Jacob Lew

Jacob Lew
White House Chief of Staff Designate
Taking office February 2012
President	Barack Obama
Deputy	Alyssa Mastromonaco Nancy-Ann DeParle
Succeeding	William Daley
Director of the Office of Management and Budget
Incumbent
Assumed office November 18, 2010
President	Barack Obama
Preceded by	Jeffrey Zients (Acting)
Succeeded by	Jeffrey Zients (Designate; Acting)
In office May 21, 1998 – January 19, 2001
President	Bill Clinton
Preceded by	Franklin Raines
Succeeded by	Mitch Daniels
Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources
In office January 28, 2009 – November 18, 2010
Secretary	Hillary Clinton
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Thomas Nides
Personal details
Born	August 29, 1955 (age 56) New York City, New York, U.S.
Political party	Democratic Party
Alma mater	Harvard University Georgetown University
Religion	Orthodox Judaism[1]

Jacob "Jack" J. Lew (born August 29, 1955) is the Director of the United States Office of Management and Budget (or OMB) a position he previously held from 1998 to 2001.^[2] He is scheduled to be the 25th White House Chief of Staff.

Early life, education, and early career

Lew was born in New York City. He attended New York City public schools, graduating from Forest Hills High School. His father was a lawyer and rare-book dealer who came to the United States from Poland as a child. Lew attended Carleton College in Minnesota where his faculty adviser was Paul Wellstone, who eventually represented Minnesota in the U.S. Senate.^[3] He graduated from Harvard College in 1978 and the Georgetown University Law Center in 1983.

He worked as an aide to Rep. Joe Moakley (D-Mass.) from 1974 to 1975. He then was a senior policy adviser to House Speaker Tip O'Neill.^[3] Under O'Neill he served at the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee as Assistant Director and then Executive Director, and was responsible for work on domestic and economic issues including Social Security, Medicare, budget, tax, trade, appropriations, and energy issues.

Lew practiced as an attorney for five years as a partner at Van Ness, Feldman and Curtis. His practice dealt primarily with electric power generation. He has also worked as Executive Director of the Center for Middle East Research, Issues Director for the Democratic National Committee's Campaign 88, and Deputy Director of the Office of Program Analysis in the city of Boston's Office of Management and Budget.

Clinton administration

From February 1993 to 1994, Lew served as Special Assistant to the President under President Clinton. Lew was responsible for policy development and the drafting of the national service initiative (AmeriCorps) and health care reform legislation.

Lew left the White House in October 1994 to work as OMB's Executive Associate Director and Associate Director for Legislative Affairs. From August 1995 until July 1998, Lew served as Deputy Director of OMB. There, Lew was chief operating officer responsible for day-to-day management of a staff of 500. He had crosscutting responsibilities to coordinate Clinton administration efforts on budget and appropriations matters. He frequently served as a member of the Administration negotiating team, including regarding the Balanced Budget Act of 1997.

President Clinton nominated Lew to be Director of the OMB, and the United States Senate confirmed him for that job on July 31, 1998. He served in that capacity until the end of the Clinton administration in January 2001. As OMB Director, Lew had the lead responsibility for the Clinton Administration’s policies on budget, management, and appropriations issues. As a member of the Cabinet and senior member of the economic team, he advised the President on a broad range of domestic and international policies. He represented the Administration in budget negotiations with Congress and served as a member of the National Security Council.

Between Clinton and Obama tenures

After leaving public office in the Clinton administration, Lew served as the Executive Vice President for Operations at New York University and was a Clinical Professor of Public Administration at NYU's Wagner School of Public Service.

In June 2006, Lew was named chief operating officer of Citigroup's Alternative Investments unit, a proprietary trading group. The unit he oversaw invested in a hedge fund "that bet on the housing market to collapse."^[3]

Lew co-chaired the Advisory Board for City Year New York. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Brookings Institution Hamilton Project Advisory Board, and the National Academy of Social Insurance. Lew is also a member of the bar in Massachusetts and the District of Columbia.^[4]

Obama administration

Deputy Secretary of State

As Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources, Lew was the State Department's chief operating officer and was primarily responsible for resource issues, while James Steinberg, who is also serving as the Deputy Secretary, was responsible for policy.^[5][6] Lew was co-leader of the State Department's Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review.^[7]

Budget director

On July 13, 2010, the White House announced that Lew had been chosen to replace Peter Orszag as Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), subject to Senate confirmation.^[2] On November 18, 2010, Lew was confirmed by the Senate by unanimous consent.

The $3.7 trillion 2011 budget President Obama unveiled the administration estimated reductions to federal spending deficits by $1.1 trillion over the next decade if adopted and economic assumptions were fully achieved. Two-thirds of the that estimated reduction would come from spending cuts through a five-year freeze in discretionary spending first announced in Obama’s 2011 State of the Union address, as well as savings to mandatory programs such as Medicare and lower interest payments on the debt that would result from the lower spending. Tax increases are responsible for the other third of the reduction, including a cap on itemized reductions for wealthier taxpayers and the elimination of tax breaks for oil and gas companies.^[8]

Chief of Staff

On January 9, 2012, President Obama announced that Lew would replace Bill Daley as White House Chief of Staff.^[9]

References

External links

• Biography at the Office of Management and Budget
• Jacob Lew at WhoRunsGov at The Washington Post
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Jacob Lew collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• Works by or about Jacob Lew in libraries (WorldCat catalog)

Political offices
Preceded by Franklin Raines	Director of the Office of Management and Budget Served under: Bill Clinton 1998–2001	Succeeded by Mitch Daniels
New office	Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources 2009–2010	Succeeded by Thomas Nides
Preceded by Jeffrey Zients Acting	Director of the Office of Management and Budget Served under: Barack Obama 2010–2012	Succeeded by Jeffrey Zients Designate; Acting
Preceded by William Daley	White House Chief of Staff Designate 2012–present	Incumbent
United States order of precedence
Preceded by William Daley as White House Chief of Staff	Order of Precedence of the United States as Director of the Office of Management and Budget	Succeeded by Gil Kerlikowske as Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy