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Obama adviser Warren spars with GOP Rep.

President Barack Obama announces Elizabeth Warren (R) will oversee formaiton of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, at the White House in Washington, Sept. 17, 2010. UPI/Kevin Dietsch
President Barack Obama announces Elizabeth Warren (R) will oversee formaiton of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, at the White House in Washington, Sept. 17, 2010. UPI/Kevin Dietsch | License Photo

WASHINGTON, May 24 (UPI) -- A Republican House subcommittee chairman Tuesday accused presidential adviser Elizabeth Warren of misleading Congress in previous testimony.

During Warren's testimony before a subcommittee of the House Oversight Committee, Chairman Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., accused her of lying to the subcommittee about her agreement to testify before the panel this week, The New York Times reported.

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Warren Tuesday refused to say whether she would accept a nomination to head up a new financial consumer-protection agency and told McHenry it would be inappropriate to speculate on a nomination that has not been made. Warren has been directing the formation of the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which would monitor mortgages and credit card rules on behalf of consumers, and is widely regarded as a candidate eventually to head the bureau.

She said in prepared testimony the concerns among congressional Republicans about the amount of power the CFPB would wield were "overblown."

McHenry accused Warren of misleading Congress in previous testimony about the role she had played in advising state attorneys general on a legal settlement with mortgage servicers.

"This is our job, to be helpful to other agencies and to help those agencies to hold those who break the law accountable for these deeds," Warren said.

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CNNMoney said McHenry and Warren engaged in a somewhat testy disagreement over the amount of time allotted for Warren's testimony. Warren said she had agreed with committee staff to testify for an hour but McHenry accused her of fabricating that account.

"Congressman, you are causing problems," Warren told McHenry. "We had an agreement."

"You're making this up," McHenry said. "This is not the case."

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