US Coins

President can appoint next treasurer without Senate

Rosa Gumataotao Rios was the last U.S. treasurer whose presidential appointment required approval by the full Senate. The position of Mint Director, however, still requires that a nomination be brought to the Senate floor for a confirmation vote.

Image courtesy of the Department of the Treasury.

When President Trump makes his pick for the 43rd treasurer of the United States, the selection won’t require the approval of the U.S. Senate.

Yet when the president nominates his choice for the 39th director of the United States Mint, that selection will require the eventual approval of the full Senate.

Rosa Gumataotao Rios, who resigned as U.S. treasurer effective July 8, 2016, was the last U.S. treasurer whose appointment required full Senate approval. Rios became U.S. treasurer on July 28, 2009, with full oversight of the U.S. Mint and Bureau of Engraving and Printing.

The Presidential Appointment Efficiency and Streamlining Act of 2011 — Public Law 112-166 , signed into law on Aug. 10, 2012, by President Obama — eliminates the requirement of Senate approval for 163 positions, including treasurer of the United States, allowing the president alone to appoint persons to these positions.

In contrast, appointment of the Mint director is not subject to the provisions of the Presidential Appointment Efficiency and Streamlining Act of 2011.

The U.S. Mint has been without a presidentially appointed director since the 38th director, Edmund C. Moy, departed the position for the private sector in January 2011. Moy was nearing the end of his five-year appointment at the time of his departure.

Neither of President Obama’s two selections — Bibiana Boerio, a former automotive executive in Detroit, and Matthew Rhett Jeppson, former principal deputy director of the U.S. Mint — reached the floor of the U.S. Senate for confirmation. 


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