Just weeks after Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Tex., agreed to move forward with John D. Hawke Jr.'s confirmation as comptroller of the currency, Sen. Strom Thurmond has thrown up a roadblock.
Minutes before the Senate was to vote on Mr. Hawke's confirmation Sept. 29, Sen. Thurmond put a "hold" on it. The South Carolina Republican's beef is not with Mr. Hawke, however. It is with Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers and his agency's policy of letting some winemakers make positive health claims on their labels. Years ago, Sen. Thurmond's eldest daughter was killed by a drunken driver.
Sen. Thurmond got the Treasury's attention earlier this year when he blocked the nominations of several other agency nominees, but he dropped his opposition after supposedly receiving assurances from Mr. Summers that the Treasury would reexamine its labeling rule.
But according to Sen. Thurmond's spokesman, Mr. Summers has not delivered.
"Until they get squared away and fly right, they can expect us to be scrutinizing everything they do," the spokesman said. The Treasury and the OCC declined to comment.
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Dennis F. Geer, chief operating officer at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and a deputy to Chairman Donna A. Tanoue, retired Sept. 30.
An Iowa native, Mr. Geer came to the FDIC in 1994 from the Resolution Trust Corp. He has no immediate job plans.
Succeeding him is John F. Bovenzi, an FDIC employee since 1981 who most recently was director of resolutions and receiverships. Mitchell Glassman was named acting director of the division while the agency seeks a permanent successor to Mr. Bovenzi.
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Susan Krause, senior deputy comptroller for international affairs at the OCC, is leaving the agency Oct. 15 to spend more time with her children. A successor has not been named.
Though she has no immediate job plans, Ms. Krause hopes to get some private-sector experience. "I think it's important to think about the same issues from a different perspective," she said.
