By ROBERT BRODSKY and ELIZABETH NEWELL, Government Executive
President Obama's pick for chief performance officer is a government outsider, but observers say Jeffrey Zients' private sector experience could prove valuable in improving federal programs and reducing waste government-wide.
Zients, who also would serve as deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget, is a departure from Obama's first selection for the two positions because his experience is almost exclusively in the consulting and business community. Original nominee Nancy Killefer had served in several top Treasury Department positions during the Clinton administration; Killefer withdrew her name from consideration in February after issues with her personal income tax filings surfaced.
While Zients is not well-known in government circles, his private sector work earned him a spot on Fortune magazine's list of the richest Americans under 40 in 2002. He served as chief executive officer and chairman of the Washington-based Advisory Board Co. and as head of the Corporate Executive Board, a spin-off organization.
The firms, which were established by Washington businessman David Bradley, provide best practices and customized market research on health care and financial management. Bradley is the owner of Atlantic Media, the parent company of Government Executive and National Journal.
"It's a fantastic model that, if brought to the public sector, could do a lot to help agencies decide which new management fad is really worth pursuing," said Robert Shea, who served as associate director of administration and government performance at OMB during the Bush administration and is now director of consulting firm Grant Thornton LLP's global public sector. "I don't know if he plans to use any of those methodologies in his [deputy director for management] job, but I hope he would."
By ALEXIS SIMENDINGER
The Senate acted swiftly just hours after President Obama's inauguration ceremonies to confirm six of his Cabinet nominees as well as his budget director.
By unanimous consent, the Senate confirmed at 3:42 p.m. Tuesday the nominations of Obama's picks to lead the departments of Energy (Steven Chu), Education (Arne Duncan), Homeland Security (Janet Napolitano), Interior (Ken Salazar), Veterans Affairs (Eric Shinseki) and Agriculture (Tom Vilsack).
The Senate also confirmed Peter Orszag to be director of the Office of Management and Budget, a Cabinet-level post. With those seven approvals, Obama came close to matching President George W. Bush's record of moving seven of his nominees into their new posts in 2001 on the same afternoon he was sworn in.
Hillary Rodham Clinton's confirmation to be secretary of State was delayed by a day at the insistence of Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who requested a roll-call vote on her nomination. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the Senate will have three hours to debate Clinton's appointment Wednesday before they vote Wednesday afternoon.
"I expect her to be easily confirmed," Cornyn conceded during an interview. But he explained that he wanted to deny Clinton unanimous-consent affirmation on Inauguration Day so he could use a floor vote to "air my concerns" that Bill and Hillary Clinton have not been "transparent enough" about President Clinton's foundation fundraising from foreign nationals. Cornyn wants the Clintons to do "more work" to eliminate conflicts of interest.
"If it doesn't get handled now, then it probably won't get handled, so it's important to talk about it," he told National Journal.
Cornyn said GOP senators may seek to place a hold on the confirmation of Eric Holder to be attorney general, once Holder wins approval from the Judiciary Committee, which could happen Wednesday. Such a hold would carry Senate consideration over into next week.
As he departed the Capitol Tuesday, Cornyn said he had spoken to Hillary Clinton about his concerns, and explained that he hoped to win changes in the disclosure agreement worked out between President Clinton and the government, because she is the nation's "top diplomat." The former first lady told Cornyn she had agreed to unusual disclosures and accountability measures to make her husband's transactions more visible, and that she hoped that any additional steps the Senate seeks would not be "specific to her," Cornyn said. Their conversations, he added, were "cool and civil. She understands the concerns."
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 MARY GILBERT
In anticipation of President-elect Barack Obama's noon press conference announcing his new economic team, bloggers are chattering about what his selections say about Obama's intentions for getting the economy going again.
Andrew Busch is relieved to see Obama pick his team early and gives the Obama camp credit for "listening to what the markets have been saying." He adds, "Clearly, the incoming Obama administration wants a continuation of the aggressive polices and programs that are in place to deal with the credit crisis."
Chris Bowers at OpenLeft believes that the selection of Timothy Geithner for Treasury secretary calls Obama's dedication to change into question: "Really? Obama is going with someone who is currently executing the bailout?" That "strikes me as less than change-y."
Lawrence Kudlow, a television commentator and former Reagan economic adviser, relates that Geithner "is highly regarded by those who worked with him as a very smart, sharp, and insightful player." He highlights Geithner's youth -- he is 47 -- and points out that "to the country at large and most of the Washington political establishment, he's a new face. Yes indeed, change is coming."
Ezra Klein at the American Prospect claims that Obama's selection of Peter Orszag as director of the Office of Management and Budget shows that the president-elect is serious about tackling health care. Orszag has "shown an almost single-minded focus on health care reform" during his time at the Congressional Budget Office, he said, and is preparing to release two books on the subject. Klein points out that Orszag has even taken to his own blog to refute the idea that the current economic crisis should put the brakes on a reform agenda.
U.S. News & World Report's James Pethokoukis defends the team's free-market viewpoint: "These guys are not Marxists, protectionists, or believers in a return to 90 percent marginal tax rates. They are believers in free trade," but they do believe in a larger government role in the economy -- creating a "safety net" for workers -- and in higher taxes to pay for it.
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.
