Director Does Double Duty

What appears to be an unprecedented case of doing double duty began in Washington on January 20 when Patricia (Patty) Collins was named Acting Treasurer of the United States. The treasurer has multiple functions, including liaison with the Federal Reserve, and direct oversight over the U.S. Mint, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, and Fort Knox.

Ms. Collins is also the director of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing since March 24, 2024. In other words, notwithstanding that she reports to the Secretary of the Treasury, it can be said that she is her own boss. Bureau of Engraving and Printing spokesperson, Lydia Washington, told CDN, “Director Patty Collins is temporarily serving as Acting Treasurer until a replacement is named or someone is appointed to the position. She continues to perform her BEP Director duties.” She is the first woman named to that position.

Because she is Acting Treasurer, she will not have her facsimile signature on the next series of U.S. currency. That will have to wait until a Treasurer is officially appointed.

Naming an acting treasurer is not a far-fetched idea given that the position, one that does not require Senate confirmation, has been one that the administrations of both parties have been slow to fill. After George H.W. Bush’s appointee, Catalina Vasquez Villalpando left the position on January 20, 1993, the office remained vacant for 405 days until Bill Clinton appointed Mary Ellen Withrow to the position. When she left on Inauguration Day, 2021, it was 208 days until George W. Bush replaced her with Rosario Marin. She served until June 30, 2003, when she moved back to California to run for U.S. Senate. It then took President Bush 569 days to replace her with Anna Escobedo Cabral. In retrospect, Barack Obama was quick with his appointment. It only took 198 days to install Rosa Gumataotao Rios who served almost until the end of Obama’s second term. While Donald Trump was comparatively fast to name Jovita Carranza to the post on June 9, 2017. She served for less than three years. It next took twenty months for Joe Biden to name Marilynn Malerba. Prior to that, the post was vacant for 972 days.

Ms. Collins has an impressive resume. Her biography on the BEP website says she holds a Master of Science from The Eisenhower School, National Defense University, and a Bachelor of Arts from Rutgers University. Prior to joining the BEP, she was Deputy Director of the U.S. Government Publishing Office, and Chief Operating Officer where she led operations, including Plant Operations for Security and Intelligent Documents and Official Journals of Government and Customer Services.

Before joining the GPO in May 2020, she was a Principal consultant at the McChrystal Group where she focused on leadership development and advising clients in the public and private business sectors.

After a 24-year-career in the U.S. Army, she retired as a Colonel. Seven of those years within the Joint Special Operations Command. She deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Balkans. She was one of a small number of women to serve in Special Operations and was the first woman in the Department of Defense to complete the Military Free Fall Jumpmaster Course.

In 2006, after her return to Fort Bragg, North Carolina from Iraq, she was hit by a car while riding her bicycle to work. The injury was so severe she elected to amputate her leg below the knee. Upon rehabilitation, she continued her military service for nine more years, including a deployment to Afghanistan and commanding at the battalion level. She retired from active duty in 2015.

In 2016 she represented the United States at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in triathlon. She is a native of Hackettstown, New Jersey.