CHICAGO — President-elect Barack Obama intends to name former Securities and Exchange Commissioner Mary Schapiro to head the much-criticized agency and wants to install GOP Rep. Ray LaHood of Illinois as transportation secretary, Democratic officials said Wednesday.
Schapiro, who currently heads a nongovernment regulatory group for securities firms, is also a former head of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission and member of the SEC.
She has been appointed to government posts by two Republican presidents and one Democratic chief executive.
If confirmed, she would take over an agency that has been criticized for failing to detect signs of trouble on Wall Street, where enormous losses by banks have contributed heavily to the current financial crisis.
Obama was expected to make her appointment official today.
It was not clear when the president-elect intended to formally announce his selection of LaHood, a 14-year veteran of the House who would become the second Republican to join the Cabinet-in-the-making.
The officials who described the selections did so on condition of anonymity, saying they were not authorized to discuss personnel matters not yet made public.
With a two-week vacation in Hawaii beckoning, Obama is stepping up the pace of his appointments.
Earlier in the day, he named former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack as agriculture secretary and Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar of Colorado to head the Interior Department.
They, like LaHood and Schapiro, will require Senate confirmation before they can take their positions in the new administration.
Additionally, officials disclosed that Dr. Gail Russeau, a Chicago neurosurgeon, is a leading contender to become surgeon general.
Veteran of her field
Schapiro has spent her career in the securities field.
She is currently the head of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, which describes itself on its website as the largest nongovernmental regulator for all securities firms doing business with the U.S. public.
Two decades ago, President Ronald Reagan named her commissioner of the SEC, and she was reappointed by President George H.W. Bush and then named acting chairwoman by President Bill Clinton.
Clinton also named her head of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, a regulatory agency.
LaHood, 63, is stepping down from his congressional seat after 14 years in Congress from the area around Peoria.
He has been at the forefront of efforts to make the floor of the House less partisan. Respected for his ability to preside, he was in the chair during most of Clinton’s impeachment a decade ago.
Cabinet posts remain
His selection was applauded by the Laborers’ International Union of North America, with general president Terry O’Sullivan saying the Republican “has been a friend to our union when it comes to construction and transportation issues.”
Defense Secretary Robert Gates, whom Obama asked to remain in office, is the other Republican tapped so far for the incoming Cabinet.
Obama has yet to announce choices for the Labor Department, senior intelligence positions or the Office of U.S. Trade Representative.
Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., had been penciled in as trade representative, but he announced Tuesday he intends to remain in the House.
In addition, numerous sub-Cabinet posts remain unfilled.
Vilsack is be the fourth former presidential rival to join Obama’s administration. Others include Vice President-elect Joe Biden, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has been tapped for secretary of state, and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, selected to head the Commerce Department.
