Barr Becomes Treasury Assistant Secretary Nominee

President Barack Obama has nominated Michael Barr to be Treasury assistant secretary for financial institutions where he will probably play an important role in guiding reform of the mortgage finance system. A professor of law at Michigan University and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, Mr. Barr is currently working in the White House. He previously served as a special assistant to former Treasury secretary Robert Rubin during the Clinton administration. The Treasury nominee recently told a Center for American Progress forum that consumer protection needs to be at the "heart of our system of mortgage finance — not an after-thought or relegated to second class status." In related news, the President has nominated Helen Kanovsky to be the general counsel at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. She is currently the chief operating officer of the AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust and previously served as chief of staff for Sen. John Kerry.