Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Senate OKs Treasury nominee
Despite bitter objections from Democrats, former banker Steven Mnuchin confirmed. Pick for VA also gets nod.
WASHINGTON — A bitterly divided Senate on Monday confirmed Steven Mnuchin as treasury secretary despite strong objections by Democrats that the former banker ran a “foreclosure machine” when he headed OneWest Bank.
Republicans said Mnuchin’s long tenure in finance makes him qualified to run the department, which will play a major role in developing economic policy under President Donald Trump.
“He has experience managing large and complicated private-sector enterprises and in negotiating difficult compromises and making tough decisions — and being accountable for those decisions,” said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, chairman of the Finance Committee.
Votes on Trump’s Cabinet picks have exposed deep partisan divisions in the Republican-controlled Senate, with many of the nominees approved by mostly party-line votes.
The vote on Mnuchin followed the same pattern. He was confirmed by a mostly party-line vote of 53-47. Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia joined the Republicans.
The Senate also confirmed a less divisive nominee Monday evening, physician David Shulkin, to be secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs. The vote was unanimous.
Republicans and Democrats praised Shulkin, who is charged with delivering on Trump’s campaign promises to fix long-standing problems at the VA.
Shulkin, 57, a former Obama administration official, has been the VA’s top health official since 2015. He secured the backing of Senate Democrats after pledging at his confirmation hearing to always protect veterans’ interests, even if it meant disagreeing at times with Trump.
Like others in Trump’s Cabinet, Mnuchin is a wealthy businessman. He is a former top executive at Goldman Sachs and served as finance chairman for Trump’s presidential campaign.
As Treasury secretary, Mnuchin is expected to play a key role in Republican efforts to overhaul the nation’s tax code for the first time in three decades. Trump has promised to unveil a proposal in the coming weeks.
Mnuchin will also be in charge of imposing economic sanctions on foreign governments and individuals, including Russia.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Mnuchin “is smart, he’s capable, and he’s got impressive private-sector experience.”
Democrats complained that Mnuchin made much of his fortune by foreclosing on families during the financial crisis.
In 2009, Mnuchin assembled a group of investors to buy the failed IndyMac bank, whose collapse the year before was the second-biggest bank failure of the financial crisis. He renamed it OneWest and turned it around, selling it for a handsome profit in 2014.
“Mr. Mnuchin has made his career profiting from the misfortunes of working people,” said Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich. “OneWest was notorious for taking an especially aggressive role in foreclosing on struggling homeowners.”
Said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I.: “I simply cannot forgive somebody who took a look at that banking crisis and took a look at the pain that Wall Street had sent in a wave across all of America, and thought, ‘Ah, there’s a great new way to make money, foreclosing on people.’ ”
Rep. Maxine Waters of California, the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, called Mnuchin “the foreclosure king.”
In his testimony before the committee, Mnuchin defended his actions while heading OneWest.
Mnuchin has said he had worked hard during the financial crisis to assist homeowners with refinancing so that they could remain in their homes.
He said his bank had extended more than 100,000 loan modifications to borrowers.
But several Democratic senators raised examples of residents in their states who they said were not treated fairly by OneWest, including elderly homeowners and members of the military.
Democrats also complained that Mnuchin failed to disclose nearly $100 million in assets on forms he filed with the Finance Committee.
Mnuchin called his failure to disclose assets an oversight.
After meeting with committee staff, Mnuchin amended his disclosure forms and also disclosed his position as director of Dune Capital International in the Cayman Islands, a well-known offshore tax haven.