WASHINGTON — The Senate confirmed Steven T. Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs banker
and Hollywood film financier, to be Treasury secretary on Monday, putting in place a key lieutenant to President Trump who will help drive the administration’s plans to overhaul the tax code, renegotiate trade deals around the world and remake financial regulations.
“My colleagues have done all they can under the rules — even to the point of casting aside some longstanding customs
and traditions of the Senate — in order to delay his confirmation.”
While Mr. Mnuchin struggled to show fluency with some aspects of the job during his confirmation hearing, Republicans
and Democrats generally agreed that he was well versed on economic issues.
“Whether illegally foreclosing on thousands of families, skirting the law with offshore tax havens or helping design tactics
that contributed to the 2008 financial crisis, Steve Mnuchin made a career — and millions of dollars — pioneering increasingly deceptive and predatory ways to rob hardworking Americans of their savings and homes,” Ms. Duckworth said.
On Monday, Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, the Republican chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, accused
Democrats of making Mr. Mnuchin a political pawn and described their concerns as a stall tactic.
At a prickly confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee last month, Mr. Mnuchin was scolded by Democrats for failing to disclose nearly $100 million in assets
and for not revealing his role as a director of an investment fund based in the Cayman Islands, a well-known tax haven.
The Democrats on the committee twice boycotted a vote on his confirmation, leading Republicans to breach protocol
and push Mr. Mnuchin’s vote to the full Senate on their own.
