Senate Confirms Massad as Assistant Treasury Secretary

Timothy G. Massad was confirmed late Thursday by the U.S. Senate to serve as the Department of the Treasury's assistant secretary for financial stability.

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In this role, Massad is responsible for overseeing the implementation and wind down of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), including program initiatives to address the housing and foreclosure crisis under the administration's Making Home Affordable umbrella.

""The administration remains committed to reaching homeowners who are still struggling so that our country can fully recover from an unprecedented housing crisis,"" Massad said Friday as he released the latest Making Home Affordable numbers.

""The administration's programs continue to benefit tens of thousands of additional homeowners every month, while keeping the pressure on mortgage servicers to offer more sustainable assistance to prevent avoidable foreclosures,"" Massad added.

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Massad has served as the acting assistant secretary for financial stability since last October. He joined Treasury in May 2009 as the chief counsel for the Office of Financial Stability and later became its chief reporting officer.

Prior to his time at Treasury, Massad worked with the Congressional Oversight Panel, one of the oversight agencies for TARP. He served as a special legal advisor to the panel for its first report on the TARP investments.

""Tim has helped lead one of the most successful financial rescue programs in history,"" said Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. ""As he works to unwind the government's investments in the financial system, his careful, conscientious approach will continue to give taxpayers an impressive and unexpected return.""

While Treasury has won several Senate confirmations in recent days to put officials in permanent positions, the Department is at risk of losing its topmost officer.

It's being reported Treasury Secretary Geithner has notified President Obama that he will step down from his post if lawmakers don't concede to raise the government's debt ceiling by the early August deadline.

""The Treasury Department continues to project that the United States will exhaust its borrowing authority under the debt limit on August 2, 2011,"" Mary Miller, Treasury's assistant secretary for financial markets, said in a statement Friday.

""Secretary Geithner urges Congress to avoid the catastrophic economic and market consequences of a default crisis by raising the statutory debt limit in a timely manner,"" said Miller.