The Hill News

Congress is to blame for misuse of TARP funds the ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government reform said Wednesday.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the new chairman of the oversight committee, said in an interview with CNN today that the 111th Congress had misused the nearly $1 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program funds implemented under the Bush Administration.

"Well, in the last Congress, we saw that this last Congress and the Congress before, handed out huge amounts of money to this administration that were misused," Issa said. "TARP money never authorized the bailout of car companies and their union pension programs, causing the bondholders to be stiffed. So, there has been a great deal of misuse of those monies."

As the new chairman of the Government Reform Committee Issa is likely to launch an investigation into the relief program and congress's role in implementing the program.

"But I've always said! that Congress is more to blame. We have absolute obligation to deliver our money without that kind of specificity. So, you know, I've never blamed the administration alone. They were given this money, they misused it. But the fact is, they were given this money."

Spending is one of the areas Issa has promised to focus on as the committee chairman. In the interview he also said that he planned to investigate military spending during the Bush Administration.

"And we have to be honest, Issa said. "A lot of that misconduct, if you will, of too much loose money, started years ago under a Republican president, a Republican Congress. So understand, as chairman, I intend to go back to the beginning of the Bush administration and look at the early funding of the war and many things that can be never be a allowed to happen again."