WASHINGTON -- U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry gaveled open his first hearing in the 112th Congress at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, prepared for months of investigation into how - or even whether - the federal government should get involved in the fiscal crises that are crippling some state budgets.
McHenry, a Cherryville Republican, was named chairman last month of the House Oversight Committee's subcommittee on TARP, Financial Services and Bailouts of Public and Private Programs.
The role puts the fourth-term congressman at the center of investigations into how the federal government is handling TARP funds and whether federal taxpayers should now turn to help the states.
Wednesday morning, McHenry and other lawmakers argued against doing much.
California, New York and Illinois are among states struggling most with debt. So far, 44 states and the District of Columbia have a projected shortfall of $125 billion, according to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities.
North Carolina has a projected $3.7 billion shortfall, or 20 percent of the 2011 budget, according to the center. (Gov. Bev Perdue announced Wednesday that it had been cut to $2.7 billion.)
McHenry criticized states for not preparing better for the end of the 2009 stimulus funding that the federal government poured into state budgets in the past two years. He and the panel's top Democrat, U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley of Illinois, agreed that the states shouldn't come to Washington for a bailout.
"The era of the bailout is over," McHenry said.
McHenry, who earned a reputation in the past few years as one of the House's partisan bulldogs in the press, was gracious and accommodating in Wednesday's hearing. He offered the first GOP questioning opportunity - a perk traditionally reserved for the chairman - to a fellow Republican. And he offered the first Democratic opportunity to U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, who is the ranking member of the full Oversight Committee.
Quigley thanked McHenry publicly for being "accommodating and cordial to me and my staff," and the two conferred often during testimony.
Much of the subcommittee's work in the coming months will focus on states' fiscal crises, McHenry said. The next hearing is in March; he doesn't yet know the subject.
But once the series is complete, he plans to submit a report to the full committee on the panel's recommendations, which could include legislation, he said.
"It was a great start,"McHenry said. "The point is for it to be intellectually stimulating, and to have a better understanding of the problem. That's a hopeful sign for this committee: The work of Congress doesn't have to be polarizing."
