(Forbes.com posted the following Reuters article on January 23.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Seeking to build support for U.S. Treasury Secretary nominee John Snow, the Treasury on Thursday issued letters from three unions offering their strong backing for the wealthy rail executive.
“During John’s many years at the helm of CSX, I’ve had the opportunity to work with him on an array of complex issues,” Michael Sacco, president of the Seafarers International Union, said in a letter to President George W. Bush. He called Snow “a man of vision, integrity and determination.”
Snow was on Capitol Hill, meeting senators ahead of next Tuesday’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee. In a brief encounter with reporters, Snow said the talks were going well before aides hustled him away after saying he could not talk before the hearing.
The other union officers who praised Snow’s nomination were from the United Transportation Union and the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union (HERE), which said it had nearly 1,000 members at the plush, CSX-owned Greenbrier Hotel and golf course in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia.
SMOOTH LABOR RELATIONS
HERE president John Wilhelm said the union and CSX, under Snow’s leadership, “enjoyed the benefits of a good-faith labor-management relationship” and said the union members strongly supported him.
Snow has been a top executive of rail freight giant CSX since 1980, and has been chairman since 1991 — a position he pledged to give up if he becomes treasury secretary. Once the Finance Committee votes on his nomination, it must go to the full Senate for a confirmation vote before he can take over the job.
Documents issued on Wednesday detailing his financial holdings showed he has reaped the fruit of a 30-year business career, amassing a fortune worth between $77 million and $296 million, though it was hard to judge since holdings were reported in ranges.
A source close to Snow said on Thursday that his net worth was about $100 million. That would make him one of the wealthiest members of the Bush administration, if confirmed, about on a par with former Treasury chief Paul O’Neill, who resigned under pressure in December.
Snow has let the Senate committee members know that he was arrested in 1982 for driving under the influence of alcohol, though the charges were dismissed and he paid a fine for making an illegal turn. He was also involved in a child-support dispute in 1988 with a former wife that was settled.
There was no indication that his nomination was in trouble because of the publicity, and Bush reaffirmed his support while some lawmakers said they wouldn’t hold the old incidents against Snow.
“We’ve confirmed people up here with more than one DUI (driving under the influence charge). It was long ago. We don’t confirm gods up here, we confirm people,” Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a Democrat from West Virginia, said on Wednesday.