Finance Committee Sends Treasury Chief Nomination To Senate Floor in

The Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday voted 20 to 0 to confirm Lawrence H. Summers as Treasury Secretary.

The nomination now moves to the full Senate, where it is expected to be approved. Mr. Summers, currently deputy Treasury secretary, would replace outgoing Secretary Robert E. Rubin, who resigned May 12 with plans to leave the job by July 4.

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., said he wants to have a vote on the Summers nomination before the July 4 congressional recess. But he warned that the vote could be postponed if Democrats obstruct Republican legislative priorities.

Separately Tuesday, the Senate Banking Committee held a hearing on the nomination. Mr. Summers toed the Clinton administration's policy line throughout.

"At Treasury the right course has been set," he said. "Our challenge will be to carry on."

Mr. Summers said he "strongly" supports pending financial reform legislation but only if it protects the Community Reinvestment Act, safeguards consumers, and lets banks choose to conduct nonbank activities through operating subsidiaries. It should also increase efficiency and make U.S. firms more competitive with those abroad.

On privacy, Mr. Summers said he supports the administration's general principle of "notice and choice."

"People should be told what kind of information about them is being shared and should have some choice regarding it," he said. But "how best that general principle should be implemented" still needs to be resolved.

Moreover, he said the need for privacy must be balanced against the benefits of information sharing, such as swift loan approvals.

Mr. Summers said there is a "strong case" for letting Social Security recipients benefit from the stock market.

He also defended the work of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. U.S. workers and farmers would have suffered if the organizations had not intervened in the Asian economic crisis, he said. He said debt forgiveness for impoverished countries is a rational way to deal with loans that have clearly gone bad.

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