Friday, May 15, 2009
George W. Madison
If confirmed by the Senate, the Treasury Department’s top lawyer will earn nearly ten times more in compensation from his former employer than he will from his government salary. George W. Madison has been nominated by President Barack Obama to be Treasury’s next general counsel, a post that earns $153,200 a year. Prior to joining the administration, Madison was the top lawyer for TIAA-CREF, one of the nation’s leading retirement-planning companies, which owes him $3 million. Government ethics attorneys have said it is okay for Madison to collect the deferred compensation over three years, as long as he does not work on matters involving TIAA-CREF.
TIAA-CREF manages more than $300 billion in retirement and other assets for 3.6 million members. The company is well known in Washington circles, thanks to its million-dollar lobbying operation directed at Congress, the White House, and federal agencies, including the Treasury Department.
Some ethics specialists questioned the decision by Treasury officials to allow Madison to still collect from TIAA-CREF, which has lobbied the department regarding the federal bailout of Wall Street. “He’s counsel to the Treasury, which could confer benefits on the company he previously left; there is an appearance that his judgment could be affected,” Bennett L. Gershman, a government ethics specialist at Pace University in New York, told The Washington Times.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Treasury Nominee to Keep Corporate Pay (by Jim McElhatton, Washington Times)
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