 7, 2009 entitled "Reining in, and Reigning Over, Wall Street" Elizabeth Warren was asked: "
Congress is trying to reform financial regulation, and it can get a little abstract. Where should people focus?"
She responded:
- To restore some basic sanity to the financial system, we need two central changes: fix broken consumer-credit markets and end guarantees for the big players that threaten our entire economic system. If we get those two key parts right, we can still dial the rest of the regulation up and down as needed. But if we don't get those two right, I think the game is over. I hate to sound alarmist, but that's how I feel about this.