Republicans Join Financial Crisis Commission

Former California Rep. Bill Thomas and former Treasury Department counsel and counsel to President Ronald Reagan Peter Wallison will join the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission to investigate the causes of the financial crisis and the collapse of major financial institutions on the heels of the housing bubble implosion. House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky announced the appointments Thursday. Thomas and Wallison round out the roster of the 10-member commission. House and Senate majority leaders each had three picks and their minority party counterparts each made two selections. The commission’s final report is due Dec. 15, 2010. Thomas, a California Republican who began his Congressional career in 1979, chaired the House Ways and Means Committee for six years before retiring in 2007, and will now be vice chairman of the commission. Wallison served as general counsel to the Treasury Department from 1981 to 1985 and later served as counsel to President Reagan from 1986 to 1987. He currently and the co-director of the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research’s (AEI) program on financial policy studies. Thomas is a visiting fellow of the AEI. Other previously announced commission members are the commission chairman, Phil Angelides, and members Brooksley Born, Bob Graham, Byron Georgiou, Keith Hennessey, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Heather Murren, and John W. Thompson. Write to Austin Kilgore.