Ron Bloom, the former "czar" who oversaw the federal government's automobile industry bailout, testifies about the handling of retirement funds for employees of Delphi Corp, a General Motors (GM) parts supplier.
A House Oversight Subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Patrick Henry (R-NC), will hear from Christy Romero, the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP), who has accused Bloom and two other TARP administrators of refusing to cooperate in an audit of the GM-Delphi bailout.
In 1999, when Delphi spun off from GM to become an independent business, GM agreed to "top up," or pay the balance, of pensions for three unions if Delphi ever filed for bankruptcy. The agreement did not cover salaried, non-union employees who subsequently lost their pensions or saw significant cuts when Delphi filed for bankruptcy in 2009.
GM, which has been criticized for its treatment of non-union Delphi pensioners, claims the union pension payouts amount to $1 billion.
Other witnesses include: Matthew Feldman, Former Member of the Automotive Task Force, U.S. Treasury Department; Harry Wilson, Former Member of the Automotive Task Force, U.S. Treasury Department; Nikki Clowers, Director, Financial Markets and Community Investment, Government Accountability Office; and Todd Zywicki, Professor of Law, George Mason University, and Senior Scholar, the Mercatus Center