Issa Incredulous Over Transparency Loophole In Financial Reform Law

The top Republican on the powerful House Oversight and Government Reform Committee would like the Obama administration to explain a possible loophole in the recently passed financial reform law that would allow the Securities and Exchange Commission to ignore requests made under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

Citing a report by the Fox Business Network, which alleges that the SEC informed the network that a section in the new law grants the commission the power to ignore FOIA requests, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) blasted the White House on Wednesday for promising transparency, but simultaneously granting carve-outs for the government.

“More and more the American people are seeing that transparency and accountability to the Obama Administration is a rhetorical illusion,” Issa said. “For all their talk about transparency and accountability, the one thing that the President’s financial reform bill has done is allow the very regulatory body that failed to catch Allen Stanford’s fraud and Bernie Madoff’s ponzi scheme to operate in secrecy, without ever having to be held accountable by the American people.”