Republicans and Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee agreed Friday night on language for a wide-reaching subpoena of Countrywide Financial's VIP lending program as part of an investigation into allegations of influence peddling by the company at all levels of government, committee aides said. The subpoena, which was sent out Friday night, will ask the lender to fork over documents relating to its "Friends of Angelo" program -- named for CEO Angelo Mozilo, who allegedly offered favorable mortgage rates to persons of influence.
Republicans and Democrats agreed to request documents relating to a wide range of government employees -- including members of the executive branch, House members and staffers, officers of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and employees of state and local governments. Senators will not be included in the House's investigation.
| Senator Chris Dodd is safe, then. |
| So is Representative Barney Franks, it appears. |
The goal of the investigation, Democratic and Republican committee aides say, is to understand the inner workings of the program and uncover if and how it was used to gain influence among lawmakers and regulators.
Ranking Member Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who has been pushing Democrats hard to issue a subpoena, has compared the program to General Motors offering automobiles at a deep discount and homebuilders constructing a house for material cost alone.
The House subpoena opens a new can of worms for lawmakers: 435 members of Congress and their staffers, along with Freddie and Fannie officials and a slew of local and state officials, a group that has not been a focus of previous Congressional efforts on Countrywide, could be under the microscope.
One senior Republican said this could prove as tough an issue for lawmakers as the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal of the Bush years. The lawmaker added that while Abramoff's misdeeds were largely centered around Republicans, this investigation could ensnare members of both parties.
Documents from the subpoena are set to be delivered by Nov. 6 but a committee aide expects the full set of records to take upwards of a month to arrive.