December 11,2013

Press Contact:

Sean Neary/Ryan Carey: 202-224-4515

Finance Committee to Vote Friday on IRS, Treasury, ITC Nominees

WASHINGTONSenate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) will convene an open executive session on Friday, December 13, 2013, to vote on three nominations:

  • Sarah Bloom Raskin to be deputy secretary of the Treasury
  • John Andrew Koskinen to be commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service
  • Rhonda Schnare Schmidtlein to be a member of the United States International Trade Commission

The open executive session will take place at 11:00 a.m. in Room 215 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.  The committee considered Koskinen’s nomination in a hearing held yesterday and this morning and Raskin and Schmidtlein’s nominations in a hearing held on November 20.

Sarah Bloom Raskin has been a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System since 2010.  From 2007 to 2010, she served as commissioner of financial regulation for the State of Maryland, and from 1993 to 1998, she served as banking counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs.  Raskin also worked for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the Joint Economic Committee.  In addition, she has extensive experience in the private sector.  Raskin received a B.A. from Amherst College and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.

John Koskinen served as non-executive chairman of Freddie Mac from 2008 to 2011 and acting CEO in 2009.  Mr. Koskinen was deputy mayor and city administrator of Washington, D.C. from 2000 to 2003, assistant to the president and chair of the President’s Council on Year 2000 Conversion from 1998 to 2000, and deputy director for management of the Office of Management and Budget from 1994 to 1997.  He also has extensive experience in the private sector.  Earlier in his career, he served as legislative assistant to Mayor John Lindsey of New York City, and assistant to the deputy executive director of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (the "Kerner Commission").  Koskinen received a B.A. from Duke University and an L.L.B. and J.D. from Yale University School of Law.

Rhonda Schnare Schmidtlein served as a consultant to the World Bank on projects seeking to strengthen accounting regulation and oversight.  Schmidtlein worked in the Office of International Affairs at the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board as director from 2005 to 2011 and special counsel to the chairman from 2003 to 2005.  Previously, she served as associate general counsel for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) from 1999 to 2003, and assistant general counsel from 1998 to 1999.  She has also worked for the Department of Justice and taught law at George Washington University.  Schmidtlein received a B.S. from University of Missouri and a J.D. from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

           Who: Senate Finance Committee
    U.S. Senator Max Baucus (D-Mont.), Chairman
     
  What: Open executive session to consider three nominations
     
  Where: Dirksen Senate Office Building 215
    Washington, D.C. 20510
     
  When: Friday, December 13, 2013
    11:00 a.m.

Media are encouraged to attend the hearing or to view the webcast and witness testimony at http://finance.senate.gov/hearings.


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