WASHINGTON — The Senate confirmed Steven T. Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs banker<br />and Hollywood film financier, to be Treasury secretary on Monday, putting in place a key lieutenant to President Trump who will help drive the administration’s plans to overhaul the tax code, renegotiate trade deals around the world and remake financial regulations.<br />“My colleagues have done all they can under the rules — even to the point of casting aside some longstanding customs<br />and traditions of the Senate — in order to delay his confirmation.”<br />While Mr. Mnuchin struggled to show fluency with some aspects of the job during his confirmation hearing, Republicans<br />and Democrats generally agreed that he was well versed on economic issues.<br />“Whether illegally foreclosing on thousands of families, skirting the law with offshore tax havens or helping design tactics<br />that contributed to the 2008 financial crisis, Steve Mnuchin made a career — and millions of dollars — pioneering increasingly deceptive and predatory ways to rob hardworking Americans of their savings and homes,” Ms. Duckworth said.<br />On Monday, Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, the Republican chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, accused<br />Democrats of making Mr. Mnuchin a political pawn and described their concerns as a stall tactic.<br />At a prickly confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee last month, Mr. Mnuchin was scolded by Democrats for failing to disclose nearly $100 million in assets<br />and for not revealing his role as a director of an investment fund based in the Cayman Islands, a well-known tax haven.<br />The Democrats on the committee twice boycotted a vote on his confirmation, leading Republicans to breach protocol<br />and push Mr. Mnuchin’s vote to the full Senate on their own.
