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Brian Callanan, opening statement as nominee for General Counsel of the Treasury, Senate Committee on Finance (July 24, 2019)

Summary

In this opening statement to the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance on July 24, 2019, Brian Callanan, the President's nominee to be General Counsel for the Department of the Treasury, addresses Chairman Grassley, Ranking Member Wyden and the committee and thanks Secretary Mnuchin. Callanan recalls working as a lawyer in the U.S. Senate for Senator Portman and serving at Treasury as Deputy General Counsel and as Acting General Counsel. The statement describes the General Counsel's role as ensuring that the Department acts in fidelity to law and fulfills the statutory responsibilities entrusted to it, and says Treasury's work generates "no shortage of complex, difficult legal questions." If confirmed, Callanan says, Treasury will continue to be responsive to Congressional needs and inquiries, and the Treasury Legal Division will be led with integrity and humility.

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Full text

                          Opening Statement of Brian Callanan
            Nominee to be General Counsel for the Department of the Treasury
                           U.S. Senate Committee on Finance
                                     July 24, 2019

Chairman Grassley, Ranking Member Wyden, Members of the Committee, thank you for the
opportunity to appear before you today. I am honored to be the President’s nominee to serve as
General Counsel for the Treasury Department, and I am grateful to Secretary Mnuchin for his
confidence.

I am pleased to be joined today by my extraordinary wife Amanda, who wisely warned me that
our 10-month old son Charlie may not have the deportment required for a Senate hearing. I’m
also joined by my mother, who was a public school teacher for many years and my first teacher.
I only regret that my late father, whom we lost to cancer in May, is not here today. My dad was
a career civil servant. He devoted his entire professional life to public service—starting out as a
juvenile probation officer in the New Jersey court system, and concluding his career working for
the U.S. Agency for International Development to improve the civil and criminal justice systems
of other nations across four continents. Both of my parents encouraged my own early interest in
public service.

It is a particular honor to come as a nominee before this Committee, where I had the opportunity
to sit on the other side of the dais when I worked for Senator Portman. I learned a lot from his
steady example of integrity and civility. My time as a lawyer in the U.S. Senate was a formative
experience for me. It taught me a great deal about the legislative process, the significant role of
Congressional oversight, and the importance of mutual trust and respect between the Executive
Branch and Congress. Should I be confirmed, I will strive to ensure that Treasury continues to
be responsive to Congressional needs and inquiries.

Government lawyers are, in a special way, stewards of the institutions that we serve. Every
agency of our government—even one with a seal that reads 1789, as Treasury’s does—is
ultimately a creature of legislative enactment. As I see it, the role of the Treasury General
Counsel is to ensure that the Department acts in fidelity to law and fulfills the statutory
responsibilities entrusted to us—ever mindful that the laws we implement will long outlast us.

Treasury’s responsibilities are vast and varied. From implementing our tax code to
administering our nation’s finances, from protecting the integrity of our financial system to
deploying American’s financial might to combat global threats, the Treasury Department is
engaged every day in work that is vital to the prosperity and security of our nation. And that
work generates no shortage of complex, difficult legal questions.

Fortunately, the Department is home to some of the finest, most dedicated lawyers anywhere in
the country—the Treasury Legal Division. Under one roof, we have a legal team with deep and
wide expertise in areas of law as diverse as tax, economic sanctions, financial regulation,
international development, trade, public finance, and much more.

It has been a distinct privilege to work shoulder to shoulder with these serious and skilled
lawyers throughout my service as Deputy General Counsel and as Acting General Counsel
during a critical transition period. If confirmed, I would be honored to lead this remarkable
group of public servants and to continue to work closely with them on the important issues in
which Treasury is engaged. If confirmed, I commit to perform my responsibilities with integrity
and humility—and always with a devotion to the Constitution and laws under which all of us
serve.

I look forward to your questions.

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