Jack Lew Senate Committee Vote To Come Tuesday

Jack Lew will be getting an up or down vote in the Senate finance committee on Tuesday. The Treasury Secretary nominee has come under fire in recent days for a variety of reasons and there were some who believed his first confirmation vote could be postponed.

A postponement of the vote would certainly not be a huge shock, considering the treatment of other nominees for President Obama’s cabinet.

The Washington Post reports that leading senators on the committee, including Max Baucus believe that Lew has answered questions posed to him in a “thorough and fully transparent manner”

Baucus added that he believes that the committee has given the nominee a “thorough review.” Lew answered questions on a wide variety of topics, including his time spent with Citibank.

Lew was also one of the architects of the budget deal that includes a sequester that will go into effect shortly, should the Obama administration and the US Congress not strike a new deal.

NBC News reports that in recent days, one of Lew’s private business deals was flagged by the committee. The report shows that Lew held an investment valued at up to $100,000 in a Cayman Islands hedge fund.

According to people close to the situation, Lew had no role in creating or operating the fund. He got out of the fund once he was confirmed for the office of director of the OMB in 2010.

The fund stands out because the Obama administration has long talked about doing away with offshore tax havens. The Cayman Islands has long been a target of those who want these tax havens to be done away with.

If Jack Lew is eventually confirmed, he would follow Tim Geithner, the outgoing Secretary of the Treasury. Geithner had his own issues when he was nominated for the position in 2008. It turned out that the, then nominee had several years of unpaid taxes.