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Senate, in a More Affable Mode, Backs Treasury Nominee

February 28, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Little of the acrimony that held up the nomination of Chuck Hagel, the former Nebraska senator who began his first day as defense secretary on Wednesday, was present in the debate over Mr. Lew.

The final vote was 71 to 26, with 20 Republicans joining the Democratic majority in support of the nomination.

Mr. Obama expressed gratitude for the decision to confirm his former chief of staff and top budget adviser.

“Jack was by my side as we confronted our nation’s toughest challenges,” the president said in a statement. “His reputation as a master of fiscal issues who can work with leaders on both sides of the aisle has already helped him succeed in some of the toughest jobs in Washington.”

The vote meant that for the moment at least, the Senate returned to its traditional role of affording the president deference in selecting his cabinet. Historically, the Treasury secretary position has been an easy one for presidents to fill, with nominees typically receiving unanimous support from the Senate.

Mr. Obama’s previous Treasury secretary, Timothy F. Geithner, was a notable exception. After disclosures that Mr. Geithner was delinquent in paying some taxes, many Republicans objected. He was confirmed by a 60-to-34 vote.

Some Republicans who voted for Mr. Lew spoke of the need to give the president flexibility to name his own cabinet even if they ultimately disagreed with a nominee’s politics.

“My vote in favor of Mr. Lew comes with no small amount of reservation, and I don’t fault any of my colleagues for choosing to vote against him,” said Senator Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, the senior Republican on the Finance Committee. “I hope he and the president take note that I am bending over backwards to display deference.”

Though Mr. Hagel’s nomination was stymied as he faced criticism over past statements on Israel and Iran and stumbled over questions in his confirmation hearing, Mr. Lew faced few objections. Other than questions that arose from an unusual $685,000 severance payment he received after he left New York University for a job at Citigroup, the confirmation process was relatively smooth.

One particularly vocal objection on Wednesday came from one of the Senate’s most liberal members, Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont.

“We need a secretary of the Treasury who does not come from Wall Street but is prepared to stand up to the enormous power of Wall Street,” Mr. Sanders said from the Senate floor. “Do I believe that Jack Lew is that person? No, I do not.”

Still, even though the Senate approved Mr. Lew, he received far fewer votes than other Treasury secretary nominees. With the exception of Mr. Geithner, Senate records show that the last nominee to receive fewer than 92 “yes” votes was George P. Shultz, Richard Nixon’s pick in 1972.

Mr. Obama faces another possible battle over a high-level nominee in the coming days as the Senate is set to start considering John Brennan, the White House’s choice as director of central intelligence.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: February 28, 2013

An earlier version of this article misspelled the surname of a former secretary of the treasury.  He is George P. Shultz, not Schultz.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/28/business/senate-confirms-lew-as-treasury-chief.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

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Senate Panel Backs Treasury Choice

February 26, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Mr. Lew, a longtime Democratic budget expert, received the support of all of Democrats on the committee as well as six Republicans, including Senator Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, the senior member of the opposition. The final vote was 19 to 5. Mr. Lew is widely expected to win confirmation, becoming the second Treasury secretary of Mr. Obama’s presidency.

The vote in the committee came as the Senate was heading toward a floor vote to cut off debate on the nomination of former Senator Chuck Hagel to be defense secretary. If Mr. Hagel receives the 60 votes to end the Republican filibuster, he is expected to be confirmed by Wednesday.

“This is the one vote that makes a difference,” Senator James M. Inhofe, Republican of Oklahoma and an opponent of Mr. Hagel, said, urging his colleagues to block Mr. Hagel.

Mr. Lew is a longtime Democratic budget expert. In the Obama administration, he has served as chief of staff, budget director and a high-level State Department official. Before then, he worked as budget director in the Clinton administration and on Capitol Hill.

Mr. Lew’s short stints in the private sector drew considerable scrutiny during his confirmation process – his third during the Obama administration, and fourth over all.

Just before the financial crisis, Mr. Lew was an executive at Citigroup, where he worked for a spell in a proprietary-trading unit that at one point benefited from the housing collapse. Mr. Lew never made investment decisions. But he did draw hundreds of thousands of dollars in salary and bonuses, and his contract contained an unusual provision allowing him to keep certain bonus income if he returned to a high position in the federal government.

Mr. Lew also won an unusual exit payment and a form of housing assistance from New York University, where he served as an administrator.

Republicans on the Finance Committee, particularly Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa, pressed Mr. Lew for more details on his contracts with Citigroup and New York University, as well as an investment based in the Cayman Islands. Before the Finance Committee vote, Mr. Grassley, who did not support Mr. Lew, said that he felt that the nominee’s answers were still unsatisfactory.

Ultimately, Mr. Lew – known as bookish and unassuming, and a familiar figure in Congress – won Republicans over. Senator Hatch praised his testimony during his hearing earlier this month, and said again Tuesday that he liked him personally. Republicans including Richard Shelby of Alabama and Rob Portman of Ohio have lined up behind him.

Mr. Lew is expected to win the support of the full Senate. As Treasury secretary, succeeding Timothy F. Geithner, he would face a slate of complicated budget issues.

On March 1, so-called “sequestration” comes into effect, and $85 billion in budget cuts, mostly to discretionary spending on the military and domestic programs, need to be made before the end of the fiscal year.

Later in March, Democrats and Republicans are gearing up for a fight over financing the government, threatening a government shutdown. And over the summer, the debt ceiling, a statutory limit on the amount the government can borrow, would need to be raised again.

More generally, the White House and Congress are still seeking a way to rein in large federal deficits without harming the sluggish recovery. The White House hopes to raise new tax revenue, primarily by closing loopholes in the tax code. Republicans are still seeking to reduce long-term spending on the entitlement programs of Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/27/business/senate-panel-backs-treasury-choice.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

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White House and Congress Clear Hurdle for Trade Deals

June 29, 2011 by Leave a Comment

WASHINGTON — The White House struck a deal with House Republicans Tuesday to reinstate benefits for workers who lose jobs to foreign competition, addressing a major obstacle to consideration of three free trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama.

Haggling over the modest and obscure benefits program had tied up the trade pacts for months, pitting Democrats concerned about the impact of competition on American workers against Republicans eager to boost foreign trade but loath to increase federal spending on another aid program.

But the deal does not assure that Congress will pass the pacts, which are major ingredients in the Obama administration’s recipe for reinvigorating economic growth. Indeed, Republicans quickly said they would continue to insist that the benefits program should be considered separately from the trade agreements, a condition Democrats describe as unacceptable.

The Obama administration, which had maintained for weeks that it would not submit the trade pacts to Congress until the deadlock was resolved, by Tuesday night found itself defending its new deal as an important step that might lead to a complete resolution.

“As a result of extensive negotiations, we now have an agreement on the underlying terms for a meaningful renewal of a strengthened” benefits program, the White House spokesman, Jay Carney, said in a statement. Other administration officials hastened to clarify that that deal did not extent to the question of how that agreement might be approved.

Senator Max Baucus, the Democratic chairman of the Finance Committee, said that he would convene a hearing Thursday morning, launching a process that could end with the bills passing into law before the end of summer.

“We think this package can get the support needed to become law,” Mr. Baucus said. “American workers and our economy can’t afford for us to wait any longer to move forward.”

Senate Republicans, however, said they would seek to strip the benefits program from the legislation by asking the Senate Parliamentarian to rule that its inclusion does not comply with Senate rules, because it is not sufficiently related to the main subject of the legislation. Such a ruling would effectively kill the bill.

Senator Orrin Hatch, the ranking Republican on the Finance Committee, said that the White House’s strategy “risks support for this critical job-creating trade pact in the name of a welfare program of questionable benefit at a time when our nation is broke.”

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=a16b39b984cb1e50babe7b00a622f74e

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