President Barack Obama on Monday plans to nominate Sylvia Mathews Burwell, president of the Walmart Foundation, as the next director of the Office and Management and Budget (OMB), a White House official confirmed Monday.
Burwell has previous budget office experience as Deputy Director from 1998 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton, for whom she also served as deputy chief of staff. Burwell also held the chief of staff position to Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin under Clinton.
Burwell began serving as president of the Walmart Foundation, the retail giant's philanthropic arm, in January 2012, where she also led Walmart's Global Women's Economic Empowerment Initiative. Burwell began that position following 10 years at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Burwell takes the OMB helm at a critical time for the country as Washington prepares for a major fight between the White House and Congressional Republicans over the federal budget. Absent a budget measure Friday, Obama ordered sequestration-- across-the-board spending cuts-- which the White House has argued will be devastating to the economy.
Burwell will also add diversity to the Cabinet. Obama previously faced criticism for nominating a string of white men to top administration positions at the start of his second term.
Obama will make the announcement at 10:15 a.m. in the White House East Room. He will also nominate Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) official Gina McCarthy to be that agency's administrator and Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Ernest Moniz as the new energy secretary.
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