President Clinton delivered last week on his threat to veto legislation that would expand education savings accounts.
The House and Senate approved legislation in June that would have let parents contribute $2,000 annually to tax-free accounts for a child's education costs at public or private school-quadrupling the current limit.
But the President blasted the bill as "bad education policy and bad tax policy," arguing the tax breaks would drain more than $3 billion from public schools and favor upper-income families.
Sen. Paul Coverdell, R-Ga., accused the President of "a new low in shameless pandering" to teacher unions.
Neither the House nor Senate approved the legislation with the two- thirds majority needed to override a veto. Their only other hope is that the President changes his mind next year after getting the tab for daughter Chelsea's tuition at Stanford University.
Majority counsel Stefan L. Jouret is leaving the House Banking Committee to join the Spriggs & Hollingsworth law firm here Aug. 4. The firm has handled regulatory goodwill cases and represented Glendale Federal before the Supreme Court in the 1996 Winstar case.
"Virtuous" may be about to succeed "irrational exuberance" as Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan's favorite descriptive.
The word was sprinkled throughout Mr. Greenspan's monetary policy testimony last week to the House and Senate Banking committees and was widely quoted in press accounts. Even House Banking Committee Chairman Jim Leach used the term when, at the hearing, he set out a new economic theory called "Greenspan Virtuosity," which holds that accelerated productivity reduces inflation and results in high growth.
The Consumer Bankers Association has added four directors to its board: Donald L. Boudreau, vice chairman of Chase Manhattan Corp.; Richard K. Davis, vice chairman of Firstar Corp.-Star Banc Corp.; Stanhope A. Kelly, executive vice president of Wachovia Corp.; and Karen L. Lutz, executive vice president of retail banking for European American Bank.
The acting general counsel of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Colleen P. Mahoney, is to join the Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom law firm as a partner in its office here Aug. 1. The 15-year agency veteran will focus on SEC enforcement matters for the high-powered law firm.
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Andrew Cuomo knows how to take credit for his agency's work. And for other agencies' too.
When HUD and the Federal Reserve Board recommended mortgage disclosure reforms to the Senate Banking Committee July 17, HUD's public affairs office issued a press release headlined "Cuomo Proposes Legislation ...." The Fed wasn't mentioned until the middle of the second page.
