The minority is upset that Rep. Darrell Issa did not want to waste an entire day of having the witness for the hearing first hear each member make a “full of hot air” opening statement, instead asking that each member supply their opening statement for the record, within 7 days:

At the start of the hearing, chairman Rep. Darrell Issa announced the committee members would waive their opening statements and instead would have seven days to place them into the record.

Rep. Elijah Cummings, the committee’s ranking Democrat, immediately fought back questioning this deviation in traditional procedure, but Issa held his ground.

“I recognize that tradition is we hold the members, the witnesses here for sometimes an hour through opening statements.  That is a tradition that I intend to break,” Issa said.  “That doesn’t mean there won’t be opening statements in the future.”

Issa’s decision to omit opening statements at the hearing stems from his desire to hear from the witnesses, Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general for TARP, and Tim Massad, a Treasury official, first instead of from the committee members.

for full article: http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2011/01/feisty-issa-spars-with-committee-members-over-procedures-in-first-oversight-hearing.html

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