Senate Confirms Barr to Treasury Post

The Senate confirmed Michael Barr as Treasury assistant secretary for financial institutions where he will play a key role in reforming the nation's mortgage finance system. A former professor of law at Michigan University and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, Mr. Barr served as a special assistant to former Treasury secretary Robert Rubin in the Clinton administration. He has been working in the White House since January and is now the only confirmed Treasury official working in the agency's Office of Domestic Finance. At a congressional hearing, Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner said ODF will devise a new financial regulatory structure and work on "tough problems" including the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Mr. Geithner also noted that Treasury plans to release proposals for regulatory reform in the coming weeks. The administration is considering the creation of a consumer protection agency that might regulate all mortgage lending with enforcement powers of all residential funders regardless of charter. But the secretary stressed that he has not committed to that concept yet.