Photograph by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Senate Budget Committee members Sen. Pat Toomey, center, and Sen. Ron Johnson, right, make brief statements to the news media before the second day of markup hearings in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on March 14, 2013 in Washington The Republican senators were unified in their criticism of the federal budget proposed by the majority Democrats on the committee.

Look for the Senate to toil late into the evening and possibly into the early morning hours to finish work on its fiscal 2014 budget blueprint. When back-to-back roll calls on amendments end, the chamber will finally be ready for recess, joining the House, which has already begun its two-week Passover/Easter break.

President Barack Obama meets with King Abdullah II of Jordan today as he continues his visit to the Middle East.

Obama nominated Allison Macfarlane to a new term as Nuclear Regulatory Commission chairman. Meanwhile, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski is leaving his post, according to two people familiar with the matter, setting up a second vacancy on the five-member agency that regulates telephone, cable and broadcast companies, Bloomberg News reports.

Strong economic data on jobs, housing and investment don’t support claims by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican,  that debt “is hurting our economy today,” Bloomberg News reports. Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican, said Republicans should compromise and increase tax revenues as part of “long-term grand bargain” on budget.

Federal Reserve Governor Sarah Bloom Raskin, CFPB Director Richard Cordray and FDIC Chairman Martin Gruenberg speak at a National Community Reinvestment Coalition conference today. The CFTC holds a closed meeting on enforcement.

In legal affairs, Oxfam America holds a briefing after lawyers for the SEC and the American Petroleum Institute give oral arguments at an appeals court in a case involving the Cardin-Lugar provision of the Dodd-Frank Act, which requires oil, gas and mining companies to disclose payments made to governments where they do business. An ITC judge releases findings in a patent-infringement case that Google’s Motorola Mobility unit brought against Microsoft over a away the Xbox video-gaming system communicates with accessories.

And Tim Geithner, who finished his term as Treasury secretary in January, has found a buyer for his house in Bethesda, Md., one week after listing it for $995,000, Bloomberg News reports.

Bennett Roth and Katherine Rizzo contributed to this report.

Original post is Washington Daybook: All-Nighter by Political Capital.

Photograph by Scott Eells/Bloomberg

Timothy Geithner and his wife Carole Sonnenfeld Geithner, attend the U.S. presidential inauguration in Washington on Jan. 21, 2013.

Updated March 22 at 1:30 pm:

It takes a Treasury secretary to turn a good investment.

Former Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is looking for a modest return on his Bethesda, Maryland, home.

Geithner and his wife Carole bought the 2,537 square foot house in 2009 for $950,00 and have listed it for $995,000.

Bloomberg’s  John Gittelsohn reported today that there is a contract on the place, after jut a week of listing.

Here’s a virtual tour of the place. 

Geithner, who finished his term as  Treasury secretary in January, has found a buyer for his house, under contract now with some contingencies, but isn’t dependent on a buyer selling a current house to close the deal, according to the Web-site of brokerage Redfin Corp. It was listed March 14.

That would make it a post-bubble purchase that has held up fairly well — though only in  economically isolated enclaves like suburban Washington does 2,500 square feet fetch close to $1 million.

The rambler-style home has four bedrooms and 2.5 baths. The kitchen has had some upgrades since its 1954 construction.

“No war rooms for planning world domination that we could find, but there is a deck overlooking a large backyard,” Curbed.com notes.

Geithner has been replaced by Treasury Secretary Jacob (Jack) Lew., who already worked at the White House, his housing needs unchanged.

Original post is Geithner’s Profit: Asking for $45,000 — Update: Contract by Political Capital.

As Jack Lew prepares to take over the Treasury Department, Tim Geithner is moving ahead with post-government plans.

Geithner, who left the Treasury in January, will hold a series of seminars on the 2008 financial crisis at U.S. universities starting in early March, according to a spokeswoman for the former secretary. The sessions will be held over the next year at five to 10 schools, including Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northwestern University and Princeton University.

The seminars, focusing on research to help prevent crises and how to respond to them, will be closed to the press and done for no fee.

Geithner, 51, plans to write a book about the U.S. response to the crisis and his decision-making role at the Treasury the last four years and as president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from 2003 to 2009. He has also joined the Council on Foreign Relations as a distinguished fellow.

Lew, President Barack Obama’s choice to succeed Geithner, won confirmation approval in the Senate Finance Committee yesterday and could get a vote in full chamber as early as today.

Original post is Geithner Takes Financial Crisis on Campus Tour as Lew Takes Treasury by Political Capital.

Photograph by Alex Wong/Getty Images

Secretary of Treasury Timothy Geithner arrives at the Capitol for meeting with congressional leaders on Nov. 29, 2012.

This is Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s last day at work, and he is leaving with an exit interview snared by Politico in which the veteran warrior of the fiscal cliff wars suggests Republicans have ceded the debt ceiling as a political weapon. And this, he says, is a good thing.

Geithner also rules out any idea of him succeeding Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, serving his final year.

The move by House Republicans that cleared the House this week with a waiver until May of the federal debt ceiling points to fiscal negotiations less fraught with economic danger, the departing secretary tells Politico’s Ben White and Mike Allen.

Original post is Geithner: Republicans Cede Debt Lever by Political Capital.

Photograph by Daniel Acker/Bloomberg

The Capitol stands in the background as police monitor a checkpoint during the U.S. presidential inauguration in Washington.

The Obama administration is welcoming a move by House Republicans to vote tomorrow on raising the nation’s debt ceiling through mid-May as a “de-escalation” of the fiscal debate, White House press secretary Jay Carney says.

“The fact that House Republicans have made this decision is certainly something that we welcome,” Carney said at a briefing. It means they will “back away from the kind of brinkmanship” over the federal debt limit that creates uncertainty for companies and is harmful to the economy.

Carney said the administration still prefers a long-term extension of the nation’s debt ceiling. Still, President Barack Obama “would not stand in the way” if Congress passes the proposal.

The Treasury reached its statutory borrowing limit on Dec. 31 and is using “extraordinary” measures. Those measures will work only until mid-February to early March, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in a Jan. 14 letter to congressional leaders.

Under the House Republican plan, the government’s $16.4 trillion borrowing limit would be raised until May 19. The House suspension plan is accompanied by a caveat: Congress must adopt a budget resolution for the next fiscal year by April 15.

The debt limit has been raised periodically since its creation in 1917 during the presidency of Woodrow Wilson. Since 1960, Congress has raised or revised the limit 79 times, including 49 times under Republican presidents. The U.S. never has defaulted on its obligations.

Investors in U.S. Treasury bonds, who most directly bear the risk of a government default, haven’t shown alarm over the political fight in Washington. The 10-year yield was little changed at 1.84 percent at 11:39 a.m. New York time, according to Bloomberg Bond Trader prices.

See the full and updating report at Bloomberg.com. 

Original post is Obama Welcomes ‘De-escalation’ of Debt-Ceiling Debate: Off the Brink by Political Capital.

Photograph by Pete Souza/White House

The White House Honey Ale

President Barack Obama said this week that he likes “a good party.”

He went looking for a going-away party next door today at Treasury, where Secretary Tim Geithner is preparing to step down.

At about 4 pm Washington time, Obama walked across the driveway between the East Wing of the White House and the Treasury Department, preceded by his nominee for Geithner’s replacement, White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew, and joined by a crowd of other close advisers.

Obama and Vice President Joe Biden were attending an event honoring Geithner, joined there by his family and friends.

The White House crew didn’t stay long, leaving at about 4:50 pm.

The in-town press pool posed a question to the president on the way home: You like a good party?

(He said he does, at the last press conference of his first term earlier this week, when asked why he doesn’t socialize more.)

“They didn’t serve any alcohol,” Obama replied today with a wide grin. “Still on a budget.”

And this, at a White House that brews its own beer.

Original post is Obama’s Alcohol-Free Treasury Party by Political Capital.

Updated at 1:55 pm EDT

Jack Lew’s signature signature is throwing some people for a loop.

Reviews of the Hancock of the man likely to become the next secretary of the U.S. Treasury range from “awful” to ”awesome.”

Deconstructing it, Lew’s signature resembles more the testing of a pen to see if contains enough ink for the job, or a coiled string awaiting unraveling, than the impressive imprimatur one might expect on the nation’s currency.

The outgoing treasury secretary — the nation’s 75th — had to change his signature to adopt to the duty of signing those dollar bills. The incoming secretary, to be nominated today in a White House ceremony, may have to adapt as well.

Then again, why change? Lew, who serves as President Barack Obama’s chief of staff and has served as director of the Office of Management and Budget twice (under Obama and Bill Clinton), has not only a distinguished career in public service. He also has a distinguishing signature.

The Washington Post has summoned a handwriting analyst to say that “the roundness of the characters in Lew’s impossible-to-read John Hancock indicates that he just might be the cuddly sort.” Kathi McKnight,  professional graphologist, says such strokes are common among those with a “softer” approach to problem-solving.

The signers of the Constitution, by contrast, used strong, angular lettering, McKnight told the Post — not that Lew is alone in his circular style. “Princess Di had very loopy writing,” she says.

The fact that Lew’s signature is illegible may also mean that he wants to keep his true identity unknown, she suggests. “People with illegible signatures … like to keep some things private,” she says.

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner “had a similarly illegible signature before being appointed,” the Post also reports. “He, however, changed it prior to placing his John Hancock on all American currency minted under his watch.”

In an interview with Marketplace’s Kai Ryssdal, Geithner said: “I had to write something where people could read my name.”

Today, standing alongside Geithner as Obama announced Lew’s nomination for Treasury, Lew told Geithner:  “I thought I knew you pretty well, but it was only yesterday that I discovered we both share a common challenge with penmanship.”

And the president added this:  “I had never noticed Jack’s signature, and when this was highlighted yesterday in the press I considered rescinding my offer to appoint him.” Following through with the joke, Obama said: “Jack assures me that he is going to work to make at least one letter legible in order not to debase our currency.”

MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell says Lew’s “might be the world’s worst signature.”

The Daily Caller and The Week have called it “horrible” and “awful.”

Columnist Ezra Klein, who contributes to Bloomberg View, suggests that Lew’s signature “would turn American currency into the best money ever.”

Lew is no loopy fellow. He is one serious sort.

His signature isn’t really loopy either. It is, for sure, looping.

And for now, it has thrown a lot of people for one.

Original post is Lew Throwing Cabinet Watchers for a Loop by Political Capital.

Photograph by Paul J. Richards/AFP via Getty Images

Alexander Hamilton, the U.S.'s first Treasury secretary, at left here on the ten dollar bill.

That’s how many Treasury secretaries have served the nation since the office was established in 1789.

President Barack Obama today will nominate White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew to succeed Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, Bloomberg’s Hans Nichols first reported. Be sure to read this profile of Lew by Bloomberg’s Julianna Goldman.

Alexander Hamilton was the first Treasury secretary, serving from 1789 to 1795 under George Washington. Others include Andrew W. Mellon, who served under Presidents Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover, and James A. Baker III, who served under Ronald Reagan.

Original post is Bloomberg by the Numbers: 75 by Political Capital.

Photograph by Pete Souza/The White House via Getty Images

President Barack Obama speaks with Chief of Staff Jack Lew while waiting for Russian President Vladimir Putin to arrive for their bilateral meeting on June 18, 2012 in San Jose Del Cabo, Mexico.

President Barack Obama plans tomorrow to name White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew as his choice for Treasury secretary, replacing Timothy F. Geithner, a person familiar with the process said.

Lew, 57, who also has served as director of the Office of Management and Budget, has been offered the Treasury post by Obama, according to the person, who asked for anonymity to discuss personnel matters.

Geithner, 51, the only remaining member of Obama’s original economic team, has told White House officials he doesn’t’ want to serve in a second term and intends to leave the job by the end of the month.

Lew’s nomination as Treasury secretary is subject to confirmation by the Senate.

The next Treasury secretary will play a leading role in working with Congress to raise the government’s $16.4 trillion  debt ceiling. The U.S. reached the statutory limit on Dec. 31, and the Treasury Department began using extraordinary measures to finance the government. It will exhaust that avenue as early as mid-February, the Congressional Budget Office says.

As a former aide to the late House Speaker Tip O’Neill, a Massachusetts Democrat, and a two-time director of the Office of Management and Budget, Lew has experience on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue. He’s spent most of his career in government, with a brief detour to Wall Street, where he worked as a managing director for Citigroup from July 2006 until joining the administration when Obama first took office.

Among the leading candidates to replace Lew as Obama’s chief of staff are Denis McDonough, currently a deputy national security adviser, and Ron Klain, who had served as Vice President Joe Biden’s chief of staff, according to people familiar with the administration’s plans.

See the full  Lew story reported first at Bloomberg.com.

Original post is Lew to Treasury: Word Tomorrow by Political Capital.

Photograph by Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

President Barack Obama with White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew on his way to board Marine One.

President Barack Obama may announce this week the selection of White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew as Treasury secretary to replace Tim Geithner, according to people familiar with the matter.

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments on when the SEC’s chance to prosecute cases expires, as two Gabelli Funds LLC officials contend the agency was too late in its claims that they improperly let a client engage in market timing, a practice of making frequent, short-term trades at the expense of other investors.

American Petroleum Institute chief Jack Gerard delivers an address on the state of the oil industry. Oil was little changed in early trading today amid concern that Congress will fail to raise the U.S. debt ceiling, hurting economic confidence, and on speculation that supplies in the world’s biggest crude-consuming country will rebound.

Also today, the Corporate Reform Coalition holds a conference call to discuss a proposed SEC rule that would require disclosure of corporate political spending. AdvanFort hosts a conference on maritime security and stopping piracy, with speakers including Retired Navy Rear Admiral Terry McNight. And Rep. Peter DeFazio, an Oregon Democrat. joins Google’s patent lawyer Suzanne Michel for a discussion on patent trolls at the CES technology conference in Las Vegas.
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Laura Curtis contributed to this report. 

Original post is Washington Daybook: Lew Soon by Political Capital.