President-elect Barack Obama continued to grow his economic team
Tuesday, naming Peter R. Orszag director of the Office of Management
and Budget, the arm of the White House responsible for crafting the
federal budget and overseeing the effectiveness of federal programs.
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Speaking
at his second news conference in two days, Obama said that Orszag will
take the lead in "scouring the federal budget line by line," with an
eye toward eliminating programs that do not work.
"If we're
going to make the investments we need, we must also be willing to shed
the spending we don't," Obama said. "In these challenging times, when
we are facing both rising deficits and a sinking economy, budget reform
is not an option. It is an imperative."
Orszag currently serves
as the director of the Congressional Budget Office, a position through
which he has "re-energized and reinvigorated the agency, while shifting
its focus to confront the healthcare crisis," Obama said. Prior to his
tenure there, he served as a special assistant to the president for
economic policy and senior economic adviser at the National Economic
Council.
Obama also named Rob Nabors, staff director of the
House Appropriations Committee, to be deputy director of OMB. Before
going to work on the Appropriations staff in 2001, Nabors worked at OMB
during the Clinton administration, where he was a senior adviser and
assistant director for administration.
On Monday, the president-elect
announced the long-awaited nomination of treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. -
Donna Block
See story about earlier appointments from Dealscape
Donna Block is one of The Deal's senior Wall Street reporters.
