As government shutdown drags on, where is Senator McConnell?

[dalton99a]

14. McConnell's Job 1 is to get his brother-in-law confirmed:

https://www.ai-cio.com/news/pbgc-director-nominee-gets-kicked-back-trump/
January 8, 2019
PBGC Director Nominee Gets Kicked Back to Trump
Clock runs out on controversial nod for brother-in-law of Mitch McConnell, Elaine Chao.


Gordon Hartogensis

The nomination of Gordon Hartogensis as director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. (PBGC) has been kicked back to President Trump due to inaction by the US Senate.

In May, Trump nominated Hartogensis to replace PGBC Director Thomas Reeder, who was nominated by President Obama, and whose term was set to end in 2020. In a release announcing the nomination, the White House praised Hartogensis as “an investor and technology sector leader with experience managing financial equities, bonds, private placements, and software development.”

However, the move was criticized for its apparent nepotism, as Hartogensis is the brother-in-law of both Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao. The 2018 legislative session ended without a formal vote on Hartogensis’ appointment, and as a result, Senate rules require the nomination to be returned to the president.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/17/mitch-mcconnell-know-run-agency-1033119
Want to run an agency? It helps to know Mitch McConnell
Trump's nominee to run pension agency has a thin resume.
By IAN KULLGREN
12/17/2018 05:10 AM EST

The Trump administration, staring down a $54 billion pension crisis, is placing its faith in a man who is a stranger to most of Washington but for one big connection: His brother-in-law is Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his sister-in-law is Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao.

Gordon Hartogensis has little professional paper trail, and has largely just managed his family’s sprawling investment portfolio after striking gold in a '90s startup and retiring by the time he was 29. But he is expected to gain Senate confirmation by the end of the year to run the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, the troubled government backstop for people whose pension plans have become insolvent.

Hartogensis, 48, who’s married to Chao’s sister, will oversee an agency with nearly 1,000 employees that manages $100 billion in assets and handed out $5.8 billion to more than 861,000 retirees in 2018. He’ll also have to deal with lawmakers as they contemplate a bailout plan that can avert a shortfall of tens of billions of dollars in the corporation’s cash reserves.

Hartogensis’ low public profile and his lack of government and management experience sets him apart from previous occupants of the job, who have typically worked in politics and at federal agencies such as the Treasury Department and the Office of Management and Budget before taking over. The nomination has drawn criticism for that reason.