Though former Rep. Rick Lazio lost his Senate bid to Hillary Rodham Clinton, he may still wind up with a job in Washington. According to industry and government sources, the New York Republican is a candidate to succeed John D. Hawke Jr. as comptroller of the currency.
Sources pointed to Mr. Lazio's experience as House Banking's housing subcommittee chairman and suggested that the Republican Party may want to offer him a high-profile position as a reward for duking it out with the former First Lady.
Though some sources are floating Mr. Lazio as the next chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., it is still widely expected that Texas community banker Don Powell will be nominated to that position.
A spokesman for Mr. Lazio declined to discuss the rumors.
Longtime financial services industry lobbyist Brian C. Conklin was hired by the White House last month as a special assistant to President Bush for legislative affairs. He is responsible for monitoring financial, privacy, tax, and other issues considered by the House, keeping a special eye on the Financial Services, Judiciary, Commerce, and Ways and Means committees.Mr. Conklin had most recently worked for the Washington Counsel PC lobbying firm, where his clients included community bankers opposed to legislation that would permit banks to pay interest on business checking accounts. He had previously been an acting president and legislative affairs director for the now-defunct Financial Services Council, and was a Bank of America lobbyist before that.
Government privacy lawyer David Medine joined the private sector today as a partner in the Washington law firm of Hogan & Hartson LLP.Mr. Medine served for the last six months of the Clinton administration as a senior adviser in the White House National Economic Council. Before that he handled Internet privacy and financial credit issues for the Federal Trade Commission as the agency's associate director for financial practices.
At Hogan & Hartson, Mr. Medine will primarily be helping a wide variety of clients, including financial and high-tech firms, comply with new federal privacy laws and navigate international privacy laws.
"I spent the last five ypears on the issue of Internet privacy. That culminated in the FTC's recommendation for legislation last year," which Congress is expected to consider this year, Mr. Medine said Friday. "So it's a good time to move into the mode of counseling companies to develop their privacy policies."
The same day that the House is scheduled to vote on major legislation to overhaul the nation's bankruptcy laws, Rep. John J. LaFalce, D-N.Y., is hosting a forum "to explore the economic impact of consumer debt as well as credit lending practices and related bankruptcy reform issues," according to a news release from his office.The event this Thursday morning, which is open to the public, features no banking or credit industry representatives, who have made bankruptcy reform their top legislative priority this year.
Instead, the panelists are advocates concerned that new legislation would not do enough to protect consumers. They include Travis Plunkett of the Consumer Federation of America; Robert Manning, who wrote "Credit Card Nation: The Consequences of America's Addiction to Credit;" and Mary Rouleau, a lobbyist for the United Auto Workers union.
