Panel OKs OFHEO, Ginnie, FDIC Nominees

The Senate Banking Committee has unanimously approved the president's nominees to head the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, Ginnie Mae, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.The committee's action clears the way for the full Senate to vote on the confirmation of James B. Lockhart to be the new OFHEO director, Rob Couch to be the new Ginnie Mae president, and Sheila Bair to be the new FDIC chairman. President Bush nominated Mr. Lockhart on April 27 and installed him as acting director of OFHEO to oversee the final drafting of the agency's report on its special examination of Fannie Mae and to negotiate a $400 million settlement with the government-sponsored enterprise. Mr. Couch is the president of New South Federal Savings Bank, Birmingham, Ala., and a former Mortgage Bankers Association chairman (from October 2003 to October 2004). Ms. Bair served as Treasury assistant secretary for financial institutions during the first two years of the Bush administration. She resigned in 2002 to become a professor at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.