Dec. 8—She never made it to Fort Knox.
But as America’s 45th treasurer, the first Native American to hold the post, Lynn Malerba left her mark on U.S. currency and, more important, on U.S. relations with Indian Country as the first head of the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Tribal and Native Affairs.
Malerba, 71, back home in Niantic after serving in President Joe Biden’s administration for a little more than two years, said Friday she’s taking a bit of a break before resuming her duties as chief of the Mohegan Tribe.
“It was such an adventure,” she said of her tenure as treasurer, which ended three weeks ago. “I had done work on the federal level for years, always on the advocacy side, not the agency side. This was about how you get things done.”
As a former nurse, she said the pace was sometimes slower than she would have liked.
Never, she said, did she intend to serve beyond the Biden administration’s current term. She said that wouldn’t have changed if Kamala Harris, Biden’s vice president, had been elected president last month instead of Donald Trump.
Long before her swearing-in as treasurer on Sept. 12, 2022, Malerba, then a member of the Treasury Tribal Advisory Committee, had pushed for the creation of an office of tribal affairs in the Treasury Department. It was an honor, she said, to “stand up that office as treasurer.”
She cited some of the office’s “multiple achievements” during her stint as treasurer. One involved the adoption of proposed rules for implementing the Tribal General Welfare Exclusion Act, a 2014 law that sought to limit federal taxes on government services provided to Native American populations. In some areas, Malerba said, basic government-provided goods and services like food, clothing and health care have been taxed when they shouldn’t be.
“We’ve now written guidance and have submitted it to tribes for consultation,” she said. “We’re very excited about it.”
In October, the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service introduced a proposal to clarify the tax-exempt status of tribe-owned businesses, making them eligible for certain clean energy tax credits.
Malerba said she she’s been proud of the Treasury Department’s disbursement of tens of billions of dollars in Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act and American Rescue Plan Act funds to tribal nations, highlighting the example of an Oklahoma tribe that was able to erect a cell tower that provided some 1,000 tribal members with wireless service for the first time.
That tribe’s leaders’ first call was to the Treasury Department.
Malerba said she’s confident the department’s office of tribal affairs will continue to ensure the federal government consults tribes when considering policies that affect them.
“We’ve definitely had a lot of influence,” she said. “There was a commitment on the part of this administration, starting with Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, who worked hard to be inclusive of tribes. The level of attention tribes have received is gratifying. … Tribes work hard to develop good relations with all administrations.”
Signing on
Malerba said she’s “a little sad” about not getting an opportunity to visit Fort Knox, the depository in Kentucky where much of the United States’ gold reserves are kept. Oversight of the facility is one of the treasurer’s duties, as is oversight of the U.S. Mint, which produces the country’s coinage, and the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, which prints all currency. Malerba also served as a liaison to the Federal Reserve and as a senior adviser to Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen in the areas of community development and public engagement.
President-elect Trump has nominated Scott Bessent, a hedge fund manager, to be Yellen’s successor.
Malerba said she visited the U.S. Mint and the Bureau of Engraving and Printing many times and developed a good understanding of the manufacturing process. She also visited the Massachusetts factory that produces the cloth ― a combination of linen and cotton ― used in currency and met with engravers.
She said U.S. currency has more than 300 security features and that the government works constantly to stay ahead of counterfeiters.
At the time of her swearing-in as treasurer, she provided the signature that eventually will appear along with Yellen’s on all denominations of currency ― the only U.S. currency to bear signatures of two women. Not all denominations bearing their signatures are yet in circulation.
Malerba said she was asked to sign her name seven times and to select the version she preferred. She signed “Lynn Roberge Malerba,” including her maiden name. She didn’t use her given first name, Marilynn, because “not even my own parents called me that,” she said.
The first bills with the Malerba and Yellen signatures were produced at a plant in Fort Worth, Texas, in December 2022. They began circulating in early 2023.
“It was just such an honor to be asked to be treasurer,” Malerba said. “There’s nothing better than making your family, your tribal family, your state proud of the work you do, and to be so well received everywhere you go. … I was only able to do it because my own tribe allowed me to take a sabbatical.”
Upon her return, she foresees a shift in focus.
“I don’t plan to work so much on federal policy,” she said. “I want to engage more deeply in the cultural aspects of my role (as chief). I want to become more fluent in the language, to be a beader, to be more present and available to leadership …”
“I have some historical context,” she said.
b.hallenbeck@theday.com