The other hearings
Posted: Tuesday, January 13, 2009 12:35 PM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under:
Congress
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro and Carrie Dann
Hillary Clinton's hearing today, of course, will get the biggest headlines and the TV play, but there are four other Cabinet-level confirmation hearings taking place today. Below is a wrap of what's happening at those so far.
(By the way, the busiest senator of the day award goes to Connecticut's Chris Dodd, who sits on three of the committees holding the four hearings. Runner-up: Chuck Schumer, who introduced both Clinton and HUD-nominee Shaun Donovan)
Energy, Steven Chu:
Chu "said in testimony prepared for his Senate confirmation hearing Tuesday that high oil prices were a threat to the economy, backing away slightly from statements made in his last job, as director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, that gasoline prices should be higher," the New York Times writes.
Education, Arne Duncan:
Duncan told the Senate this morning, “Never before has being smart been so cool," he said, referring to the model he hopes the president-elect has set with his level of education.
"But Mr. Duncan did little to resolve the curiosities of educators and policymakers about how he and Mr. Obama intend to bring about change in American education, which over the next year is likely to include an attempt to the rewrite the Bush-era No Child Left Behind law, the most important statement of federal policy on public schools," the New York Times writes. 'I have seen the law’s power and its limitations,' Mr. Duncan said, but he provided no examples of concrete changes he will seek. 'I agree with the president-elect that we should neither bury NCLB nor praise it without reservation.'" He vowed to do the pragmatic yet ambiguous "anything that works."
That will leave educators and parents still waiting and scratching their heads for specifics.
HUD, Shaun Donovan:
Donovan "pledged Tuesday to mount a more aggressive response to the foreclosure crisis as he prepares to take the helm of an agency under fire for being slow to react to the housing bubble," per Business Week. "Housing is at the root of the market crisis we are now experiencing, and HUD must be part of the solution," Donovan said, per prepared remarks.
Dodd said: HUD "has been left adrift at a time when bold leadership and a clear direction were never more important."
Office of Management & Budget, Peter Orszag:
No bumps expected in Orszag's confirmation thus far. The headline from his hearing, per AP, is some relative doom and gloom re: massive budget deficits enduring for the next decade.
Writes AP: " 'The simple fact is that under current policies, the federal budget is on an unsustainable path,' Orszag told the Senate Budget Committee considering his nomination, which must be approved by the panel and the full Senate. 'Even after the economy recovers from the current downturn and again under current policies, the nation faces the prospect of budget deficits that are in the range of about 5 percent of GDP over the next five to 10 years,' Orszag said. He said after that period, they would grow even larger. Even with an economic stimulus plan, he warned that 'We're still in for some period of economic difficulty.'"
