Top House Democrat presses Republicans for plans to investigate VIP loans

Veteran California GOP Reps. Buck McKeon, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, and Elton Gallegly acknowledged that their names are on a list of House lawmakers who received VIP loans from Countrywide Financial, which is under investigation for possibly giving lawmakers special treatment to win political favors.

Cummings is specifically asking why Issa has planned to interview this week Countrywide officials involved in McKeon’s loan without talking to him first, whether he plans to publicly release the identities of the remaining two Republican lawmakers — one current and one former — revealed by the investigation and whether he will conduct a transcribed interview with the former chief lobbyist of the Mortgage Bankers Association of America.

He criticized Issa for reversing course after saying he would disclose the names of any lawmakers who received the loans.

“Rather than publicly identifying the four additional Members who received Countrywide loans or attempting to determine whether they took any official actions on behalf of Countrywide, you chose instead to refer their cases to the Ethics Committee,” Cummings wrote. 

“This is exactly the approach you criticized when used for Democratic Sens. Kent Conrad and Christopher Dodd and precisely the approach you abandoned when you issued your subpoena last February.”

The Maryland Democrat also asked if Issa intends to hold public hearings on the issues and whether he will call former Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo, who was involved in the so-called Friends of Angelo program with the defunct lender and who agreed to pay $67.5 million in penalties as part of an agreement with the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2010, to testify. 

Cummings insists that Issa is ignoring a longstanding committee practice of referring matters involving lawmakers to the ethics panel by taking on the investigation himself. 

A spokeswoman for McKeon told The Wall Street Journal last week that McKeon was "pretty shocked and angry" when he learned that he was listed as a VIP loan customer. She said the lawmaker had not known that his 1998 home loan had gone through any special program. 

McKeon's loan was for $315,000, and he no longer owns the property, according to the report.

Gallegy told The Journal that he would have "run away from" any deal that would have required special favors. He said he did not receive any special treatment for his $77,000 loan in 2004.

The lawmakers said they have never performed any legislative favors for Countrywide. 

Rep. Edolphus Towns (N.Y.) is the only House Democrat connected to Countrywide’s special loan arrangement.