Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner plans to testify Jan. 27 before a House panel investigating why the Federal Reserve Bank of New York asked insurer American International Group Inc. to limit disclosures of the government's financial rescue to investors.
Panel Chairman Edolphus Towns of New York said in a statement that Geithner confirmed the date for his testimony. "I look forward to hearing Mr. Geithner's testimony," Towns said.
Lawmakers plan to ask Geithner about an exchange of e-mails in late 2008 between the New York Fed, which Geithner headed at the time, and AIG, of New York. The panel is investigating why lawyers for the New York Fed asked AIG not to disclose payments to counterparties, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc., to settle derivative contract swaps in a December 2008 regulatory filing.
"Particularly at a time when the Fed is trying to get more power and authority, we have an obligation to understand how they used existing authority," said Rep. Darrell Issa of California, the committee's ranking Republican, in an e-mailed statement.
Andrew Williams, a Treasury spokesman, did not immediately return a request for comment.
Also invited to testify before the panel is Thomas Baxter, the general counsel of the New York Fed, who said in a Jan. 8 statement that Geithner was not involved in the disclosure issue.
Representative Elijah Cummings, a Maryland Democrat, said Baxter's testimony would be important because "there is a question as to whether Secretary Geithner knew about all of this."
Treasury spokeswoman Meg Reilly said Jan. 7 that Geithner was recused from AIG matters at the time of the e-mail exchange.
