WASHINGTON-Bill Daley, brother of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and a big Democratic supporter, has been named Commerce Department secretary.
Daley would succeed Mickey Kantor, who left as U.S. trade representative to head the department after former Commerce Secretary Ron Brown was killed in plane crash. Kantor said he plans to return to the private sector.
It was not immediately clear what Daley’s appointment means for Larry Irving, chief of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. NTIA, which manages federal government spectrum and advises the president on telecommunications policy, is a unit of the Commerce Department.
The president also nominated Charlene Barshefsky to be U.S. trade representative. Barshefsky is currently acting USTR, a post she took after Kantor left USTR to go to Commerce. A Canadian lobbying stint could hurt her Senate confirmation chances, though the White House already may have the votes given Barshefsky’s popularity and success in helping nail down an information technology agreement in Singapore last week.
“I hope the Senate will move as quickly as possible to confirm them,” Clinton said at Friday’s news conference.
Clinton, meanwhile, decided to keep Attorney General Janet Reno in place during his second term.
Republicans have criticized Reno over her refusal to appoint an independent counsel to probe questionable foreign campaign contributions to the Democratic National Committee and the possible relationship of political donations to trade missions under Brown.
Bill Richardson, a U.S. congressman who used to sit on the House Commerce Committee, has been appointed ambassador to the United Nations.
