Meanwhile, a leading congressional Democrat has been found to have received loans from a mortgage company he refused to subpoena as chair of a key House panel. The Wall Street Journal is reporting Edolphus Towns, chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, obtained a loan from Countrywide Financial, which played a major role in the subprime crisis. Towns received the loans under Countrywide’s ”VIP” program, which gave select customers loans at better rates than the general public. In June, Towns rejected calls to subpoena Countrywide to disclose the recipients of its preferred loans.