Rep. Jim Leach's favorite legislation may go nowhere in Congress, but it has gone on-line.
Information about the Iowa Republican and House Banking Committee chairman's pet bills can be found on the World Wide Web.
Rep. Leach's site, part of the House of Representative's home page (http://www.house.gov), is linked to an archive of bills that Rep. Leach has sponsored or co-sponsored.
To get there from the House home page, users can click on the "Who's Who" button for a House directory.
The Office of Thrift Supervision - the only agency supervising a virtual bank - is losing its computer guru at the end of this month.
Jerry Jones is leaving the agency after eight years to join KPMG Peat Marwick where he will head the consulting firm's information risk management practice in Washington.
Mr. Jones, a certified public accountant, has been the OTS point man on Security First Network Bank FSB, the Pineville, Ky., institution that is operating solely over the Internet.
Gerhard G. Mueller, a veteran accounting professor at the University of Washington, will join the Financial Accounting Standards Board July 1. Mr. Mueller replaces former Cornell and Stanford professor Robert J. Swieringa, who has served two five-year terms on the powerful accounting board and cannot be reappointed.
Mindy Turbov starts today as special assistant to Federal Housing Finance Board Chairman Bruce Morrison. Prior to joining the agency, Ms. Turbov was director of the public housing partnership office at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. At her new job, she will focus on community development issues.
House Speaker Newt Gingrich is backing party-switcher Rep. Billy Tauzin to lead the Commerce Committee's telecommunications and finance subcommittee, a key panel in banks' fight for new securities powers. The move has rattled some long-time Republican lawmakers eager to move up the ranks.
In a Feb. 1 meeting, the speaker told Rep. Tauzin's chief rival, Rep. Mike Oxley of Ohio, that he would back the former Democrat from Louisiana.
Rep. Gingrich said he is honoring a promise to allow Rep. Tauzin keep his Commerce committee seniority when he switched to the Republican party last year. The pledge put Rep. Tauzin just ahead of Rep. Oxley and heir apparent for the subcommittee's chairmanship.
The offer originally posed no problems because Rep. Jack Fields had the job. But then in December, the subcommittee chairman from Texas announced he would retire.
Despite Rep. Gingrich's support for Rep. Tauzin, the ultimate decision will be left to Commerce Chairman Thomas J. Bliley, R-Va., who has not weighed in yet.
