Pritzker looking good for Commerce slot

He pressed Pritzker on her role in the early 2000s failure of Superior Bank and her involvement in offshore tax havens. 

Pritzker acknowledged that she is the beneficiary of offshore trusts that were created “when I was a little girl.” She explained that she does not direct or control them and has complied with all “disclosure obligations required of me in this process.”

She also tried to clear up what she considered her limited role in the failure of Superior Bank, which was reportedly engaged in subprime mortgage lending back into the early 1990s up until its demise.

Thune specifically asked about uninsured depositors who lost more than $100,000 in savings when the bank failed, including one woman who deposited all of her retirement savings into the bank only a month before it went out of business.



”What do you say to people who lost a substantial amount of money?” Thune asked.

Pritzker, who had held a place on the bank’s board in years prior to the failure, said she personally spoke to the head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to arrange for the family to pay about $450 million in compensation. She said her family owned only about half of the bank. 

“It was right thing for us to do for depositors and for our family,” she said. 

She said she only became involved in the bank near its collapse because of the death of her uncle who had been handling the bank’s affairs. She “stepped in to salvage the situation” but negotiations failed along with the bank. 

“I regret the failure of Superior Bank,” Pritzker said. “It was not the outcome we wanted. I feel very badly about it.”

The experience taught her lessons in good management, transparency and solid governance, as well as risk management. 

The 54-year-old Pritzker is a Chicago billionaire whose family founded and runs Hyatt hotels. She told the panel that she will carry her business experience into public service to help create jobs and bolster economic growth. 

Pritzker said her role at Commerce, if she is confirmed, would be to serve as a bridge between the White House and business community. 

“I plan to be an active and visible part of president’s economic team, so the relationship can be improved,” she told the committee. 

Pritzker touted her experience on the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness and the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board that led to her launching an initiative designed to address jobs skills mismatches as evidence she is ready to get going in the new position.

She vowed aggressive action across a broad range of complex issues that fall under Commerce’s purview from spectrum allocation and cybersecurity, to fisheries and weather forecasting and trade and manufacturing. 

In the wake of violent tornadoes that ripped through Oklahoma this week, killing 24 people in Moore, lawmakers were keenly focused on ensuring that top-notch technology is being used for storm forecasting. 

“We’re all reminded over the last several months of how important having a top quality weather service is,” Pritzker said. “It has saved lives,” she said.

Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) urged Pritzker to put her weight behind solving cybersecurity issues, which he called “the greatest national threat.” 

He said he is talking with House lawmakers and for the “first time sees a real opportunity for a bipartisan cybersecurity bill.”

The only real opposition Pritzker faced came from those in attendance. About two dozen workers from the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees (HERE) Union, one of the nation’s biggest labor unions, came to the hearing to protest the nomination. They want an end to a wage freeze and have argued that Hyatt has outsourced maid jobs to bring in minimum wage workers. 

But in questioning from Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Pritzker said she has not replaced jobs with minimum wage temporary positions, and she is an advocate for “good paying jobs” and “worker safety.”

The “cornerstone in business is having a good relationship between management and labor,” she said. “I support the right for workers to organize, if that’s what they want to do. 

“The labor force is a No. 1 priority.”

Hyatt, in a separate statement sent to The Hill said the union has  “targeted Hyatt board members and spread misinformation about Hyatt associates’ workplace experience.” 

“Our associates in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Waikiki have endured nearly four years without a wage increase because UniteHere leaders won’t allow our associates to vote on new contracts unless Hyatt agrees to impose unionization on employees at other Hyatt hotels,” the email said.

“It’s a shame UniteHere leaders are sacrificing the needs of those they represent in order to build their membership. It’s time they let our associates vote on new contracts.”