July 20, 2005
js-2639

Statement of Robert M. Kimmitt Nominee for Deputy Secretary

Mr. Chairman, Senator Baucus, Members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today.  I am honored to be President Bush's nominee to serve as Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Department, and I am grateful to Secretary Snow for his confidence and support.

I am pleased to be joined today by my wife Holly and four of our five children: Kathleen, Robert, William, and Mac – each of whom has served as either a page or an intern in the Senate.  Also here are my brother Jay and my sister Judy, who together had over 45 years of service to the Senate.  I only regret that my late father, former Secretary of the Senate and Secretary for the Majority, Stan Kimmitt, from the great state of Montana, is not with us today, for it was he who inspired all seven of his children and now his grandchildren to the noble cause of public service and a particular respect for the institution of the United States Senate.

It was twenty years ago this summer that I appeared before this Committee as President Ronald Reagan's nominee for the position of General Counsel of the Treasury Department under Secretary Jim Baker.  I had previously served as an Army paratrooper in combat in Vietnam and later as a senior member of the National Security Council Staff at the White House.  After my service at Treasury, I was Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs and later American Ambassador to Germany.  In the twelve years since returning from Germany, I have served as a banker, lawyer, and business executive.  If confirmed by the Senate, I look forward to bringing the perspectives of these decades of public and private sector experience to my work at the Treasury.

The world and the Treasury Department are very different places than they were during my service in the Department twenty years ago.  But the central role played by the Treasury Department as the Administration's senior economic and financial department has been brought into even sharper relief in the ensuing decades.  In addition to its internal responsibilities for tax administration and enforcement, financial management, and domestic finance, the Treasury Department plays a critical role in all three major interagency bodies of the Executive Branch: the National Security Council, the National Economic Council, and the Homeland Security Council.  Whether the issue is Social Security, economic policy, or tax reform; international debt or foreign direct investment; terrorist financing or economic sanctions, the Treasury Department has an essential responsibility to ensure that these issues are carefully considered and coordinated within the Department and interagency process prior to engagement with key external counterparts, beginning with the Congress.

If confirmed by the Senate, I look forward to helping ensure that the Treasury Department performs these essential tasks with the diligence and skill that are the hallmarks of the Department.  In that effort, Secretary Snow and I will be assisted not only by strong Presidential appointees, represented by the colleagues who appear with me today, but also by the dedicated and highly professional career civil servants who are and always have been the backbone of the Department.

Mr. Chairman, Senator Baucus, Members of the Committee, thank you again for this opportunity.  If confirmed, I look forward to further such opportunities to interact with you, and I would be pleased to answer any questions you may have.

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