Former Goldman Sachs banker and Hollywood financier Steven Mnuchin has been sworn in as Treasury secretary, putting him to work on tax reform, financial de-regulation and economic diplomacy efforts.
The US Senate voted to confirm Mnuchin 53-47, with all but one Democrat opposing him over his handling of thousands of foreclosures as head of OneWest Bank after the 2007-2009 housing collapse.
President Donald Trump has criticised opponents for delaying his nominees.
He was promptly sworn in at the White House by Vice-President Mike Pence, in a ceremony also attended by Trump and Mnuchin’s fiancee, Louise Linton, a Scottish actress.
Trump praised his new Treasury chief as a “financial legend with a track record of success”.
“He will fight for middle-class tax reductions, financial reforms that open up lending and create millions of new jobs, and fiercely defend the American tax dollar and your financial security,” Trump said. “And he will also defend our manufacturing jobs from those who cheat and steal and rob us blind.”
Lawmakers, lobbyists and business groups have been nervously waiting for Mnuchin to take office and fill in the many blanks on how he will pursue tax reform and handle delicate economic co-operation efforts with China, Mexico and other trading partners worried that Trump’s “America First” strategy will upend decades-old trade rules and currency practices.
Mnuchin, 54, provided no details of his plans as he was sworn in.
“I am committed to using the full powers of this office to create more jobs, to combat terrorist activities and financing, and to make America great again,” Mnuchin said.
Trump has pledged to roll back the stricter financial regulation under the Dodd-Frank reform law enacted after the financial crisis, pursue tougher trade policies on China and Mexico to reduce US trade deficits, and reduce business tax rates.
Mnuchin faces immediate challenges with the March 15 expiration of a US debt ceiling suspension, ushering in the threat of a new default showdown, and a March 17 meeting of finance ministers from the Group of 20 major economies, where he will face tough questions about Trump’s plans to increase trade protections.
In April, Mnuchin will have to determine whether to declare China a currency manipulator as part of Treasury’s semi-annual currency report.
“There is a real open question as to whether this administration is going to cut itself off from international monetary cooperation, whether it’s exchange rate policies or attitudes towards multilateral institutions or international regulatory policy,” said Edwin Truman, a former Treasury and Federal Reserve official now with the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
Among Mnuchin’s biggest jobs is managing a sprawling congressional tax reform effort that seeks to slash business tax rates and enact a new border tax adjustment system aimed at boosting US exports.
Mnuchin, a second-generation Goldman Sachs banker who led the firm’s mortgage bond trading but left the bank in 2002, came under criticism from Democrats over his investor group’s 2009 acquisition of another failed lender, IndyMac Bank, from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
The bank, rebranded as OneWest, subsequently foreclosed on more than 36,000 homeowners, drawing charges from housing advocates that it was a “foreclosure machine”.
Mnuchin grew OneWest into Southern California’s largest lender and sold it for $3.4bn in 2015.
He has also helped finance Hollywood blockbusters such as Avatar, American Sniper and this past weekend’s box office champion, The Lego Batman Movie, which took in $55.6mn.
The Senate on Monday also unanimously confirmed David Shulkin as secretary of veterans affairs (VA), putting the only holdover from the Obama administration in charge of the second largest federal agency.
Shulkin had been in charge of the VA’s sprawling health system for the past 18 months.
White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Shulkin would be sworn in later today.
Trump “has selected two well-qualified candidates to lead the charge on strengthening our economy and providing veterans with more of the care they deserve”, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said.