A television ad from Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain, running statewide on radio and the FOX News Channel, erroneously claims the Environmental Protection Agency wants to regulate methane from cattle and dust from farming activities.

The ad features a number of farmers, one of which says the EPA wants to regulate methane coming from cattle.

“For thousands of years, 60 million buffalo roamed these prairies in Iowa,” one farmer says. “Who regulated them?”

EPA regional spokesman David Bryan told The Iowa Independent Monday that “there’s no truth to that at all.”

“There are a number of regulations on greenhouse gas emissions and different types of ambient air quality standards, but trying to say we’re putting a tax on emissions from cows is just a little ridiculous,” Bryan said.

Another claim in the ad, that the EPA wants to regulate dust on farms, is also a myth. Bryan said every five years the Clean Air Act requires the EPA to evaluate air standards, but EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson made it clear in a note to Congress that there is no intention to regulate dust on farms.

“You can’t plow a field without dust, you can’t drive down a gravel road without dust,” a farmer says in Cain’s ad. “My dog makes dust.”

The EPA focuses on regulating course particulates, Bryan said, such as dust from construction, demolition and industrial sites.

“We center our monitoring of air mostly on urban areas where it affects the most people,” he said. “We’re going to leave the dust standards where they are.”

Dean Kleckner, former head of the Iowa Farm Bureau and the American Farm Bureau, endorses Cain in the ad, saying, “He reminds me of Ronald Reagan, and I knew Ronald Reagan.”

“Over-regulation is killing the American farmer,” Kleckner says. “I think Herman Cain is the answer. Running a farm is a business and Herman Cain is a proven CEO.”

Bryan said the EPA has worked to counter the false claims that the EPA wants to regulate methane and dust, but not everyone is getting the message.

“What further method do we have other than you folks to say we don’t intend on doing this?” Bryan said.

Republican presidential candidate and U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) says Michigan’s economic woes are rooted in socialist policies, and she blames labor unions, taxes and regulations for the tough economic climate in the state.

Bachmann made the comments on the Steve Deace Show in Iowa before the Nov. 9 debate in the Wolverine State. Deace had asked Bachmann about the “pro-active, positive solution that is the alternative to socialism” in Michigan.

“It’s the fruition of all of the policies of the left which really have their origin in socialism,” Bachmann said of Michigan’s struggling economy. “If there’s anything we should have learned by now it’s that socialism doesn’t work and it’s principles don’t work.”

She also attacked other GOP presidential candidates for supporting the auto bailout, calling it the latest example of socialism in the state and saying “you won’t find any surprises with me.”

“You will find in me a core conviction,” she said, providing a nod to the title of her new book. “I’ve been the only consistent conservative in this race.”

The solution to Michigan’s unemployment problem is reducing union influence by making it a right to work state, which would allow companies to cut back on wages and benefits and be more competitive, she said.

She praised Iowa, which has a law prohibiting union membership or payment of union dues as a condition of employment. About half the states in the U.S. have a similar law; Michigan does not.

“When you have a right to work state then you can have companies adjust wages so they can open up shops to more and more hires and more employees,” Bachmann said.

She said then as more companies opened up, shop wages would eventually increase as businesses work to attract the best talent, especially if taxes and regulations are slashed at the same time.

“If we can have the tax burden lower and if we can have the regulatory burden lower then employers can afford to pay more to bid up wages and bid up benefits and then everybody succeeds,” she said.

The actual wage disparities between right to work states and those that aren’t has been a hotly contested topic for decades — or at least since most of the nation’s 22 right to work states passed their laws in the 1940s and 1950s following the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, which was enacted as a response to (and amended) the Wagner Act of 1935. The latter lays out the rights of workers to unionize, while the former addressed what was then described as too much power by the unions.

Right to work essentially allows all workers at a business where a union has organized to be represented by the union, bound by the union-negotiated contract and use the union as a bargaining agent without ever having to pay union due or join the union.

In 2001 by Lawrence Mishel of the Economic Policy Institute found that “the most important aspect of right-to-work law is its effect on wages.”

… On average, men in RTW states earn 7.8 percent less than their counterparts in non-RTW states; women in RTW states earn 6.8 percent less. … [W]e find that, even after controlling for regional costs of living, workers in right-to-work states earn less per hour. Particularly interesting is the affect on workers living in cities that are stretch across state line, placing it in both a right-to-work state and a non-RTW state. Seventeen out of 433 metropolitan areas in our sample (nearly 4 percent) spill over from a right-to-work state to a non-RTW state. Our analysis indicates that, in areas where a pure RTW state effect exists (i.e., no spill-over effect), the right-to-work penalty is larger. In fact, we find that living near a non-RTW state helps raise workers’ wages. …

But instead of focusing on individual wages, those that support right-to-work laws often point to a state’s overall economic situation — a similar argument to the one Bachmann made. For instance, the conservative Public Institute at Iowa Wesleyan College (now known as the Public Interest Institute), in a 2000 paper defending Iowa’s right-to-work law, noted a 1998 study that “Iowa outperformed most of its neighboring closed-shop states.”

… Four closed shop states border Iowa: Missouri, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Illinois. From 1947-1992, Iowa’s rate of manufacturing growth was equal to that of Missouri, slightly ahead of Wisconsin, 1.5 times higher than Minnesota, and over 5.5 times higher than Illinois. This is strong evidence that Iowa has done much better economically since enacting its right-to-work law. …

As the May video embedded below shows, Atlanta businessman Herman Cain was a fixture in Iowa early in the 2012 campaign who often attended and provided “star-power” to local GOP fundraisers.

In more recent weeks, however, Cain has sought his fortunes elsewhere and has not been as visible in the first-in-the-nation caucus state. In the interim, the campaign has suffered its own roller coaster ride with staff changes and, more recently, allegations of past inappropriate sexual behavior by Cain.

On Thursday the campaign rolled out an “Iowa Fund,” a fundraising tool with a goal of $999,000 — no doubt selected as nod to Cain’s 9-9-9 economic plan. According to the campaign, “the Iowa Fund will allow Mr. Cain’s campaign to continue to hire additional staff in Iowa, place TV ads, and spread Mr. Cain’s ideas to put Americans back to work.” The fundraising push begins today and will continue through Nov. 9.

Steve Grubbs, chairman for Cain in Iowa, rightfully noted that “the fight for Iowa has already started.”

“The other Republican candidates, the liberal media, and even President Obama have begun to publicly attack Mr. Cain because they are intimidated by his ’9-9-9 Plan’ and his ability to connect with Americans,” Grubbs said in a statement. “As Mr. Cain continues to pull away in the polls, we expect the attacks to continue.”

The campaign also received a boost through an endorsement by Dean Kleckner, who is well known in Iowa and throughout the agricultural industry as a 24-year president of the Iowa Farm Bureau and the American Farm Bureau. The endorsement has already been launched as a radio ad that will air statewide, marking the campaigns first paid outreach specifically to Iowans.

Kleckner argues that Cain will “stand up for farmers,” and that current government regulation is hurting American agriculture.

“Despite the fact that most Iowans live in small towns and cities now, the farm vote is still critical for any candidate seeking the Republican nomination,” Grubbs said. “The endorsement from Dean Kleckner shows the continued momentum Herman Cain is gaining in Iowa. We believe we can bring the farm community onto the Cain Train and make us competitive in the caucuses.”

Speaking at the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition event on Saturday were Atlanta businessman Herman Cain; U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann; Texas Gov. Rick Perry; former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich; U.S. Rep. Ron Paul; and former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum. About 1,000 people attended the  group’s 11th annual fall banquet at the Iowa State Fairgrounds. Tickets were $55.

Cain said if he had to choose one energy-related decision to change, he would have allowed people to decide what light bulbs to use in their homes.

“America believes in choice,” he said. “Green energy is a joke. You ought to be able to pick what light bulbs you want.”

Bachmann called the Alaskan National Wildlife Reserve “the most perfect place in the world to drill for oil,” and said “God has given us such a tremendous gift” through the country’s energy resources.

“I want to open up American energy production and be the leader in the world and be the head and not the tail,” Bachmann said.

Bachmann also called for shutting down the EPA and the U.S. Department of Energy, saying tasks performed by those agencies should be left to the states. And she said the moratorium on deepwater drilling is worse than the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

“The one that has really hurt the economy in the most devastating way is the moratorium that President Obama put on after the oil spill that occurred,” Bachmann said “There was devastation that occurred because of the oil flow that occurred but there was nothing that was worse than the moratorium that he put on.”

Perry went after the deepwater oil drilling moratorium as well, saying it’s the most devastating energy policy from the current administration.

“This president has killed more jobs with his regulatory schemes that have gone forward and that knee-jerk reaction of stopping drilling and that is some of the fastest things that we can turn around with a new president,” he said.

He also called for more domestic energy production and limiting the roll of the EPA, saying he has a plan to make America more energy secure.

“The idea…that we would send hundreds of billions of dollars offshore to countries that are hostile to our future is nonsensical to me,” Perry said.

Gingrich advocated for replacing the Environmental Protection Agency with what he called an environmental solutions center, and said he would make permanent any kind of tax credit for wind and solar energy and continue development of crop-based fuels.

“This is the most anti-American energy administration in history and it’s just unbelievable,” he said.

Paul didn’t call for eliminating the EPA but did say he’d get rid of the Department of Energy and the Department of the Interior. And Santorum called for drilling “anywhere we can” and cutting all energy subsidies, saying he believes the ethanol industry can compete on a level playing field.

“There’s either a deliberate attempt by this administration to destroy the energy future of our country or they’re just simply incompetent,” he said.

Gingrich told a crowd of about 100 people at Iowa State University that he’s not raising as much money as some presidential candidates, but he thinks he can overcome that if he hangs in the race long enough.

“I don’t have the kind of money that Perry and Romney have,” Gingrich said. “I’m not going to be able to go out and campaign in a state the size of California right now. But if I come in first or second in Iowa and can go on to New Hampshire and come in first or second and then get to South Carolina, I think I will be the nominee.”

Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich believes if he works hard he can become the GOP presidential nominee, win the general election and make his 21st Century Contract with America a reality. (Photo: Andrew Duffelmeyer/The Iowa Independent)

At that point campaign funds won’t matter as much, Gingrich said, because he’ll be able to harness more earned media. He said that was evident in 2008, when John McCain was able to win the Florida primary despite being outspent 10-to-1.

“I think at that stage you have so much earned media that the value of the money you raise is dramatically less relevant,” Gingrich said.

Campaign spokesman R.C. Hammond said the caucuses can be a catapult for Gingrich.

“If you do well in Iowa the nation starts to pay attention,” Hammond said. “Iowa is responding very well to Newt’s contact, the idea of putting big ideas out there because we understand the country is in trouble.”

Hammond said the campaign plans to open offices in Iowa in mid-October, and it already has volunteers organizing in their towns.

“We’re going to run a very aggressive ground-game here going into Christmas and whether the caucus is held Christmas morning or
Thanksgiving afternoon we’re going to be ready,” he said.

Steffen Schmidt, a professor of political science at Iowa State University, said Gingrich has been doing better in polls and could
step up further due to recent missteps from Texas Gov. Rick Perry and U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann.

“There’s a lot of uncertainty and people really are looking again and still looking,” Schmidt said. “Probably Newt Gingrich is one of the ones that they’re looking at more than when the campaign started, when he had a little rough time getting started.”

Schmidt said even if Gingrich comes in second or third in the caucuses that would give him a boost heading into New Hampshire.

“Then he’s from Georgia so he’ll probably do well in South Carolina,” Schmidt said. “If the money keeps rolling in he can certainly go a little longer. I think probably he will go beyond Iowa.”

Gingrich was in Ames today to speak at the Iowa State University Presidential Caucus Series. He spent much of his hour-long remarks outlining his plans for jump-starting the nation’s science and technology sectors.

But he also took time to outline his recently-unveiled “21st Century Contract with America,” which includes legislative proposals such as repealing so-called Obamacare, cutting taxes and regulations, and restructuring Medicare and Social Security.

Gingrich said different thinking is necessary to overcome the nation’s challenges, and people in Washington, D.C. may view his proposals as a fantasy.

“I am asking you to be with me not just through the primary, the caucus, not just through the election, but through the eight years of actually implementing this,” he said. “It’s a huge assignment.”

“I think without a doubt that we have a problem with drug safety in this country,” Harkin said Thursday morning by phone. “Forty percent of our finished drugs come from overseas, mostly from China and India, and 80 percent of the ingredients that go into our drugs — both over the counter and prescription drugs — come from overseas. We just have an inadequate inspection system.”

The GAO found inspections of foreign drug manufacturers have improved since its similar 2007 report indicated only 8 percent of foreign establishments were subject to inspection. At the initial rate, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration would need 13 years to inspect all foreign facilities. The FDA’s inspection efforts in fiscal year 2009 represent a 27 percent increase in number of inspections it conducted previously. The GAO also notes that FDA officials understand that they remain far from achieving foreign drug inspection rates comparable to domestic inspection rates.

In addition, current types of inspections by the FDA do not generally include all parts of the drug supply chain, and holding such inspections abroad continues to pose unique challenges — including the authority to require such facilities to undergo FDA inspection.

For example, when tainted Haparin, a blood thinner often used in dialysis treatments, was distributed in the U.S. in 2007, leading to at least 81 deaths and numerous injuries, the problem was traced to a Chinese manufacturing facility that had never been inspected by the FDA. Although Herapin was made by an American company, the active ingredient had been sourced from the Chinese manufacturer, which had relied on other smaller suppliers. The tainted aspect of the drug, according to FDA reports, was likely added in China as a way to cut manufacturing costs.

And, according to FDA estimates, the number of drug products made outside of the U.S. has doubled from 2001 to 2008. In 2010, nearly 20 million shipments of food, drugs and cosmetics arrived at U.S. ports of entry — a decade earlier that number was closer to 6 million. According to the FDA, foreign facilities have grown by 185 percent, while inspection rates have decreased by nearly 57 percent.

In order to combat the existing problem and stem compounding problems that are sure to surface in future years, Harkin says the government needs to revamp old laws governing FDA inspection so that it is better equipped to secure a global supply chain — an effort very similar, he said, as to what Congress passed last year in relation to food safety.

Congressional Hearing

On Wednesday, Harkin and the full HELP Committee held hearings on government oversight of the drug supply chain, gathering testimony from FDA and GAO officials as well as advocacy groups and corporate interests.

Allan Coukell, director of medical programs for the Pew Health Group in Washington, D.C., lamented the fact that no one had yet been held accountable for the earlier incident involving the tainted Herapin.

“This incident represents a clear breach of the security of the U.S. pharmaceutical supply,” he said, adding that Congress has yet to act to update statues that govern drug manufacturing. “Numerous experts have asserted that, absent changes to the system, another such event is inevitable.

“In the case of Herapin, it appears that criminals deliberately introduced a substandard active ingredient into the supply chain. At other times, consumers may be at risk because of failures by manufacturers to comply with quality standards. Poor adherence to quality standards has been observed both in the U.S. and abroad, but the shift of manufacturing to low-cost environments with reduced oversight creates an increased risk. According to one estimate, ignoring Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs) can save up to 25 percent of a factory’s operating costs. The expectation of inspections is an incentive for compliance with quality standards.”

In 2008, he noted, an Indian manufacturer was cited by the FDA for alleged falsification of stability testing records and use of active ingredients made at unapproved sites, according to a U.S. Department of Justice subpoena motion. And, in 2010, another Indian manufacturer was found to have falsified batch manufacturing records for an anti-platelet medicine. European Union inspectors discovered at least 70 batch-manufacturing records in the plant’s waste yard, all of which had been rewritten, and in some cases original entries changed.

In fact, Coukell added, in 2006, dozens of people in Panama died after taking cough medicine that had been made with diethylene glycol, a sweet-tasting poison solvent. It had been wrongly labeled in China and pass through a series of international brokers, who repeatedly re-labeled it, presumably without performing independent testing. Remarkably enough, it was a diethylene glycol poisoning in the U.S. in 1937 that prompted the government to enact the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, which is the document that so many pharmaceutical experts and industry watchdogs now believe needs to be updated to reflect the circumstances of the 21st century.

Kendra Martello, assistant general counsel for Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), which represents researched-based pharmaceutical and biotech companies, said her organization favors granting FDA discretion to set routine inspection intervals for foreign and domestic facilities according to risk and in lieu of the agency’s current rolling two-year schedule.

“We support providing FDA with the flexibility to prioritize inspections of foreign establishments based on the risks they present, and believe in relying on set criteria such as compliance history, time since last inspection, and volume and type of products produced, will enhance the FDA’s ability to target its inspection resources efficiently and effectively,” Martello told the lawmakers.

She also suggested that the FDA should recognize and utilize foreign inspection reports or those from accredited third parties to facilitate the often difficult task of oversight of those manufacturers.

“These inspections would not take the place of FDA inspections, which are a necessary and important part of the agency’s mandate; however, they would provide FDA with the flexibility to leverage the work of foreign regulatory bodies and maximize its resources, all without foreclosing its ability to inspect any facility.”

Deregulatory Climate

Amid national discussions on how to spur job creation and enhance the economy, calls for reviewing or eliminating government oversight and regulation of private industry have become common both in Iowa and throughout the nation as part of the 2012 Republican presidential nomination process.

In fact, while U.S. Sen. Mike Enzi, a Wyoming Republican and ranking member of the HELP Committee, noted the need for concessions in U.S. policies regarding the globalization of the pharmaceutical supply chain, he also added a caveat that such increased oversight shouldn’t hinder private industry.

“We want to make sure FDA has the tools it needs to ensure supply chain security,” Enzi said. “At the same time, I am concerned about FDA over-regulating in a way that threatens jobs and patient access to therapies.”

When Congress moves forward to address the problem, Harkin said he will push for strengthened FDA inspection authority for foreign products and facilities.

“We do need legislation and we are working on that. That’s what the hearing was about yesterday. Next year, when we turn to the reauthorization of the Prescription Drug User Fee Act, we’re going to have something in there about FDA’s authority and ability to ramp up inspections of important drugs and components,” he said.

Companies, he said, including pharmaceutical companies, have begun reaching out to lawmakers about increasing foreign inspections and oversight.

“They want this. Why? Because many of them who have sourced their goods in this country have been placed at a competitive disadvantage. They want a level playing field. If we are going to inspect here, then the drugs that come in should also be inspected,” Harkin explained.

“I think this is an area that cries out for some form of regulation and support for a leveling of the playing field. If there are Republicans that say they don’t want to regulate on this are they telling people that this is a just a case of buyer beware? When you give medicine to your kids, you don’t know if it is safe or not? Is that what they want to say?”

The GAO’s statement before the HELP Committee is embedded below:

FDA Faces Challenges Overseeing the Foreign Drug Manufacturing Supply Chain

Martinez appointee Regulation and Licensing Department Superintendent J. Dee Dennis Jr. told the Albuquerque Journal, “This is not driven by any ideological belief, but a commonsense approach to help grow our economy in these tough times while adopting a national energy standard.”

The rules in question require new homes and other buildings be built with higher energy standards than before. Martinez’s administration is looking at moving the standards back down to what they were before Gov. Bill Richardson’s administration raised them. The standards went into effect in January, though there is a six-month grace period. This means the codes will not really go into effect until July.

The Journal reported on the codes themselves:

The current national codes increased energy savings about 10 percent over previous codes. Under the New Mexico version, it’s estimated that new homes would be 20 percent more energy efficient than previously required; new commercial buildings would be about 17 percent more energy efficient, increasing to 20 percent when the 2013 changes took effect.

KSFR spoke to Kim Shanahan, the executive director of the Santa Fe Area Homebuilders Association, who supports the current codes and sees no reason to roll them back.

“Homebuilders believe that this is a good code,” Shanahan told KSFR. “This is one that we can live with and we are for it.”

Shanahan said that he could not say if all builders in the state are for the current code, but indicated that the Santa Fe Homebuilders Association is “by and large” in favor of the regulations.

The Journal reported that another group was not of the same opinion.

“By rolling back the codes, New Mexico remains cost competitive in building new or remodeling residential and commercial properties while still implementing substantial energy savings,” Lynne Andersen, president of NAIOP NM, the commercial real estate development association, said in an April 21 letter to the CID.

The proposal was introducted by Kevin Yearout of Albuquerque. Yearout was a member of Martinez’s Small Business Friendly Task Force, which recommended rolling back a number of regulations.

The liberal blog Clearly New Mexico, a project of the Center for Civic Policy, said that the task force was “dominated by long-time lobbyists for large corporations, including big dairy, which contributed thousands of dollars to Martinez’s campaign; and the oil, gas and natural gas industry from in and outside the state, which gave her hundreds of thousands.”

Yearout is not listed as a lobbyist. He did, however, donate $5,000 to Martinez’s campaign, and his wife, Lian, donated an additional $5,000. A Cheryl Yearout, who listed the same address as Kevin Yearout, donated another $2,000. Yearout Mechanical donated $10,000 to Martinez’s successful gubernatorial campaign as well.

According to a midpoint report obtained by Clearly New Mexico, “The task force doesn’t want New Mexico to do any more than what’s required by the federal government.”

When asked about the Martinez administration statement that this will show that “New Mexico is open for business,” Shanahan said it did not mean anything to him as a builder.

“It’s political posturing from my perspective,” he said.

In one of her first acts as governor, Martinez attempted to halt all pending and proposed regulations for 90-days. Her act, via an executive order, was struck down by the state Supreme Court and Martinez was ordered to publish some regulations her administration had previously halted.

Court documents obtained by the KUNM Government Project found that the dairy industry had helped draft the executive order.

Part of Gov. Susana Martinez’s campaign platform was deregulation.

The AP reported that Martinez knew about the changes but that they did not come from her office. On her first day in office, even before being formally sworn in, Martinez issued an executive order to postpone all planned and pending regulations. This was eventually overturned by the state Supreme Court.

Martinez said the changes came from Environment Department Secretary David Martin, who worked as an adjunct professor in the Petroleum Engineering Department at New Mexico Tech before serving in the cabinet-level position.

The Associated Press reported:

Critics of the transfers partly blame a recent small business task force report ordered by Martinez that specifically called out mid-level state employees who were perceived as having anti-business agendas. The report also made other recommendations aimed at making the regulatory process easier for businesses to encourage economic development.

“They want to be a business friendly government, but when they’re taking away the employees that know how to do the job, it makes it difficult,” said Deborah Seligman, a longtime energy lobbyist and former vice president of government affairs for the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association.

The moves come as the government changes from how it was organized under former governor Bill Richardson.

But, alas, the state protections were overruled by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which gave national banks a pass and said they didn’t have to comply with those laws. And guess what happened next.

States that adopted tough anti-predatory lending laws had lower foreclosure rates than states without those laws, according to a new study conducted by the UNC Center for Community Capital.

In addition, after 2004, when the federal government exempted national banks from state anti-predatory lending laws, national banks increased their subprime lending the most in states with those laws. After this loophole opened in 2004, national banks made riskier loans, especially in states where other lenders remained subject to strict anti-predatory lending laws.

These conclusions suggest that when state laws did apply, the laws did a better job of promoting quality lending.

This study is a perfect reminder, as Congress and the administration tackle financial regulatory reform, that not all regulations are onerous, anti-business, and aimed at choking off financial innovation. And it’s more evidence that borrowers buying beyond their means weren’t the only only players in the subprime mess.

The same banks that found their way around these state anti-predatory laws are the ones getting government bailouts, and financial incentives to modify loans. And bonuses for top employees. The  study is an important reminder of their motives and behaviors during the housing boom, at a time when those same banks are lobbying against new reforms.

The Senate Finance Committee took a step to remedy that this morning, approving the nomination of former Clinton administration attorney Neal Wolin to become deputy secretary of the Treasury. You remember Wolin: A decade ago he helped then-Treasury Secretary Larry Summers — who’s now the top economic advisor to President Obama — draft the successful deregulations that blurred the lines between commercial banks, insurance companies and investment houses — a move that many experts say paved the way to the current economic turmoil.

So lawmakers are concerned about his judgment, right?

Wrong.

The vote on the Finance panel was unanimous. Here’s the statement from Finance Chairman Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.):

The Treasury Department has a colossal task in its management of the economic recovery. Secretary Geithner and other Treasury officials need support now in their efforts to stabilize markets and get capital flowing for American families and businesses. It’s our job to make sure the right nominees get up and running as soon as possible. We’ve taken the first step today in Committee, and I look forward to congratulating to Mr. Wolin on full Senate confirmation soon.

Sounds like he’ll fit in fine.