Neil Barofsky

==Background==
* wikipedia:Neil Barofsky
Neil Barofsky was an assistant U.S. attorney and nominee for Special Treasury Department Inspector General to oversee the Troubled Assets Relief Program. 
* As of November 2008, he is 38 years old. 
==Recent Career==
Neil M. Barofsky, an assistant United States Attorney in 2008, the chief of the office's mortgage fraud group and was the lead prosecutor in the $2.4 billion accounting-fraud case against former executives of the collapsed financial firm Refco.
==Troubled Asset Relief Program and Special Inspector Generalship == 
The job of overseeing the TARP now is being handled internally by the Treasury Department's inspector general, Eric Thorson, who has expressed concerns about the difficulty of properly overseeing the complex program in addition to his regular responsibilities. 
Barofsky was nominated by Bush on November 14, 2008. 
As of Wednesday, November 19, 2008, his nomination is undergoing confirmation by the US Senate Finance Committee.
==Insights==
:By Kevin Drawbaugh from December 2008 in (Reuters)
The unnamed U.S. senator who had blocked approval of the Bush administration's choice to be internal watchdog of the government's $700 billion bank bailout program has relented and fast approval of nominee Neil Barofsky is now expected, Senate aides told Reuters on Wednesday.
Barofsky, an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York, had a fairly smooth nomination hearing before the Senate Banking Committee on Nov. 19, 2008, to become inspector general of the Troubled Asset Relief Plan.
But committee Chairman Christopher Dodd announced two days later that a "hold" had been placed on Barofsky.
In one of the more arcane procedures still occasionally practiced in the tradition-bound Senate, a nominee for a federal post may be blocked by an individual lawmaker who does not need to reveal his or her identity or rationale.
Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, called the hold on Barofsky "regrettable" when it occurred. It remains unclear which Republican lawmaker was responsible for the hold.
Republican aides said Barofsky's nomination is now scheduled to move within days to the Senate floor for action and approval is expected.
As inspector general, Neil Barofsky will be responsible for monitoring the effectiveness of the Treasury Department's bailout program to help the U.S. financial services sector, the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).
Earlier this week, the Government Accountability Office criticized TARP, saying the Treasury Department has not yet decided if it will impose reporting requirements on banks that borrow the money so the government can monitor how the funds are being used.
Some lawmakers have accused banks that received TARP money of hoarding it instead of lending it to businesses and consumers to ease the credit freeze. 
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