Banking Panel OKs Ryan; He Admits Drug Use in ‘70s

The Senate Banking Committee approved by one vote Friday the nomination of T. Timothy Ryan Jr. to be the nation’s top savings and loan regulator, and Ryan disclosed hours later he had told government officials that he used marijuana and cocaine in the 1970s.

Banking Committee members were aware of Ryan’s statements to the FBI about his past drug use, the Bush Administration said.

After the disclosures were made public, the Administration immediately reaffirmed its strong support for Ryan to head the Office of Thrift Supervision, which regulates the nation’s beleaguered trillion-dollar S&L; industry.

“Prior to my nomination, I disclosed both on my FBI forms and verbally to the White House, Treasury and the FBI that early in the 1970s, I smoked marijuana on a few occasions and tried cocaine once, perhaps twice,” Ryan said in a statement issued late Friday.

“I regret this mistake,” Ryan said. “I do not regret having voluntarily disclosed this information.”

Ryan’s statement was issued after NBC broadcast a story concerning his admission of drug usage, citing unnamed senators as the source of the information.

Treasury Secretary Nicholas F. Brady, who drafted Ryan for the thrift regulator’s job, issued a strong defense of his nominee.

“It’s a sad day when information from confidential FBI reports is leaked,” Brady said in a statement.

“Before Timothy Ryan’s nomination, the White House and the Treasury Department were made fully aware of the facts in the FBI report. Now a majority of the Senate Banking Committee has recommended his confirmation in full knowledge of these same facts.”

The admission of drug use should not “deter the full Senate from acting promptly and favorably on Mr. Ryan’s recommendation,” Brady said.

The public disclosure of Ryan’s admissions will add a new burden to an already tough struggle for confirmation by the full Senate. He faces serious questions about his lack of financial experience.

After intense personal lobbying on his behalf by Brady, two Democrats joined the committee’s Republicans to prevail in an 11-to-10 vote for Ryan, a pension lawyer with no experience in the finance business.

The full Senate will vote Wednesday on whether to confirm Ryan as director of the Treasury’s Office of Thrift Supervision.

Ryan’s victory was an unexpected rebuff to Sen. Donald W. Riegle Jr. (D-Mich.), the Banking Committee chairman. “In a nation of 240 million people” it is “beyond comprehension” that the Administration cannot find someone more qualified, Riegle said before the vote. Ryan, 44, a former Labor Department official, was counsel to the 1988 Bush presidential campaign.

The White House wants Ryan installed before April 11, when a federal appeals court will consider whether the Office of Thrift Supervision is operating illegally because its first director, M. Danny Wall, was never confirmed by the Senate. A lower court had blocked the agency from seizing an S&L;, citing the lack of Senate confirmation.

The OTS has authorized the government seizure of more than 150 S&Ls; and has set tough capital standards for thrift institutions in accordance with overhaul legislation passed last year. The official confirmation of an OTS director would remove legal uncertainties about the agency’s authority.

Brady, who recruited Ryan for the agency job, hailed the committee vote. Ryan “has the qualities to be a strong and effective leader of the Office of Thrift Supervision and we urge the Senate to confirm him promptly,” Brady said.

Administration officials acknowledge that Ryan is a novice in the complex field of banking and finance, but say no better candidate is available. White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater said Friday, “We want somebody who can handle the law and is pretty tough and can go in there and straighten out the problems of this industry.

“If this were an easy job, we would have people lining up at the door to get it,” Fitzwater said. “And believe me, there are not people lining up at the door to get it.”

Sen. Jake Garn (R-Utah) said those experienced in finance would be deterred by a rule that forbids a person holding such a federal post from taking a job in a related industry for two years after leaving government.

“We may reach the point where Mother Teresa is the only one confirmed for a government post or some Ralph Nader neuter who has never experienced anything,” Garn said.

But Democrats were not persuaded and repeatedly complained during the debate about Ryan’s credentials.

The collapse of hundreds of S&Ls; into insolvency has produced “the most costly financial debacle in American history,” raising important questions about the role of an independent thrift industry and federal deposit insurance, but Ryan “does not seem to have given these issues any real thought,” said Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.).

Ryan has “no experience and no knowledge of what he’s getting into,” said Sen. Timothy Wirth (D-Colo.).

In his lobbying effort, Brady was persuasive with other Democrats. Sen. Terry Sanford (D-N.C.) cast his vote for Ryan by proxy. Sen. Richard Shelby (D-Ala.) spoke briefly during the committee session, praising Ryan as an “intelligent generalist” with a “good educational background.”

“I’m going to be thinking about it . . . it’s probably a matter the whole Senate should take up,” Shelby said, remaining silent through the rest of the discussion until the final vote, when he supported Ryan.