Senate confirms top Treasury Department tax official

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate late on Thursday confirmed Mark Mazur as the Treasury Department's assistant secretary for tax policy, making him the top tax official in the Obama administration.

He was nominated for the post in November by President Barack Obama, a Democrat. Mazur has been working as deputy assistant secretary for tax analysis.

He will be the first Senate-confirmed assistant secretary for tax policy to serve in the Obama administration, now in its fourth year. Senate Republicans for years have blocked confirmation votes on a long list of Obama's nominees.

Republican Senator Charles Grassley, who has been advocating for reforms to the Internal Revenue Service's whistleblower office, briefly blocked Mazur's confirmation but dropped his opposition this week. Treasury oversees the IRS.

Mazur replaces Emily McMahon, who had been doing the top job on an acting basis since May 2011, when Michael Mundaca stepped down. Mundaca had occupied the post, also without Senate confirmation, since March 2010. Mundaca was preceded by Eric Solomon.

Mazur joined the Treasury in 2009. He previously worked at the IRS and for the President's Council of Economic Advisers under President Bill Clinton.

"For the past decade, (Mazur) has worked on a wide-ranging and challenging set of tax issues and is held in high regard by his colleagues inside and outside government," Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner in a said statement on Friday.

The Senate also confirmed Matthew Rutherford as Treasury assistant secretary for financial markets, a role that oversees a wide range of financial regulatory issues. Rutherford previously worked at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

(Reporting by Patrick Temple-West; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Vicki Allen)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/senate-confirms-top-treasury-department-tax-official-155544686.html

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