United States Secretary of the Treasury

United States Secretary of the Treasury
Official Seal
Incumbent Timothy Geithner since January 26, 2009
Formation	September 11, 1789
Succession	Fifth
Website	www.treasury.gov

The United States Secretary of the Treasury is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, concerned with finance and monetary matters, and, until 2003, some issues of national security and defense. This position in the Federal Government of the United States is analogous to the finance ministers of other countries. Most of the Department's law enforcement agencies such as the ATF, Customs Service, and Secret Service were reassigned to other Departments in 2003 in conjunction with the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. The Secretary is a member of the President's Cabinet and, since the Clinton years, has sat on the United States National Security Council. The Secretary of the Treasury is fifth in the United States presidential line of succession.

From the U.S. Department of the Treasury website:

"The Secretary of the Treasury is the principal economic advisor to the President and plays a critical role in policy-making by bringing an economic and government financial policy perspective to issues facing the government. The Secretary is responsible for formulating and recommending domestic and international financial, economic, and tax policy, participating in the formulation of broad fiscal policies that have general significance for the economy, and managing the public debt. The Secretary oversees the activities of the Department in carrying out its major law enforcement responsibilities; in serving as the financial agent for the United States Government; and in manufacturing coins and currency.

"The Chief Financial Officer of the government, the Secretary serves as Chairman Pro Tempore of the President's Economic Policy Council, Chairman of the Boards and Managing Trustee of the Social Security and Medicare Trust Funds, and as U.S. Governor of the International Monetary Fund, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development."

The Secretary along with the Treasurer must sign Federal Reserve notes before they can become legal tender. The Secretary also manages the United States Emergency Economic Stabilization fund.

The current Secretary of the Treasury is Timothy Geithner. The Secretary of the Treasury earns $191,300 per year.

Secretaries of the Treasury

Peale portrait of Robert Morris

Robert Morris was the first person appointed Secretary of the Treasury by George Washington, but Morris declined this office; thus the first Secretary of the Treasury was Alexander Hamilton, who was appointed at Morris's suggestion. Morris had held a similar position as Superintendent of Finance under the Continental Congress. From 1784 to 1789, the confederation's finances were overseen by a three-member Treasury Board.^[1]

No.	Picture	Name	State of Residence	Term of Office		President(s) served under
1		Alexander Hamilton	New York	September 11, 1789	January 31, 1795	George Washington
2		Oliver Wolcott, Jr.	Connecticut	February 3, 1795	December 31, 1800	George Washington, John Adams
3		Samuel Dexter	Massachusetts	January 1, 1801	May 13, 1801	John Adams, Thomas Jefferson
4		Albert Gallatin	Pennsylvania	May 14, 1801	February 8, 1814	Thomas Jefferson, James Madison
5		George W. Campbell	Tennessee	February 9, 1814	October 5, 1814	James Madison
6		Alexander J. Dallas	Pennsylvania	October 6, 1814	October 21, 1816
7		William H. Crawford	Georgia	October 22, 1816	March 6, 1825	James Madison, James Monroe
8		Richard Rush	Pennsylvania	March 7, 1825	March 5, 1829	John Quincy Adams
9		Samuel D. Ingham	Pennsylvania	March 6, 1829	June 20, 1831	Andrew Jackson
10		Louis McLane	Delaware	August 8, 1831	May 28, 1833
11		William J. Duane	Pennsylvania	May 29, 1833	September 22, 1833
12		Roger B. Taney	Maryland	September 23, 1833	June 25, 1834
13		Levi Woodbury	New Hampshire	July 1, 1834	March 3, 1841	Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren
14		Thomas Ewing	Ohio	March 4, 1841	September 11, 1841	William Henry Harrison, John Tyler
15		Walter Forward	Pennsylvania	September 13, 1841	March 1, 1843	John Tyler
16		John C. Spencer	New York	March 8, 1843	May 2, 1844
17		George M. Bibb	Kentucky	July 4, 1844	March 7, 1845
18		Robert J. Walker	Mississippi	March 8, 1845	March 5, 1849	James Knox Polk
19		William M. Meredith	Pennsylvania	March 8, 1849	July 22, 1850	Zachary Taylor
20		Thomas Corwin	Ohio	July 23, 1850	March 6, 1853	Millard Fillmore
21		James Guthrie	Kentucky	March 7, 1853	March 6, 1857	Franklin Pierce
22		Howell Cobb	Georgia	March 7, 1857	December 8, 1860	James Buchanan
23		Philip Thomas	Maryland	December 12, 1860	January 14, 1861
24		John A. Dix	New York	January 15, 1861	March 6, 1861
25		Salmon P. Chase	Ohio	March 7, 1861	June 30, 1864	Abraham Lincoln
26		William P. Fessenden	Maine	July 5, 1864	March 3, 1865
27		Hugh McCulloch	Indiana	March 9, 1865	March 3, 1869	Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson
28		George S. Boutwell	Massachusetts	March 12, 1869	March 16, 1873	Ulysses S. Grant
29		William A. Richardson	Massachusetts	March 17, 1873	June 3, 1874
30		Benjamin Bristow	Kentucky	June 4, 1874	June 20, 1876
31		Lot M. Morrill	Maine	July 7, 1876	March 9, 1877	Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes
32		John Sherman	Ohio	March 10, 1877	March 3, 1881	Rutherford B. Hayes
33		William Windom	Minnesota	March 8, 1881	November 13, 1881	James A. Garfield, Chester A. Arthur
34		Charles J. Folger	New York	November 14, 1881	September 4, 1884	Chester A. Arthur
35		Walter Q. Gresham	Indiana	September 5, 1884	October 30, 1884
36		Hugh McCulloch	Indiana	October 31, 1884	March 7, 1885	Chester A. Arthur, Grover Cleveland
37		Daniel Manning	New York	March 8, 1885	March 31, 1887	Grover Cleveland
38		Charles S. Fairchild	New York	April 1, 1887	March 6, 1889
39		William Windom	Minnesota	March 7, 1889	January 29, 1891	Benjamin Harrison
40		Charles Foster	Ohio	February 25, 1891	March 6, 1893	Benjamin Harrison, Grover Cleveland
41		John G. Carlisle	Kentucky	March 7, 1893	March 5, 1897	Grover Cleveland, William McKinley
42		Lyman J. Gage	Illinois	March 6, 1897	January 31, 1902	William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt
43		L. M. Shaw	Iowa	February 1, 1902	March 3, 1907	Theodore Roosevelt
44		George B. Cortelyou	New York	March 4, 1907	March 7, 1909
45		Franklin MacVeagh	Illinois	March 8, 1909	March 5, 1913	William Howard Taft
46		William Gibbs McAdoo	New York	March 6, 1913	December 15, 1918	Woodrow Wilson
47		Carter Glass	Virginia	December 16, 1918	February 1, 1920
48		David F. Houston	Missouri	February 2, 1920	March 3, 1921
49		Andrew W. Mellon	Pennsylvania	March 4, 1921	February 12, 1932	Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover
50		Ogden L. Mills	New York	February 13, 1932	March 4, 1933	Herbert Hoover
51		William H. Woodin	New York	March 5, 1933	December 31, 1933	Franklin D. Roosevelt
52		Henry Morgenthau, Jr.	New York	January 1, 1934	July 22, 1945	Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman
53		Fred M. Vinson	Kentucky	July 23, 1945	June 23, 1946	Harry S. Truman
54		John W. Snyder	Missouri	June 25, 1946	January 20, 1953
55		George M. Humphrey	Ohio	January 21, 1953	July 29, 1957	Dwight D. Eisenhower
56		Robert B. Anderson	Connecticut	July 29, 1957	January 20, 1961
57		C. Douglas Dillon	New Jersey	January 21, 1961	April 1, 1965	John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson
58		Henry H. Fowler	Virginia	April 1, 1965	December 20, 1968	Lyndon Johnson
59		Joseph W. Barr	Indiana	December 21, 1968	January 20, 1969
60		David M. Kennedy	Utah	January 22, 1969	February 10, 1971	Richard Nixon
61		John Connally	Texas	February 11, 1971	June 12, 1972
62		George P. Shultz	Illinois	June 12, 1972	May 8, 1974
63		William E. Simon	New Jersey	May 8, 1974	January 20, 1977	Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford
64		W. Michael Blumenthal	Michigan	January 23, 1977	August 4, 1979	Jimmy Carter
65		G. William Miller	Rhode Island	August 7, 1979	January 20, 1981
66		Donald Regan	New Jersey	January 22, 1981	February 1, 1985	Ronald Reagan
67		James Baker	Texas	February 4, 1985	August 17, 1988
68		Nicholas F. Brady	New Jersey	September 15, 1988	January 17, 1993	Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush
69		Lloyd Bentsen	Texas	January 20, 1993	December 22, 1994	Bill Clinton
70		Robert Rubin	New York	January 11, 1995	July 2, 1999
71		Lawrence Summers	Massachusetts	July 2, 1999	January 20, 2001
72		Paul O'Neill	Pennsylvania	January 20, 2001	December 31, 2002	George W. Bush
73		John W. Snow	Virginia	February 3, 2003	June 30, 2006
74		Henry Paulson	Illinois	July 10, 2006	January 20, 2009
75		Timothy Geithner	New York	January 26, 2009	present	Barack Obama

Acting Secretaries of the Treasury

William Jones

Robert Kimmitt

Stuart Levey

• William Jones served as acting secretary between the resignation of Alexander J. Dallas and appointment of William H. Crawford.
• Because of the resignation of Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Roger Altman in August 1994, Under Secretary of Treasury for Domestic Finance Frank Newman served from December 22, 1994, to January 11, 1995 as Acting Secretary of the Treasury.
• Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Kenneth W. Dam served as Acting Secretary of the Treasury from December 31, 2002, to February 3, 2003.
• Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Robert Kimmitt served as Acting Secretary of the Treasury from June 30, 2006, to July 9, 2006.
• Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Stuart Levey served as Acting Secretary of the Treasury from January 20, 2009, until the confirmation of Timothy Geithner, which occurred January 26, 2009.

If both the Secretary and the Deputy Secretary of the Treasury are unable to carry out the duties of the office of Secretary of the Treasury, then whichever Treasury official of Under Secretary rank sworn in earliest assumes the role of Acting Secretary. Positions listed on the Department of the Treasury website include the Under Secretary for Domestic Finance, the Under Secretary for International Affairs, and the Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. This has been the case since 2001, when President George W. Bush modified the line of succession.[1]

Living Former Secretaries of the Treasury

• George Pratt Shultz
• W. Michael Blumenthal
• James Addison Baker III
• Nicholas Frederick Brady
• Robert Edward Rubin
• Lawrence Henry Summers
• Paul Henry O'Neill
• John William Snow
• Henry Paulson

References

• "Secretaries of the Treasury". History of the Treasury. United States Department of the Treasury. http://www.ustreas.gov/education/history/secretaries/. Retrieved 2006-04-09. 

United States Secretaries of the Treasury Hamilton • Wolcott • Dexter • Gallatin • Campbell • Dallas • Crawford • Rush • Ingham • McLane • Duane • Taney • Woodbury • Ewing • Forward • Spencer • Bibb • Walker • Meredith • Corwin • Guthrie • Cobb • Thomas • Dix • Chase • Fessenden • McCulloch • Boutwell • Richardson • Bristow • Morrill • Sherman • Windom • Folger • Gresham • McCulloch • Manning • Fairchild • Windom • Foster • Carlisle • Gage • Shaw • Cortelyou • MacVeagh • McAdoo • Glass • Houston • Mellon • Mills • Woodin • Morgenthau • Vinson • Snyder • Humphrey • Anderson • Dillon • Fowler • Barr • Kennedy • Connally • Shultz • Simon • Blumenthal • Miller • Regan • Baker • Brady • Bentsen • Rubin • Summers • O'Neill • Snow • Paulson • Geithner

Agencies under the United States Department of the Treasury Headquarters: Treasury Building Secretary of the Treasury Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau · Community Development Financial Institution Fund · Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration · Internal Revenue Service · Office of the Comptroller of the Currency · Office of Thrift Supervision · Office of Tax Policy Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs Office of East Asia · Office of South and Southeast Asia Nations · Office of Europe & Eurasia · Office of the Western Hemisphere · Office of International Monetary Policy · Office of Banking and Securities · Office of International Debt Policy · Office of Development Policy · Office of Financing Operations · Office of African Nations · Office of the Middle East & North Africa · Office of International Trade · Office of International Investment · Office of Trade Finance · Office of Technical Assistance · Office of Risk & Research Analysis · Exchange Stabilization Fund Under Secretary of the Treasury for Domestic Finance Advanced Counterfeit Deterrence · Bureau of the Public Debt · Federal Financing Bank · Financial Management Service · Office of Debt Management · Office of Financial Institutions · Office of Financial Markets · Office of Financial Stability · Office of Fiscal Service Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence · Office of Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes · Office of Intelligence and Analysis · Office of Foreign Assets Control · Financial Crimes Enforcement Network · Treasury Executive Office for Asset Forfeiture Treasurer of the United States Bureau of Engraving and Printing • United States Mint