Media Inquiries: Véronique Rodman
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 15, 2009

House Republican Leader John Boehner (OH) and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (KY) announced today that American Enterprise Institute (AEI) scholars Bill Thomas and Peter Wallison have been appointed to the 10-member Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission--the financial equivalent of the 9/11 Commission. Established by Congress to investigate the causes of the financial crisis and the collapse of major financial institutions, the Commission is composed of six Democrats and four Republicans. Members are required to issue a final report by December 15, 2010.

Bill Thomas, a Visiting Fellow at AEI who served as Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee until 2007, will be Vice Chairman of the Commission. Member Peter Wallison is the AEI Arthur F. Burns Fellow in Financial Policy Studies and a codirector of AEI's program on financial policy studies. He served in the Reagan administration as General Counsel of the U.S. Treasury Department and as White House Counsel.

Other commission members include the Commission Chairman, Phil Angelides, and members Brooksley Born, Bob Graham, Byron Georgiou, Keith Hennessey, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Heather Murren, and John W. Thompson.

Arthur Brooks, President of the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (AEI), said: "AEI is honored that two of its scholars have been chosen to serve on this important commission. Peter Wallison has been writing (and warning us) for almost a decade about the dangers to the U.S. economy posed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. His wisdom coupled with Bill Thomas's experience as Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee will be instrumental in shoring up the foundations of free enterprise."

Biographical information for Bill Thomas and Peter Wallison follows:

Bill Thomas
Visiting Fellow, AEI

• Senior Advisor, Buchanan, Ingersoll and Rooney
• Member, U.S. House of Representatives, 1979-2007 
• Chairman, House Ways and Means Committee, 2001-2007 
• Chairman, House Administration Committee, 1995-2001 
• Cochairman, National Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare, 1998-99 
• Member, California State Assembly, 1974-79 
• Professor, Political Science, Bakersfield College, 1965-74
  

Peter J. Wallison
Arthur F. Burns Fellow in Financial Policy Studies, AEI

• Codirector, AEI's program on financial policy studies
• Member, Shadow Financial Regulatory Committee, 1991-present
• Member, Advisory Committee on Improvements to Financial Reporting, SEC, 2007-08
• Counsel to President Ronald Reagan, 1986-87
• Partner, Gibson, Dunn, & Crutcher, 1987-98, 1985-86
• General Counsel, U.S. Treasury Department (Reagan), 1981-85
• Partner, Roger & Wells, 1977-81
• Counsel to Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, 1974-76