The House has just voted to create an independent outside commission to investigate the causes of the financial crisis. The House version of the Fraud Enforcement Recovery Act just passed by an overwhelming margin of 367-59-1, with Democrat Alan Grayson (D-FL) voting present and 59 Republicans voting, seemingly, for fraud.
The Senate passed their version of the bill last week. Now the bill goes to conference, where House and Senate negotiators will iron out the differences between the two. Those differences, though, are fairly minor.
The idea of creating a Pecora-like commission has been in the works for some time now, but it had gained significant momentum in recent weeks. Now it’s all but a done deal. Party leaders will select the 10 commission members, with six picks going to the Democrats and four going to the Republicans. Deliberations might begin in as little as a few weeks, and a final report is expected at the end of 2010.
