Executive Session

EXECUTIVE SESSION -- (Senate - June 28, 2006)

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I hope before the day is out that we are able to help a very good American citizen by the name of Henry Paulson to be the next Secretary of the Treasury. Mr. Paulson had his hearing yesterday. That was before the Finance Committee that I chair. He was reported out on a unanimous voice vote this very morning in the Finance Committee.

Since the Treasury Secretary is the top economic policy official in the administration, and the Treasury Department implements so many of our Nation's laws--be it tax, trade, or commerce--we have a tradition in the Senate of moving with all deliberate speed on nominations to fill that post.

That tradition has held no matter which party controlled the White House or the Congress. I have moved aggressively on this nomination, but the timeline is consistent with past Treasury Secretary nominations.

Just as an example, everybody remembers Secretary Rubin in the Clinton administration. That timeline is something like: The Senate receives his nomination January 4, 1995. That was the first day of the session that year. The official ethics-related paperwork was received on January 5 of 1995. The Finance Committee staff expedited review of the complicated financial details of Secretary Rubin, also a senior official at Goldman Sachs--Henry Paulson being the CEO of that same firm. The Finance Committee held a hearing 5 days later, on January 10, 1995. On that same day, the committee reported Secretary Rubin's nomination. On that same day, the full Senate confirmed Mr. Rubin, and he was sworn in as Treasury Secretary.

So we are moving with a similarly aggressive schedule. I appreciate the cooperation of Members on what I will acknowledge is relatively short notice. I thank the committee tax staff on both sides, especially the joint committee staffer Gray Fontenot, and the hard work that not only he did, but a lot of others, and it took a lot of long hours to process these papers over just a period of a few days prior to today.

My staff examined Mr. Paulson's complicated financial records, his tax return, and the activities of his firm, Goldman Sachs. We do this most often in the area of tax planning. We have received very good cooperation. Then, of course, after the review, we have high confidence in his qualifications for this position.

Mr. Paulson brings to the table an enviable set of assets, meaning qualifications to do a good job as Secretary of the Treasury, although I presume he brings a lot of other assets to the table as well. Mr. Paulson spent a good amount of his youth--would you believe it--in the cornfields of Illinois. As a bright young man with excellent academic credentials, he served in the Pentagon and in the White House.

After Government service, Mr. Paulson joined Goldman Sachs and rose through the ranks to the highest position of chief executive officer.

When you look at Mr. Paulson's story, you come away with a view that this is a guy who gets the best results at whatever he tackles, and that is just the sort of a person we need as Secretary of the Treasury because we have a very good economy, measured by long-term standard measures of the economy--creating 5.3 million jobs in the last less than 3 years, having 4.6 percent unemployment, having growth on average that we had during the 1990s; lots of measurements of the economy that are very good.

I am not picking out things that are never used to measure the economy. I am talking about things that have been used to measure the economy over the last 60 or 70 years. Those measurements say it is good. But if we don't have the right people setting the right policy for carrying out those policies that Congress might set, it could be in jeopardy.

That is why we need a person of Paulson's background--a person who comes out on the right end of almost everything he tackles--to be the chief economic voice for our country and to be the voice for this administration. But his work is the administration's work, his work is the country's work, and I think he is up to doing the country's work.

The impression I have and gave you about Mr. Paulson is reinforced when you have a personal meeting with him. I think it is fair to say that after yesterday's hearing, Members on both sides of the aisle came away very impressed with Mr. Paulson as a thoughtful and intelligent nominee who appreciates the concerns raised by Senators and will work with Senators on trying to solve those concerns.

I will touch briefly on one matter that came up at the hearing, and which I know is of concern to some Members. It is well known that Mr. Paulson is active in environmental issues. He is an avid bird watcher and is chairman of the board of the Nature Conservancy. I share the worry that Mr. Paulson knows his job is to be Secretary of the Treasury and not head of EPA. Mr. Paulson's response on this concern to about three of us on the committee who brought this up was this. He said:

The President of the United States has nominated me to be Secretary of the Treasury, he hasn't nominated me to be Secretary of Interior, he hasn't nominated me to be head of the Environmental Protection Agency, that really big focus I have is going to be dealing with so many of the issues that we've been talking about today, the economic issues that are the core of our agenda .....

Considering his sincerity--and I don't think he is a person capable of misleading--I think he is very transparent. I came away with the confidence that Mr. Paulson knows where his focus needs to be and where his responsibilities lie.

I did kid him the other day. There is a superintendent of that building you call the Treasury Department down there that is trying to get his favor. So they are probably right now building a bird-watching station for him outside of the Treasury building someplace because he is known very much for that.

But I think he is going to tend to business and not get over into other areas of the Government.

I also note that Mr. Paulson is here at just the right time. He is here to deal with tax reform, China currency, and with other major economic issues facing America.

I am pleased that Mr. Paulson has answered the call to return to public service.

I encourage Members to vote in favor of a highly qualified nominee to be Secretary of the Treasury.

For the public at large that does not quite follow everything every day in Washington, DC, I hope you understand that there are some people in America who are willing to give up the multimillion dollar salaries as CEOs of Wall Street firms to serve the public good, to serve as Secretary of the Treasury and a lot of other positions in Government and make less than $200,000 a year compared to the tens of millions of dollars that they make. Most people who like to make big money like to keep on making big money. But there are some people, such as Mr. Paulson, who are willing to serve the American public, to do what is right for our country and do it willingly and selfishly.

I urge my colleagues to vote for a very good citizen, a person who I believe will be a very good Secretary of the Treasury.

I yield the floor.

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