Decorum Breaks Down at House Hearing

[SecularMotion]

Source: NY Times

WASHINGTON — A House committee hearing into the structure of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau disintegrated into heated accusations of lying to Congress on Tuesday, with the panel’s chairman accusing Elizabeth Warren of giving misleading testimony at a March hearing and of lying about her agreement to testify this week.

Representative Patrick T. McHenry, a North Carolina Republican who is chairman of a subcommittee of the House Oversight Committee, told Ms. Warren, who is directing the start-up of the consumer agency, that he believed she misled Congress with testimony in March about her role in settlement talks between federal and state authorities and mortgage servicing companies.

Ms. Warren denied Mr. McHenry’s charge, saying that she clearly stated in March that she had provided advice to officials of the Treasury and Justice Departments about their investigations of fraud among mortgage-servicing companies and about their settlement discussions with the companies.

After an hour in which Ms. Warren repeatedly parried efforts by Mr. McHenry and other Republicans to nail her down with “yes or no” answers to questions concerning her testimony in March and about the bureau’s powers and responsibilities, Mr. McHenry moved to temporarily recess the hearing to allow members to travel to the House floor for a vote on an unrelated matter.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/25/business/25consume.html?hp