Personnel Notes

Former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who spent his final years in George W. Bush's administration trying to stave off the housing crisis gripping the nation, has lost over $1 million selling his own Washington, D.C., home.

Paulson sold his three-bedroom home in the nation's capital for roughly $1 million less than he paid for it, and nearly a third less than his original asking price, according to Reuters.

Elizabeth Warren proved her fiscally prudent bona fides in a recent profile in Vogue magazine, in which she makes a cup of tea with a used tea bag stored in her desk.

The profile of the Harvard law professor, who is charged with overseeing the creation of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, was published in the most recent edition of the magazine. The article opens with the anecdote about Warren and the tea bag.

"If Elizabeth Warren offers you a cup of tea, don’t accept," writes Rebecca Johnson.

After the author's comments on the extreme recycling, Warren acknowledges she can't bring herself to throw away a still functional tea bag.

“I know,” said Warren. “But I just can’t stand the waste of throwing out a tea bag after one use. It’s like a knife in the gut for me.”

The CFPB does not officially come into being until July, one year after the Dodd-Frank Act authorized its creation. However, an implementation team is establishing the office and making hires to staff it, and Treasury officials said the office is on schedule for its July debut.

Warren has said she wants the CFPB to fundamentally remake the way consumers obtain credit from banks and other non-bank financial institutions. She has said a key part of that effort will be dramatically simplifying the wording of consumer financial agreements and making it so consumers can readily and immediately compare financial products with all relevant fees disclosed clearly up front.

The inaction on the nomination comes as lawmakers are expected to consider reforming Fannie and Freddie next year.

The National Association of Manufacturers is promoting Jay Timmons to be its president and chief executive officer next year, following the departure of current head John Engler.

NAM announced the replacement hours after Engler, the former Republican governor of Michigan, announced he was leaving the group to join the Business Roundtable as its president on Jan. 15. Timmons is currently NAM's executive vice president.

John Engler is leaving the National Association of Manufacturers to join the Business Roundtable, an influential association of corporate CEOs.

Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), the whip-designate for the incoming GOP majority in the House, on Friday announced he is turning to a Hill veteran to run his leadership team in the next Congress. 

Tim Berry is leaving his position as vice president of public policy at Time Warner to serve as the chief of staff in the Office of the Majority Whip, McCarthy said in a statement Friday. 

Before joining Time Warner as a lobbyist in 2005, Berry served as the chief of staff to then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas). He has also served in the offices of former Reps. Jack Quinn (R-N.Y.) and Fred Heineman (R-N.C.).

See the rest of McCarthy's leadership team below the jump.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will undergo minor surgery Friday to have a kidney stone removed, according to the Treasury Department.

Spokesman Steve Adamske said that Geithner was admitted to George Washington University Hospital in Washington, D.C., Friday morning for treatment.

"He will have a minor surgical procedure this afternoon to remove the kidney stone, and his physician expects that he will be discharged tomorrow with orders to rest this weekend," Adamske said.

"He has been told that he should be able to return to work on Monday," he added.

Geithner, who is one of President Obama's top economic advisers, recently participated in bipartisan negotiations with members of Congress on the expiring Bush tax cuts.

Lawrence Summers will make his final public speech as the director of the National Economic Council at the Economic Policy Institute next week.

Summers will weigh in on his time overseeing the council, since he was named to the position in January 2009.

Summers is expected to leave the position at the end of the year, perhaps as soon as next week.

The White House is considering a number of candidates to replace Summers, including Roger Altman, an investment banker and former deputy Treasury secretary under the Clinton administration.

A senior Democratic aide to the House Ways and Means Committee is joining the Glover Park Group.

Matthew Beck, the communications director and policy adviser to the powerful tax-writing committee, will be a vice president for public affairs and marketing in the lobby firm's financial services practice. 

Beck has been working on Capitol Hill since 2001 and had been with Ways and Means since 2005.

The guidance was called "discriminatory, arbitrary" and "harmful" to lobbyists and government officials because it could deny K Street's expertise to policymakers.