FROM THE OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS

January 26, 2005
js-2223

Remarks of Wayne A. Abernathy
Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions
at the Secretary’s Honor Awards Ceremony

Mr. Secretary, thank you for the kind award and recognition, and to my friends and colleagues, for the remembrances of this office. Thank you for your kind and generous attendance at this ceremony.

In addition to my kind friends who have made presentations today, I am grateful for the presence of NCUA Chairman JoAnn Johnson, OFHEO Director Armando Falcon, Fed Governor Mark Olson, SEC Commissioner Cynthia Glassman, CFTC Commissioner Walt Lukken, Federal Housing Finance Board Members Alicia Castañeda and Allan Mendelowitz and each you who has taken the time and trouble to be here with me today in this historic room.

You honor me with your presence.

I would like to indulge in a liberal paraphrasing of Bilbo Baggins: two years is far too short a time to serve among such excellent and admirable gnomes and gremlins of the Treasury. Soon to be a gnome alumnus, this ceremony is mostly a pleasant opportunity for me to say thank you to so many with whom I have worked so closely, inside and outside of the Treasury, over the last 26 months.

But not 26 months alone. Since this is also my departure from over 20 years of government service, I have taken the liberty to gather, as much as could be done, friends with whom I have worked during all of that time. And to all of you, I say thank you for the kindness, the mentoring, the friendship and the fellowship that have helped to make that service worthwhile.

President Reagan is reported to have said that there is no limit to the amount of good you can do in Washington if you are not worried about who gets the credit.

That is very appropriate for our work here at Treasury (as much as it was in the Congress). It is certainly true for the work that I have been involved in, because I cannot recall anything that I have been involved in that has not been the product and effort of many people.

When I worked at my last job, for Senator Phil Gramm on the Senate Banking Committee, Senator Gramm liked to say that all the work was done by others, that he was just the front guy. Well, he knew better then, but I even more so now know better his feelings as I have so often played the roll of front guy for the great work done by my team here at Treasury.

There is a little town in western New York, where I grew up as a teenager. It has I think an unusual distinction for towns of its size anywhere in America. That little town, of not more than 10,000 people, has had two of its children serve as Assistant Secretaries of the Treasury. What is more unusual, we both graduated in the same high school class and in fact we both were two-thirds of three young fellows who were inseparable in high school and all three of which came to school here in Washington.

I remember as a young college student walking with my friend, John Rogers (who later served with Secretary Baker as Assistant Secretary for Management), I remember he and I walking on a street close by this building, speculating on what jobs we would some day have here in Washington. We both knew that we would work for the federal government--that's why we were here, why we were studying here, those were our plans, and we as typical youngsters thought big.

Neither of us thought big enough. I did not think at that time that I would be privileged enough to work for the Treasury Department. I am glad that America is a place where young people can think big and where big thoughts can become reality.

I hope that my non-Treasury friends will pardon me if I say that Treasury is the best place to work in the Executive Branch. It is the best Department, a place where a wonderful combination of things that really matter to hundreds of millions of people every day are worked on by a team close enough for us all to know one another by name and face and work together without stultifying layers of bureaucracy.

As I have been packing my things this past week, I have been stunned by the number and variety of important matters that we at Treasury have been involved in. Just in the two years that I have personally witnessed we've worked on:

• reinforcing our national credit information system;
• fighting identity theft;
• strengthening the resilience of our financial infrastructure;
• implementing a model community development program;
• designing an effective supervisory structure for our GSEs; 
• taking the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program from nothing to fully operational in no time at all;
• completing the privatization of Sallie Mae; and
• spreading financial education standards and promoting efforts all over the nation.

And all the while fighting regulatory burden, promoting the idea that the role of government is service to the governed, that regulation should add value, and if it doesn't, then its value should be questioned.

Those are just some highlights. And the plate is full with more to do.

I am grateful to have been able to serve in the government. It has been an honor to serve in the Administration of President George W. Bush. But I must admit that I am also excited to join my friends in the private sector in the cause of building prosperity and opportunity in America, and to keep thinking big.

My friend and colleague, Matt Shimkus, gave me a rugged sign that I have kept in my office. It says, "Who Is John Galt?" I am ready to go and find out.

-30-