(The following article by Peter Hardin and Chip Jones was posted on the Richmond Times-Dispatch website on January 29.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Railroad executive John W. Snow won strong praise from senators of both parties yesterday for his credentials to serve as Treasury secretary. He appeared to be moving swiftly to confirmation.
At a hearing of the Senate Finance Committee, Snow portrayed President Bush’s tax-cut proposal as “an investment in the American people and their future.”
The Richmond-based CSX Corp. chairman and CEO calmly faced vigorous questioning about the troubled economy, growing federal budget deficits and issues of executive compensation, including his own.
Snow, 63, is a Fortune 500 executive with a net worth estimated at $100 million by a source close to him. Yet the session did not turn into a post-Enron grilling.
Democrats seemed reluctant to obstruct a nominee with an economics doctorate, a nominee with an economics doctorate, a law degree and service in the public and private sectors.
Snow escaped questioning about his private club memberships, a driving-under-the-influence arrest in 1982 and a child-support dispute. He has said the driving charge was dismissed and the child-support dispute settled.
“You’ll make a very good Treasury secretary – I wish you the best,” Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, senior Democrat on the committee, told Snow during the four-hour session.
Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., lauded Snow as an “exceptional person” whom he plans to support, despite the fact “we profoundly differ” on the president’s $647 billion economic package.
Sen. Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, the committee chairman, called Snow “a proven leader with a steady focus on long-range projects and short-term challenges. This focus on short-term problem-solving and long-term planning is what the nation needs for a Treasury secretary.”
Grassley added his hope that Snow could be voted upon by the committee today and by the full Senate as early as tomorrow, putting him on the job to testify before Congress next week on Bush’s economic package.
“The economy is recovering,” Snow said, despite the war on terrorism, corporate scandals and the falling stock market.
“But as the president has stated, we can and must do better,” he said. “As long as there are Americans who want a job and can’t find one, the economy is not growing fast enough.”
Snow added, “Jobs give people dignity and provide hope.”
Reminded of his past support for a balanced federal budget, Snow said “certainly deficits do matter,” but the deficit levels now anticipated will be relatively modest.
Snow also indicated there will be no change in the Bush administration’s policy of favoring a strong U.S. dollar.
“A strong dollar is in the national interest,” Snow said.
After weeks of questioning about Snow’s gold-plated compensation package, early in the hearing some Democratic senators sounded prepared to quiz the nominee closely on his business dealings. But they never pushed him to defend his corporate record. Snow got $2.2 million in salary and bonus in 2001 and received options to buy more CSX stock in the future. Grassley said this was in line with other heads of Fortune 500-size companies.
Grassley asked Snow to describe what he would be giving up by taking the Treasury post, which pays $161,200 a year. Snow said his biggest financial sacrifice would be giving up the opportunity to buy more stock in CSX through options – “a significant part of my net worth.”
He said the stock options he’s forfeiting are worth $25 million to $50 million. He listed other corporate perks he’ll give up, such as payment of club dues and access to a corporate airplane. When other stock options are thrown in, Snow said, he’s giving up a retirement deal worth $15 million.
Snow was never asked about his railroad’s safety problems of recent years or CSX’s operating woes that tied up the East Coast rail system several years ago.
Familiar to many of the senators and with Washington ways, Snow gave a confident and personable performance.
He spoke conversationally. To make a point, he told stories about family members.
His late mother, a retired Ohio teacher on a pension, would have been delighted had she been able to receive a few hundred dollars more per year through the elimination of the dividend tax Bush proposes, he said.
Snow, accompanied by his wife, Carolyn, was introduced by Virginia Republican Sens. John W. Warner and George Allen. Warner called him a “man of character” who rose from modest beginnings and “humbly represents the American dream.”
At the White House yesterday, President Bush asked the Senate to confirm Snow quickly. “I look forward to having him join us here at this table,” he said at a Cabinet meeting.
(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)