Obama also nominated
If confirmed by the Senate, Garrett would replace Eric Solomon, who left the department in January.
Garrett does not appear to have any specific experience with municipal bonds, but has been involved in hospital projects financed with tax-exempt bonds, according to sources. In 2005, she served on President George W. Bush's nine-member bipartisan Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform, which made recommendations to Congress on simplifying the tax code while still promoting long-term economic growth, including the repeal of the alternative minimum tax. Congress ultimately failed to act on the group's recommendations.
She also was co-principal investigator on three research projects involving state and local governments, two of which focused on infrastructure financing.
"I think it is a wonderful pick, I'm looking forward to working with her, and she is a person of enormous intelligence and good judgment with an extraordinary energy level," said Edward Kleinbard, chief of staff for the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation. "She will be a tremendous success."
Garrett is also a Sydney M. Irmas professor of public interest law, legal ethics, political science, and policy, planning, and development at USC, co-director of the USC-Caltech Center for the Study of Law, and the chair of the finance committee of Common Cause, a nonpartisan, nonprofit citizen advocacy organization.
It appears that Garrett and President Obama were colleagues for some time at the University of Chicago Law School. Prior to joining USC in 2003, Garrett served as deputy dean of academic affairs there, while Obama was a constitutional law professor from 1992 to 2004.
She graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 1985 and University of Virginia Law School in 1988, after which she clerked for Justice Thurgood Marshall on the Supreme Court and Judge Stephen F. Williams on the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. She also served as legal counsel and legislative assistant for tax, budget and welfare reform for former Sen. David Boren, D-Okla., from 1991 through 1993.
Barr previously worked at the Treasury Department from 1995 to 2001 under former Secretary Robert Rubin, as both his special assistant and deputy assistant secretary for community development policy at the Treasury.
"Michael Barr is a terrific choice for assistant secretary for financial institutions. His background in financial institutions is both broad and deep," said Victoria "Penny" Rostow, the governmental affairs director for the National Association of Bond Lawyers, who worked with Barr at Treasury. "While he may not have specific expertise in municipal finance, he is keenly interested in state and local finance issues and in creative financing programs, and I think he will have a great deal to contribute to policy-making with regard to municipal finance."
Barr could play a relevant role in municipal finance at the Treasury, as the federal government takes a look at broad regulatory reform, possibly including the muni market.
Barr is also a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and at the Brookings Institution. He received his bachelor's degree from Yale University in 1987 and his law degree from Yale Law School in 1992, and is also a Rhodes Scholar.
In addition, he clerked for Supreme Court Justice David Souter in 1993 and 1994, and for Judge Pierre N. Leval, with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, from 1992 to 1993.
