President Obama appointed Jeffrey Goldstein on Saturday as Treasury undersecretary for domestic finance, one of several recess appointments made by the administration over the weekend.
Goldstein's confirmation, along with many others, had been stalled in the Senate. In exercising his power to go around Senate confirmation and fill appointments directly in a congressional recess, Obama blamed Republicans for unfairly thwarting crucial administration posts from being filled.
"At a time of economic emergency, two top appointees to the Department of Treasury have been held up for nearly six months," Obama said in a press release.
"I simply cannot allow partisan politics to stand in the way of the basic functioning of government."
It was not clear why Goldstein's confirmation had been held up. He is a former managing director of Hellman & Friedman LLC, a private-equity investment firm.
Previously, Goldstein was the managing director and chief financial officer of the World Bank from 1999 to 2004.
On Saturday, Obama also appointed Michael Mundaca as Treasury assistant secretary for tax policy. Mundaca previously was senior adviser for tax policy.
He served in the Treasury during the Clinton Administration and returned in 2007 as the deputy assistant secretary for international tax affairs.
