Sunday March 8, 07:53 PM
Obama adds senior staff to Treasury's thin ranks
WASHINGTON (AFP) - President Barack Obama on Sunday announced three key picks for the thinly staffed US Treasury Department, providing embattled Secretary Timothy Geithner much needed reinforcements at a time of economic crisis.
Geithner has faced a shortage of senior-level manpower at the department as he wrestles with the worst US economic downturn in decades.
Obama nominated David Cohen as assistant Treasury secretary for terrorist financing, Alan Krueger as assistant secretary for economic policy and Kim Wallace as assistant secretary for legislative affairs.
"Out of crisis arises opportunity," the president said in a statement.
"With the leadership of these accomplished individuals and our whole economic team, I am absolutely confident that we will turn around this economy and seize this opportunity to secure a more prosperous future."
All three nominees have been serving as counselors to Geithner, whose own nomination ran into trouble over his tax affairs before he finally won Senate approval.
Of the 15 key positions at Treasury that require Senate confirmation, only one has been filled. Stuart Levey, a leftover from the previous administration, serves as under secretary of the treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence and is not central to the crisis management.
A Republican senior US senator, Judd Gregg, said the process of filling government's top ranks has become more difficult in recent years.
"The problem is the system we set up," he said on Fox News Sunday.
"We made it extremely difficult for the new administration to put people in place it needs to operate.
"The vetting process, approval process, the hearing process -- it's so complicated and difficult that most presidents who come in office won't have a full team with them for five or six months in their term. That's not good," he said.
Gregg himself was a briefly Obama's pick for Commerce Secretary before taking his name out of the running over ideological differences with the administration.
With respect to Geithner, Gregg said, "he needs talent around him and needs help in Treasury. He's spending trillions of dollars to try to get the economy going. He needs top people on board."
Sunday's nominations came days after two other top Treasury candidates withdrew from consideration, in part over the long and grueling vetting process, according to news reports.
Annette Nazareth, who for long had been expected to be chosen as deputy secretary -- Geithner's top aide -- withdrew her name, as did his choice for undersecretary for international affairs, Caroline Atkinson.
The 47-year-old Geithner, a former head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, was involved with the economic recovery efforts of the former administration of president George W. Bush, but some experts think his plate may be too full this time.
Obama's chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, Christina Romer, said Friday on CNBC that Geithner "is putting together a team as fast as he can ... work is going on night and day."
Paul Volcker, former Federal Reserve chairman and now head of the newly formed Economic Recovery Advisory Board, said during a February 26 hearing in Congress that it was "shameful" Geithner had no assistants.
"He shouldn't be sitting there alone ... it really is an unfortunate situation."
At a Senate Finance Committee hearing Thursday, Senator Tom Carper told Geithner, "obviously, you need help," eliciting from the Treasury Secretary that he saw his family "less than I would like."
Treasury spokesman Isaac Baker when pressed by AFP denied there were "vetting problems or delays in the process" for nominees at his department.
"With more than 50 political appointees already hard at work, the department is ahead of staffing levels from previous administrations" in the same time frame, and mentioned the "unprecedented level of action to strengthen our economy" already taken by the Treasury Department.
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