Feb. 13 (UPI) — Two of President Donald Trump‘s Cabinet appointees received full Senate confirmation late Monday — one in a landslide, and the other by just three votes.
Steven T. Mnuchin was narrowly confirmed as the 77th U.S. treasury chief in the upper chamber by a vote of 53-47.
With 100 members in the Senate, 51 votes are needed for confirmation. The only Democrat to vote for Mnuchin was West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin.
A former Wall Street manager and Hollywood film financier, Mnuchin was opposed by some Democrats and heavily questioned by the Senate Finance Committee last month over his buying a mortgage lender from the federal government that some critics say was a “foreclosure machine.”
During the financial crisis in 2009, Mnuchin bought subprime lender IndyMac from the government and turned it into a bank that modified tens of thousands of troubled home loans — and foreclosed on many properties. The venture was highly profitable.
“It has been said that I ran a ‘foreclosure machine.’ This is not true,” he told the panel. “On the contrary, I was committed to loan modifications intended to stop foreclosures. I ran a ‘loan modification machine.'”
A billionaire, Mnuchin was also questioned about potential tax shelters he ran in the Caribbean — an allegation the treasury appointee denied.
Like Trump’s last four nominees — Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (confirmed by a vote of 56-43), Education Secretary Betsy DeVos (51-50), Attorney General Jeff Sessions (52-47), and Health Secretary Tom Price (52-47) — Mnuchin was narrowly approved along party lines.
Mnuchin takes over the Treasury from Jack Lew, who served under former President Barack Obama for four years.
A short time later, Dr. David J. Shulkin was easily approved — by a unanimous vote of 100-0 — as the 9th U.S. secretary of Veterans Affairs.
Mnuchin was sworn in Monday night and Shulkin will take his oath Tuesday afternoon, the White House said.
