President Trump’s failed nominee to lead the Export-Import Bank is now working at the Securities and Exchange Commission, despite a temporary hold on the agency’s hiring, according to a report.
Former Rep. Scott Garrett, R-N.J., was tapped to head the Export-Import Bank last year, but his nomination died in the Senate. Now, he’s working full-time in the SEC’s Office of General Counsel, where he has been since this earlier this year, reports Politico.
Garrett was hired in an “excepted service” position. According to the Office of Personnel Management, “excepted service hiring authorities” are provided to fill special jobs or those in “unusual or special circumstances.” Attorneys working in the federal government are excepted service positions, according to OPM.
In his current role at the SEC, Garrett is making $215,001 annually, Politico reported, far more than he would have made as chairman of the Export-Import Bank, which rakes in an annual salary of $165,300.
In its budget justification for fiscal year 2019, the SEC said it expects to see a decrease from 4,674 positions in fiscal year 2017 to 4,528 positions by the end of fiscal year 2018.
The agency imposed a hiring freeze at the beginning of fiscal year 2017 that is expected to run through fiscal year 2018, which ends Sept. 30.
The SEC, it wrote in its budget documents, “permits few exceptions to the hiring freeze.”
