Obama Nominates Wash County Executive As Deputy Secretary Of HUD
February 02 2009 - 2:01PM
Dow Jones News
President Barack Obama nominated Ron Sims on Monday to be deputy
secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development.
"Ron's track record as an innovative leader with an exciting
vision for the future of our nation's communities makes him the
perfect deputy-secretary candidate as we tackle the nation's
housing crisis amidst the biggest economic downturn in decades,"
said HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan.
Sims is the county executive of King County, Wash. His role as
deputy secretary of HUD would leave him in charge of the agency's
staff of 8,500; its nearly $39 billion annual operating budget; and
daily operations.
Housing regulators are hopeful the third-term county executive's
experience with overseeing a metropolitan area with 1.8 million
residents and 39 cities, including Seattle, could assist with
stabilizing the housing sector.
Donovan, at his Senate confirmation hearing in January, said HUD
needs to work with the Treasury, the Federal Deposit Insurance
Corp. and the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees Fannie
Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE), to stabilize the housing
markets.
"Together, we will work with President Obama to ensure HUD is
doing all it can to help the nation's communities recover from
today's economic realities and to better position them for the
future," Donovan said in a prepared statement on Sims'
nomination.
-By Darrell A. Hughes, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-6684;
darrell.hughes@dowjones.com
-By Jessica Holzer, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9228;
jessica.holzer@dowjones.com
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