Warren wins on Weiss nomination Antonio Weiss pulls out of Treasury slot; will instead serve as counselor.

NEW YORK — Antonio Weiss, the Wall Street banker who President Barack Obama had picked to be the third-ranking official at the Treasury Department, has asked that the president not resend his nomination to the Senate following a major backlash from progressive Democrats who questioned his ties to the financial industry, POLITICO has learned.

Obama accepted the decision, which Weiss conveyed in a letter to the president over the weekend. But the Lazard banker will still join the administration in the position of counselor to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, which does not require Senate confirmation.


Obama last year nominated Weiss, a widely admired banker with decades of experience in the industry, to the position of Under Secretary for Domestic Finance. He would have been responsible for helping managing the nation’s $18 trillion debt portfolio as well communicating with Congress over budget and other issues.

But Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who came out strongly against the nomination, along with some others progressive Democrats, said that Weiss did not have enough regulatory experience and would be too deferential to the finance industry.

Weiss and his supporters strongly rejected that notion, arguing that his views on regulation were very much in line with Warrren’s and that he had strong progressive credentials on taxes and other issues. He also never worked at one of the large “too big to fail” banks.

But Weiss said he did not want his nomination to be a distraction to the White House.

“I am writing to request that the administration not re-submit my nomination,” Weiss wrote in the letter to Obama, which was obtained by POLITICO. “I do not believe that the Treasury Department would be well served by the lengthy confirmation process my renomination would likely entail.”

Instead, Weiss has accepted the position advising Lew on domestic and international issues, which “ will allow me to begin serving immediately in support of the Administration’s efforts to foster broad-based economic growth and ensure financial reform that protects consumers and reduces the likelihood of future financial crises,” he wrote.

He added: “I am grateful for the trust you have placed in me, and I look forward to being a strong advocate for your economic policy agenda as a member of your administration.”

The move is likely to be viewed as a big win for progressives as the new year begins. Weiss will be able to play a similar role at Treasury as counselor but will not wield as much clout or authority in the unconfirmed position. The administration will continue to search for a nominee to fill the Under Secretary slot. But it make take some time.

Warren issued an oblique statement on the Weiss news, never mentioning him by name.

“We’ve already seen that the new Republican Congress is going to aggressively attack the Dodd-Frank Act. It is critical that the Treasury Department defend the Act from those attacks and push for strong implementation and enforcement of the law,” she said.

“The risk of another financial crisis remains too high, and we should be strengthening financial reforms, not rolling them back to benefit Wall Street.”

While some criticized the White House for installing Weiss as a counselor, others noted that Warren herself previously served as an unconfirmed “special assistant” to then-Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner when she helped created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The White House said it was still confident in Weiss but respected his decision.

“Over the weekend, Mr. Weiss asked the White House not to re-nominate him to serve as Under Secretary for Domestic Finance at the Treasury Department. Mr. Weiss made the request to avoid the distraction of the lengthy confirmation process that his renomination would likely entail,” White House spokesperson Jennifer Friedman said in an emailed statement. “We continue to believe that Mr. Weiss is an extremely well-qualified individual, who is committed to the policy goals of this Administration and firmly supports the Administration’s policies on fostering economic growth and supporting our middle class. We are pleased that he has accepted the role of counselor to the Treasury secretary.”

Friedman added that White House officials “strongly believe that the opposition to his nomination was not justified, and we are confident that he will prove himself to be a dedicated, talented, and effective public servant.

In a separate statement, Lew said: “Antonio Weiss is exceptionally capable and qualified. He has deep expertise in financial markets … Given his tremendous expertise and shared passion for helping working families, I asked Antonio to join Treasury in a different role — as a counselor to me — and he accepted. In that role, he will provide advice to me on a broad range of domestic and international issues, including financial markets, regulatory reform, job creation, and fostering broad-based economic growth. It is a testament to Antonio’s character and commitment to public service that he is willing to serve his country in this capacity.”

Lew said he was “disappointed that Antonio will not have the opportunity to serve as Under Secretary, but I understand his request not to be re-nominated. I continue to believe that the opposition to his nomination was not justified.”

In the counselor role, Weiss will advise Lew but not have any statutory responsibility to run the domestic finance office, which is currently directed on an acting basis by Matthew Rutherford, who will remain in the slot for now.

Weiss, 48, is currently global head of investment banking at Lazard in New York but will relocate to Washington. People close to him say he is relieved by the decision after being surprised by the vitriol of the opposition to his candidacy on the left. These people say Weiss thought he could still win confirmation given that Republicans now control the Senate but it might have taken months and left him much less time to actually work at Treasury in the final two years of the Obama presidency.

Weiss can now work on the issues about which he cares including tax, fiscal and global economic policy without the delay and distraction of confirmation hearings.

The immediate reaction to Weiss’ decision split along expected lines.

“It’s really a shame,” said Tony Fratto, partner at Hamilton Place Strategies and a Treasury and White House official under President George W. Bush. “It’s embarrassing for the Obama Administration. Terrible for Treasury — including the eventual under secretary, who will have the preferred nominee in the building. It’s terrible for Weiss, to leave his career behind and not get the job. The things we put nominees through only to be upended by ill-informed, myopic demagoguery. The White House should have fought for him.”

On the left, meanwhile, it was a much more welcome move.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said that while he has “no personal animosity toward Mr. Weiss … I am very glad he withdrew his nomination. The president needs economic advisors who do not come from Wall Street. In fact, he needs advisors prepared to stand up to Wall Street. We need economic policies in this country which ask the wealthy and large corporations to pay their fair share of taxes and which create millions of good-paying jobs.”

Progressive group CREDO rallied its members against the nomination, drawing 160,000 signatures for one anti-Weiss petition sent to senators and coordinating more than 1,000 calls to the White House. Other progressive groups, including Democracy for America, also pitched in.

“President Obama did the right thing by listening to the demands of hundreds of thousands of supporters from his progressive base,” said CREDO deputy political director Murshed Zaheed. “He must fill this appointment with someone with a track record of fighting for Main Street, not Wall Street.”

One financial reform advocate criticized the administration for taking Weiss on without the airing of information that would come with a confirmation hearing.

“Avoiding the public Senate confirmation process and installing Mr. Weiss in a very senior position at the Treasury Department is unfortunate for the American people,” said Dennis Kelleher, head of pro-reform group Better Markets. “The country would benefit from an open, public debate about the Wall Street-centric view that what is good for Wall Street is really good for America.”