By Martin Vaughan Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., said Tuesday that "serious" errors made by Timothy Geithner, President-elect Barack Obama's nominee for Treasury Secretary, shouldn't disqualify him from the post.
Baucus said he hopes the Senate will still be able to confirm Geithner by the time Obama takes office on Jan. 20.
Senate Finance Committee members held a closed-door meeting Tuesday to discuss revelations that Geithner employed a housekeeper whose immigration papers had expired, and that he failed to pay self-employment taxes on income he earned as an independent contractor with the International Monetary Fund.
"I believe that these errors, although serious, do not rise to the level of disqualification," Baucus told reporters after the meeting. Geithner met with the committee in a Senate office building Tuesday to address the revelations.
Other senators were tight-lipped while leaving the meeting. The panel's senior Republican, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., steadfastly refused to comment on Geithner's status.
A committee aide said Obama transition-team officials brought the two issues to the attention of the committee in early December. Geithner is still amending his tax returns to deal with the underpayment of self-employment taxes, the aide said.
Baucus and Grassley said they would release a report Tuesday detailing the issues surrounding the Geithner appointment.
-By Martin Vaughan, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9244; martin.vaughan@dowjones.com
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Publié le 13 janvier 2009 Copyright © 2009 Dowjones