By KELLIE LUNNEY, Government Executive
President Obama on Saturday named a Washington-area entrepreneur and management consultant as the government's first chief performance officer.
Jeffrey Zients also will serve as deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget, Obama said during his April 18 radio address. A multimillionaire who made his money as a management consultant, Zients currently runs Portfolio Logic, a firm that invests in business services and health care companies.
"Jeffrey will work to streamline processes, cut costs, and find best practices throughout our government," Obama said.
The president focused his address on government efficiency and accountability. He said he will ask department heads during their first full Cabinet meeting next week for specific proposals on cutting their budgets.
"Already, members of my Cabinet have begun to trim back unnecessary expenditures," Obama said, citing Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Defense Secretary Robert Gates as examples.
Obama said that he plans to announce in the coming weeks the "elimination of dozens of government programs shown to be wasteful or ineffective," adding that there will be "no sacred cows, and no pet projects."
The president also announced that Aneesh Chopra, Virginia's technology secretary, will serve as the government's chief technology officer and work closely with Vivek Kundra, the chief information officer.
Zients replaces Nancy Killefer as Obama's pick for the top federal management position. Killefer withdrew in February to avoid controversy over issues related to her personal income taxes.
Zients served as chief executive officer and chairman of the Washington-based Advisory Board Company -- where Chopra has also worked -- and as head of the Corporate Executive Board. The firms provide best practices and customized market research on health care and financial management. Zients also launched an unsuccessful bid with other Washington-area investors in 2005 to buy the Washington Nationals baseball team.
By TOM SHOOP, Government Executive
The White House announced Monday that G. Edward DeSeve, a former high-ranking management official in the Clinton administration, would coordinate efforts at the Office of Management and Budget to implement the recently enacted economic stimulus package.
In his new position, DeSeve will serve as a special adviser to President Obama and assistant to Vice President Joe Biden. He will focus on managing interagency efforts to address provisions of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. That work, the White House said, would complement oversight efforts led by Earl Devaney, head of the Recovery Act Accountability and Transparency Board.
DeSeve currently is a senior lecturer at the Fels Institute for Government of the University of Pennsylvania. He was deputy director for management at OMB during the latter part of President Clinton's term in office. During DeSeve's tenure, he was a key player in coordinating the federal response to the Y2K computer issue.
Before serving at OMB, DeSeve was the chief financial officer at the Department of Housing and Urban Development from 1993 to 1994. Prior to that, he worked in the financial services industry in the private sector. DeSeve also has worked for the city of Philadelphia and as a special assistant to Pennsylvania Gov. Robert Casey.
By GAUTHAM NAGESH, Government Executive
Technology executives in government and the federal contracting community said Nancy Killefer's announcement on Tuesday to withdraw as President Obama's nominee for the top management post at the Office of Management and Budget is a setback in an effort to elevate information technology agency executive decision-making.
"I'm extremely disappointed since I have the utmost respect for Nancy, and think she's absolutely terrific," said Jim Flyzik, who worked for Killefer when he was chief information officer at the Treasury Department. "It's a setback. . . . It's hard to find someone as qualified as her."
Obama nominated Killefer last month to be the deputy director of management at OMB as well as the government's first chief performance officer. But she withdrew her name from consideration in response to a report from the Associated Press that in 2005 the District of Columbia government filed a tax lien of more than $900 on her home for failure to pay unemployment compensation tax on household help.
In her letter to Obama, Killefer, who is a senior director at the management consulting firm McKinsey & Co., said she was withdrawing to avoid becoming a distraction to the administration.
A spokesperson for McKinsey confirmed that Killefer remains a director working in the Washington office, though she has not worked with clients since Obama nominated her.
Max Stier, president of the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service, expressed disappointment and told Government Executive that Killefer was an ideal choice because of her range of management experience. "Unfortunately, there are all too few people with great management experience in the public and private sectors," he said. "You can find great candidates in different packages, but it's certainly very appealing to have someone with experience in both sectors."
Continue reading Killefer Withdrawal Viewed As Setback For Federal IT.
After more than 35 years in government -- as a career official at the Office of Management and Budget and director of the White House Office of Administration under President Clinton -- Frank Reeder built on his information security and public management expertise by founding a consulting company, The Reeder Group.
He's continued to share his knowledge as a fellow at the National Academy of Public Administration and as a principal of the nonprofit Council for Excellence in Government. But this past fall, he took on a new challenge -- serving as a member of Barack Obama's agency review team for OMB.
Reeder spoke with Government Executive staff correspondent Alyssa Rosenberg on Wednesday. Edited excerpts follow.
GE: What made this transition different from others you've experienced?
Reeder: My sense is this was a dramatically different transition for I think three reasons. Number one, these are extraordinary times. The administration had to be ready go, not simply take the honeymoon period to look around and see what needed to be done.The second reason was the incoming administration was an order of magnitude better prepared in two ways. One was a very clearly articulated agenda throughout the campaign. The only thing remotely comparable to that I experienced was the Reagan transition. There was a clear understanding of what the transition team wanted. The principals understood key things like who are the key appointments to make [and] the talent bank was well under way, which allowed them to do things in November that normally don't happen until December.
The third factor -- and the last time I can remember anything approximating this might have been in 1960-61 -- was a set of public expectations and good feelings that [Obama] was a candidate who said he wanted to make government cool again, as opposed to [Ronald Reagan] who said in his inaugural that government isn't the solution, it's the problem.
[In addition, President] Bush said to his administration on Nov. 5, "I want you to cooperate." He said it like he meant it. It's one advantage of having a well-disciplined administration. By golly, they cooperated. The agencies I worked with were, with minor exceptions, extraordinarily cooperative. The appointees got out of the way [and] made it possible for the transition team to interact directly with the career staff.
Continue reading Transition Adviser Looks Back On The Process.
By AMY HARDER
While it may seem like Washington has fallen into an inauguration frenzy this past weekend, the transition team of freshly sworn-in President Obama has still been hard at work, churning out more appointments.
On Monday, key posts at the Office of Management and Budget were announced. Jeffrey Liebman, currently a professor at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, will be the OMB executive associate director. Preeta Bansal will be OMB's general counsel and senior policy adviser. She is currently a partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom LLP in New York. Steve Kosiak will be associate director for defense and international affairs; he is currently vice president for Budget Studies at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. Robert Gordon, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, will be associate director for education, income maintenance and labor. Xavier de Souza Briggs was announced as associate director for general government programs. He is currently a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Kenneth Baer will be associate director for communications and strategic planning, after running his own communications consulting firm, Baer Communications, LLC.
On Friday, Obama announced a handful more White House staff positions, many of whom are stay-ons from his campaign. Danielle Crutchfield will continue as the president's official scheduler. Obama's campaign trip director, Marvin Nicholson, will also remain at his post. Emmett Beliveau will transition from his post as executive director and CEO of the Presidential Inaugural Committee to be Obama's director of advance. He also held this position during the campaign. Patrick Dillon will be deputy director of political affairs. Dillon has served as Iowa Gov. Chet Culver's chief of staff since 2006.
Their full bios, per the transition's press releases, are available after the jump.
Speculation on who President-elect Barack Obama would select for his Cabinet began almost immediately after his historic victory on Nov. 4. But less has been said about how Obama might fill lower-level positions that have a direct influence over management and workforce policies affecting federal employees.
Government Executive asked Beltway observers to share their thoughts on likely candidates for jobs such as the director of the Office of Personnel Management, who will have a critical role in determining whether the next administration continues a push toward pay-for-performance, and the chief of the General Services Administration, the government's main purchasing agency.
The chart on this page tracks their predictions.
By ROBERT BRODSKY, Government Executive
Barack Obama's announcement of Peter Orszag as his nominee to head the Office of Budget and Management -- a pick that was first broken by Lost in Transition last week -- and his pick of Rob Nabors as OMB deputy director have received accolades from leaders of key congressional panels.
"[Orszag] is a talented economist who has provided invaluable information and insight on the federal budget," said Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. "He is highly regarded on both sides of the aisle. He has the rare gift of being able to translate complex economic and financial issues into clear, concise and understandable language. And his focus on addressing the growing cost of health care has demonstrated his firm grasp of the tremendous budget challenges our nation faces in the years ahead."
House Budget Committee Chairman John Spratt, D-S.C., called Nabors a "first-rate addition" to Obama's team. "Rob Nabors has mastered both the process and substance of congressional appropriations," Spratt said. "While we will miss him in the House, I believe that Rob will strengthen the ties between Congress and OMB."
Republicans also were effusive in their praise for Orszag.
Continue reading Obama's Choice Of Budget Chief Garners Praise.
The Congressional Budget Office this afternoon announced that deputy director Robert Sunshine will step into Peter Orszag's shoes on an interim basis now that Orszag is stepping down as director to head the Office of Management and Budget. Sunshine has been with CBO since 1976 and assumed the post of deputy director last year. He will serve as acting director until a successor is appointed by the Speaker of the House and the president pro tempore of the Senate.
Orszag anounced his resignation today after President-elect Obama named him to lead OMB. In his final post on the CBO director's blog -- yes, such a thing exists -- Orszag bid a fond adieu to his staff, writing, "I have absolutely loved my time at CBO.... Perhaps most fundamentally, CBO is a reflection of the smart and hard-working but also warm and wonderful people who work here. (If you find it hard to believe that budget analysts and economists can be warm and wonderful, please just take my word for it.)"
As first reported by National Journal's Alexis Simendinger last week, Barack Obama has selected Peter Orszag as director of the Office of Management and Budget. President-elect Obama made the appointment official at a press conference this afternoon, where he also named Rob Nabors as deputy OMB director.
Official biographies after the jump.
By BRITTANY R. BALLENSTEDT, Government Executive
Federal agencies have put together lists of top policy, management, legal and infrastructure issues for President-elect Barack Obama's agency review teams, a top presidential transition official said on Wednesday.
Gail Lovelace, transition director at the General Services Administration, said at a breakfast sponsored by Government Executive that agencies have submitted "hot lists" of key issues that will require immediate attention by new administration officials.
In a July 18 memo [PDF], the Bush administration's Office of Management and Budget directed agencies to submit lists of top issues to the White House for review by Nov. 1.
Lovelace said the range of issues at each agency differs, with one listing only 10 items and another identifying 44 considered urgent.
Obama's agency review teams began their work on Monday, and are expected to provide detailed reports to the Obama transition team prior to the Jan. 20 inauguration.
In past transitions, some review teams approached their task as a way to better understand agency operations and structures, Lovelace said. But given that many members of the Obama review teams served at their respective agencies during the Clinton administration, she added, many will be ready to "delve a little deeper" into the top issues facing federal agencies.
Continue reading Agencies Send Obama Review Teams 'Hot Lists' Of Key Issues.
By ALEXIS SIMENDINGER
(Credit: Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images)
President-elect Barack Obama is preparing to tap Congressional Budget Office Director Peter Orszag, once a veteran economic adviser in the Clinton White House, to become his budget director, according to several National Journal sources. The Office of Management and Budget job -- seen as a key post to help Obama deliver on his domestic policy agenda amidst the gloom of a $700 billion federal financial rescue, a recession and the prospects of a $1 trillion deficit next year -- carries Cabinet rank. An announcement is expected soon, but could come with other personnel decisions Obama is making to lead the Treasury Department and National Economic Council in his White House.
The two leading candidates to become Obama's "honest broker" lead at the NEC are Dan Tarullo and Jacob "Jack" Lew, both respected former members of Bill Clinton's deep economic bench. Both have senior government and academic track records. Tarullo, a former assistant to the president for international economic policy, is coordinating part of Obama's economic transition team. Lew, a former OMB director and former executive vice president at New York University, heads Citigroup's alternative investments group.
Informed sources report that economist Doug Elmendorf is expected to be the Democrats' choice on Capitol Hill to succeed Orszag at CBO. Elmendorf has worked at the Federal Reserve, Treasury, the White House Council of Economic Advisers and CBO, and succeeded Orszag as head of the Brookings Institution's economic-policy initiative called the Hamilton Project.
Orszag, who will turn 40 on Dec. 16, has been praised by lawmakers from both parties as an objective analyst with deep knowledge of the most pressing fiscal issues of the day, including health care policy, Social Security, pensions, and global climate change. He is the unusual economist who blends an understanding of politics, policy and communications in ways that wrap zesty quotes around complex ideas. If confirmed by the Senate to move to OMB, Orszag will have completed half of his four-year CBO term. Orszag, a father of two school-age children and an avid runner, holds degrees from Princeton University and the London School of Economics. The National Academies of Sciences' Institute of Medicine recently made him a member.
The Obama-Biden transition team has tapped a former top official at the Office of Management and Budget to lead a comprehensive review of government operations agencies, including delving into personnel and procurement issues.
Sally Katzen, a veteran of the Clinton administration, is one of 20 people named on Wednesday to oversee the review process, a specific portfolio of issues, and in some cases whole departments, to help the new administration get up to speed on policy and the landscape of the bureaucracy.
Katzen, who also will lead a review of the Executive Office of the President, is a lecturer at the University of Michigan Law School. During the Clinton years, she served as administrator of OMB's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs and as deputy director for management. OIRA is a little-known but powerful shop within OMB, playing a pivotal role in the federal rule-making process. It is responsible for reviewing agencies' draft regulations on policies and ensuring they adhere to the president's priorities. Many presidents have used the rule-making process and executive orders to circumvent legislative action.
Since 2001, Katzen has spent most of her time teaching law at various universities. Before joining the Clinton administration in 1993, she specialized in regulatory and legislative issues as a partner at the Washington law firm Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering and also served in the Carter administration as the general counsel of the Council on Wage and Price Stability in the Executive Office of the President.
Continue reading Former Clinton Staffers Will Be At The Helm.
