APPOINTMENTS

Wednesday, November 5, 2008 4:15 PM

Hill Vet To Serve As Transition Congressional Liaison

Phil Schiliro, congressional liaison to the Obama campaign, has been tapped to serve as Obama's director of congressional relations during the transition and could end up staying on in the incoming administration. If so, he would likely play a crucial role in reconciling the agendas of the newly enlarged Democratic majorities in Congress and an Obama White House.

Shiliro is a veteran congressional staffer, as this brief bio from National Journal's 2007 Hill People issue details. In June 2007, when this was published, Shiliro was chief of staff to House Oversight Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif.

Schiliro, the longtime aide to Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., swears that little has changed for him at the committee since Democrats ascended into the majority. "We took the same approach in the minority as we do in the majority," he said. That approach, according to the self-described "strategic planner" for the committee, is to highlight areas most in need of oversight. "The two biggest issues for us are fraud, waste, and abuse, and making government work again," Schiliro said. By returning to Waxman's office in 2005 after a year working for then-Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., Schiliro reaffirmed Waxman's reputation for having one of the most loyal staffs on Capitol Hill. Schiliro, 50, joined Waxman's office in 1982, after law school, to work on the Clean Air Act. He served as the congressman's chief of staff in the personal office, and then became the minority staff director for the Government Reform Committee in 1997. Schiliro, who ran unsuccessfully for Congress in New York in 1992 and 1994, is now Waxman's highest-ranking staffer. The McLean, Va., resident graduated from Hofstra University and earned his law degree from Lewis and Clark Law School.