Updated at 5:53 p.m. on May 11.
Rumors are swirling about possible replacements for Justice David Souter on the Supreme Court. While National Journal briefly profiled some of the most prominent names already, here is a rundown of even more that are surfacing in coverage of the search. NationalJournal.com will update this list in alphabetical order as it grows.
Anita Alvarez, Cook County State's Attorney
• Age: 52
• Education: Loyola University in Chicago, 1982; Chicago-Kent College of Law, 1986.
• Ethnicity: Hispanic
• Her Cook County biography can be found here.
Ruben Castillo, United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
• Age: 54
• Education: Loyola University, Chicago, Ill., 1976; Northwestern University School of Law, 1979.
• Ethnicity: Hispanic
• His court biography can be found here.
Hillary Rodham Clinton, Secretary of State
• Age: 61
• Education: Wellesley College, 1969; Yale Law School, 1973.
• Ethnicity: white
• Her State Department biography can be found here and her National Journal profile here.
Merrick Garland, U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
• Age: 56
• Education: Harvard College, 1974; Harvard Law School, 1977.
• Ethnicity: white
• His court biography can be found here and his National Journal profile here.
Jennifer Granholm, Michigan governor
• Age: 50
• Education: University of California at Berkeley, 1984; Harvard Law School, 1987.
• Ethnicity: white
• Her official governor's biography can be found here and her Almanac of American Politics profile can be found here (subscription).
Complete list after the jump.
President Obama has announced he will nominate former South Carolina Education Superintendent Inez Tenenbaum to be chairwoman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission and Robert Adler as a new commissioner on the panel. If confirmed, Tenenbaum would replace Acting Chairwoman Nancy Nord.
National Journal reporter Ed Pound, who joined the magazine in 2007, is taking his investigative skills to the federal government to help keep an eye on how tax dollars are spent. Pound will be communications director for the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, which was created as part of the economic stimulus bill to coordinate and conduct oversight of funds distributed under the law in order to prevent waste, fraud and abuse.
In his new position, he will work closely with board Chairman Earl Devaney to develop short- and long-term communication strategies and manage the Recovery.gov Web site. Before joining National Journal, Pound worked at U.S. News & World Report, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and USA Today, among other publications.
By JILL R. AITORO, Nextgov
Google's chief executive officer is one of 20 individuals that will advise the president and vice president in formulating policy about science, technology and innovation.
Eric Schmidt, Google chairman of the board and CEO, is the only person named to the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, or PCAST, that comes directly from the information technology community. Prior to joining Google in 2001, he held executive positions at Novell and Sun Microsystems.
Schmidt will join experts in the areas of nanotechnology, oceanography, climate-change science and ecology, and solar system exploration, to name a few, in advising the administration about "national strategies to nurture and sustain a culture of scientific innovation," President Obama said in a statement.
PCAST will be co-chaired by John Holdren, assistant to the president for science and technology and director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy; Eric Lander, director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and one of the principal leaders of the Human Genome Project; and Harold Varmus, president and CEO of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, former head of the National Institutes of Health and a Nobel laureate.
PCAST members under the George W. Bush administration wrote a transition letter that highlighted for their successors operational procedures and critical issues identified during their two terms on the council, and suggested that the new council work closely with the administration -- conducting interviews with people in the White House as well as in cabinet agencies -- to determine topics of study.
"The important role played by science and technology in our modern society can not be overemphasized," the previous council wrote in the letter. "As a result, the importance of dedicated individuals to provide advice to future administrations will be of growing importance."
By JERRY HAGSTROM, CongressDaily
Only one Agriculture Department undersecretary and one assistant secretary have been confirmed by the Senate, but when the holders of many USDA sub-Cabinet positions get to their desks they will find that Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has already put their confidential and special assistants with proven Obama campaign experience in place.
"These individuals, representing diverse backgrounds, strengths and skills, are a dynamic team prepared to address the issues facing 21st century food and agriculture," Vilsack said in a recent news release announcing the hiring of 14 aides. "They are committed to the president's goals for a prosperous rural America and a strong American agriculture and they believe that U.S. agriculture must play a leadership role in tackling the nation's renewable energy challenges."
Vilsack announced that the confidential assistant for Agriculture Undersecretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services Jim Miller is Elisabeth Reiter, a director of advance for Obama's campaign who previously worked on many other campaigns, including for Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va.
Vilsack also announced that the special assistant to Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Joe Leonard is Cristina Chiappe, the Latino vote director for the Obama campaign in Virginia. Chiappe, a native of Peru, has also been a research associate at the Institute for Educational Leadership's National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability for Youth in Washington.
The other campaign aides are assigned to offices in which the undersecretary has not yet been confirmed.
By GAUTHAM NAGESH, Nextgov
Following reports that surfaced last week, a White House spokesman has confirmed to Nextgov that Google executive Sonal Shah will be joining the Obama administration as director of the Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation.
Formerly the head of Google's philanthropic arm, Shah is slated to lead the office, which is expected to work with nonprofits and community organizations to encourage "social entrepreneurship." The administration has thus far avoided releasing any details about the mission or structure of the office. Shah also served as a member of Obama's transition team, helping to develop technology policy.
The news of Shah's appointment has been greeted favorably in some circles, particularly among the philanthropic community.
However, her involvement with the White House has been controversial due to her ties to the right-wing Vishwa Hindu Parishad, which is accused of using charitable works in India as a cover for inciting communal hatred. The VHP has been condemned by the State Department and the nonprofit Human Rights Watch for its role in the 2002 mob violence in Gujurat, which resulted in the deaths of 1,000 people, most of whom were Muslims.
By CONGRESSDAILY STAFF
President Obama late Thursday nominated Edward Avalos, a New Mexico agriculture marketing official, to be USDA undersecretary for marketing and regulatory programs.
Avalos has spent 34 years in agriculture marketing, including promoting the sale of chile peppers in 12 states; sheep, goats and cattle in Mexico; and pecans in Japan and China. The position requires Senate confirmation.
By ALIYA STERNSTEIN, Nextgov
A lawmaker who backed the recent selection of Aneesh Chopra for White House chief technology officer continues to push his bill to make the position permanent, more powerful and more expansive, because the job's responsibilities are not what President Obama had first described.
Rep. Gerald Connolly, D-Va., is still backing a bill (H.R. 1910) he introduced on April 2, because the job the president granted Chopra -- coordinating national strategies to spur innovation throughout the economy -- is not the role outlined during the transition. At that time, Obama said the responsibilities would be "to ensure the safety of our networks and lead an interagency effort, working with chief technology and chief information officers of each of the federal agencies, to ensure that they use best-in-class technologies and share best practices."
The CTO -- the first-ever in government -- will focus more on leveraging technology to drive public and private innovation rather than using technology to transform government operations. Vivek Kundra, Obama's chief information officer, who resides in the Office of Management and Budget, will play that role by overseeing government-wide information technology. Obama made the CTO an assistant to the president, with direct access to him, and an associate director of the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy, reporting to OSTP Director John Holdren.
In contrast, the Connolly proposal would station an official in the Executive Office of the President to supervise both technology government-wide and national technology strategies.
Connolly said his bill would ensure that the CTO is the supreme technology leader in the White House, responsible for advancing intergovernmental and nationwide technology. Under the measure, the CTO's duties would include assessing federal IT policies, analyzing trends inIT, developing IT to assist human resource management, evaluating the effect of systems on privacy and security, and advising the president on the federal IT budget.
"What I'm trying to do here is essentially provide a statutory framework for what President Obama has done by executive order," said Connolly, referring to a February order that established the position of assistant to the president and chief technology officer. "It is a logical extension of what he has done. It guarantees that the CTO is the spokesman for technology in the federal government and the White House itself -- and the advocate for it."
By WINTER CASEY
In the next few months it is expected that Philip Verveer will become the State Department's next U.S. Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy, according to sources familiar with the matter. Verveer will be filling the shoes of David Gross, who held the title of coordinator since 2001. The position also comes with the title of "ambassador." Sources say the White House is currently doing a background check of Verveer and his nomination will also be subject to approval by the Senate in addition to the administration. Verveer is currently counsel at the firm Jenner & Block's litigation department [bio]. He is also a member of the firm's communications practice with a focus on regulatory and antitrust issues.
Verveer has nearly three decades advising clients on communication regulatory issues before Congress, the FCC, National Telecommunications and Information Administration, Office of U.S. Trade Representative, Federal Trade Commission, the State Department, and the Committee on Foreign Investment. Verveer, who served in the military, also worked as a partner in the Washington office of Willkie Farr & Gallagher where he founded the firm's communications practice. He has also served as a trial attorney in the Justice Department's antitrust division, a supervisory attorney in the FTC's Bureau of Competition, and as the chief of the cable bureau at the FCC. He earned his law degree from the University of Chicago Law School in 1969 and is married to Melanne Verveer, who was Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's chief of staff when she was first lady. President Obama has tapped her to be his ambassador at large for global women's issues.
By ALIYA STERNSTEIN, Nextgov
The appointment of Aneesh Chopra as the government's first chief technology officer signals that the administration is serious about updating the nation's technology infrastructure, said former federal officials, industry leaders and open government advocates.
As CTO, Chopra will be an assistant to President Obama, with direct access to him. Chopra also will serve as associate director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, if confirmed by the Senate for that position, administration officials said on Monday.
Until Obama tapped Chopra on April 18, the technology industry feared the president had reneged on the White House-level position he had promised during the transition. Months went by without an appointment, the administration announced the CTO would work within OSTP, and reports surfaced that heavy hitters such as Google Inc.'s CEO Eric Schmidt had turned down the job.
But with the president's ear -- Chopra, a well-respected technology secretary for the commonwealth of Virginia -- will carry the backing of the White House when conferring with agency officials. The administration's tech team also includes Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra, Washington's former chief technology officer; New Media Director Macon Phillips, who helped manage Obama's online presidential campaign; and Citizen Participation Director Katie Stanton, a veteran of Google.
White House officials described the CTO and CIO positions as complementary. The CTO role involves contemplating how advanced technologies can improve the economy and quality of life, said Rick Weiss, senior science and technology policy analyst at OSTP. Examples include examining how technology can foster private sector innovation, reduce health care costs and transform teaching. Kundra will be more focused on intergovernmental uses of technologies to improve federal operations and public outreach.
