Time to Hesitate is Through
The New York Times Friday reports:
By mid-day, after the president called further delays “inexcusable,” the tone of the Senate debate was growing decidedly sharper, with no immediate end in sight, although the Democratic majority leader, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, remained optimistic about a vote by Friday evening.
President Obama seized on Friday’s economic news — the Labor Department’s report that the unemployment rate shot up in January — to step up the pressure on the lawmakers. “Last month, another 600,000 Americans lost their jobs,” Mr. Obama said. “That is the single worst month of job loss in 35 years. The Department of Labor also adjusted their job loss numbers for 2008 upwards, and now report that we have lost 3.6 million jobs since this recession began.
The note of urgency and frustration increases, as does the political rhetoric. One of the action items today was the announcement of an extra-governmental smart-kids group to advise the administration on how to get out of the mess. Per the Wall Street Journal:
Mr. Obama’s remarks on the stimulus came as he introduced his new Economic Recovery Advisory Board Friday, a panel of dignitaries from the world of economics, business, and labor including General Electric Co. Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt and conservative Harvard economics professor Martin Feldstein.
Led by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, the group will meet regularly and give Mr. Obama advice on reviving the dormant U.S. economy, independent ideas aimed at avoiding the Washington “echo chamber.”
White House economist Austan Goolsbee will be staff director of the board. In addition to Messrs. Immelt and Feldstein, the group will include former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman William Donaldson; TIAA-CREF President and CEO Roger Ferguson; UBS Group Americas CEO Robert Wolf; John Doerr, partner at Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers; and Laura D’Andrea Tyson, dean of the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley.
President Obama wants to sign this bill into law and then looks to execute.
At the same time, word is he’s forming a separate program strategy, including funding stimulus and entitlement that will address housing’s particular urgencies, foreclosures, orphaned low income tax credit projects, etc. To that end, he’s moving on with casting his housing advisory S.W.A.T. team even as he engages his economics advisory panel.
Affordable Housing Finance senior editor Donna Kimura reports on how senior leadership at the Department of Housing and Urban Development takes shape.
Click Ron Sims image for statement.
President Barack Obama this week said he will nominate Ron Sims, county executive of King County, Wash., to be deputy secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
The nomination comes on the heels of Shaun Donovan’s confirmation as HUD secretary.
As deputy secretary, Sims will manage the department’s day-to-day operations, a $39 billion operating budget, and the agency’s 8,500 employees.
His appointment requires confirmation by the Senate.
As county executive, Sims, 60, oversees the 13th largest county in the nation. He has held the post for 12 years, stepping into the office in 1996 to fill a vacancy left by Gary Locke when he became governor. Sims then won election the following year and was easily re-elected in 2001 and 2005. He has lost in his bids for a U.S. Senate seat and for governor.
Sims confirmed Monday that he will be leaving his post to join HUD.
Look for mortage buy-downs, redoubled foreclosure mitigation efforts, and LIHTC programs to emerge pronto, probably via the Treasury, once the housing team is in place to execute.
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