President Obama meeting with Cabinet members inside the White House. White House File Photo.
President Barack Obama is ready to complete his new set of team as he disclosed on Monday the names of the people whom he would like to head the Office of Management and Budget, Energy Department and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Obama picked Sylvia Mathews Burwell of Wal-Mart Foundation as his budget chief and he is expected to announce her nomination during a White House ceremony on Monday, CBS News reported. Her nomination is subject to the approval of the Senate.
Burwell served Washington for a long time. She was the former OMB Deputy Director during the Clinton administration, and Chief of Staff to former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin. She also headed the Global Development Program of the Gates Foundation.
Once officially appointed by the Senate, Burwell would break the composition in Obama’s Cabinet which is mostly ruled by white men and was highly criticized.
Wal-Mart president Mike Duke dubbed Burwell as an effective leader who knows what she wants to do and has the spirit to make big things happen.
“She understands business and the role that business, government and civil society must play to build a strong economy that provides opportunity and strengthens communities across the country,” Duke said in a statement.
Burwell would replace acting OMB Director Jeffrey Zients, who has been supposed to be a candidate for other top federal post.
Energy Department and EPA
Meanwhile, Obama nominated Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)’s Dr. Ernest J. Moniz as the Energy Department head. He is the director for MIT’s Energy Initiative and was an undersecretary of energy during Clinton’s second term.
He would replace Dr. Steven Chu, who, like him, is a nuclear physicist. Moniz is seen to be highly focused in balancing the global market’s demand for sustainable energy and its hostile effects to the environment, The New York Times reported.
On the other hand, Gina McCarthy was chosen by Obama to become the new EPA chief. She is currently the assistant administrator of the agency’s air and radiation office. It is expected that McCarthy would meet a lot of disapproval from the rival Republican Party as she was visible part of Obama’s strict clean air gas regulations for new power plants.
McCarthy was known to be strict in implementing environmental policies and as a senior member of the bureau she has implemented more demanding and uncompromising new emission standards for cars and light trucks and tightened standards for mercury and other air pollutants.
She also introduced a new regulation for carbon dioxide and other greenhouse pollutants for new power plants, making it impossible to build further coal-powered plants in the country.