Congressional Panel With UK's Troske Finishes Work

LEXINGTON, Ky. (March 3, 2011) - Kenneth Troske, chair of the University of Kentucky Department of Economics, and other members of the Congressional Oversight Panel for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) will hold their final hearing Friday, March 4, in Washington D.C.

The panel will hear expert testimony from the agencies who helped to coordinate the government's unprecedented response to the 2008 financial crisis, as well as from several of the nation's leading economists who will offer their assessments of TARP's impact on financial stability and the U.S. economy.

The hearing will be held at 10 a.m. Friday in the Dirksen Senate Office Building and can be viewed on the Congressional Oversight Panel's (COP) website at www.cop.senate.gov.  

The panel was created in 2008 to oversee expenditure of the TARP funds authorized by Congress and to provide recommendations on regulatory reform. Troske was appointed to the panel in May 2010 by U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell to replace former Securities and Exchange Commissioner Paul S. Atkins, who stepped down from the COP.  In addition to serving as chair of the economics department at UK, Troske also is director of the Center for Business and Economic Research and is the William B. Sturgill Professor of Economics in the Gatton College of Business and Economics.

By statute, the COP will dissolve on April 3, 2011. It is expected to issue a final report on TARP in mid-March.