Budget chief to step down

Orszag will leave White House position in July

— White House Budget Director Peter Orszag says he’s stepping down next month, positioning him to be the first highprofile member of President Barack Obama’s team to depart the administration.

Orszag confirmed his planned resignation in a brief interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday. He said he views passage of last year’s economic recovery act as his most significant accomplishment.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Tuesday that “a number of very talented candidates” were being considered to replace Orszag.

“Peter has served alongside and within a valuable economic team that has faced the greatest economic crisis any president has faced since the Great Depression. It is an enormous task,” Gibbs said.

As director of the Office of Management andBudget, Orszag holds Cabinet-level rank and a pivotal role in shaping and defending how the administration spends the public’s money. He quickly emerged from a bureaucratic post to become a camera-friendly face of Obama’s government, often in front on plans to confront the deficit and to spur the economy.

There has been speculation for weeks that Orszag would leave this year after a grueling, nonstop sprint as the head of the budget agency and a key adviser to Obama. During his tenure, Congress has passed an economic stimulus program and a health-care law. Orszag has overseen Obama’s first two budgets, too. Gibbs said Orszag decided to leave before work began on a third.

Orszag, 41, came to Obama’s government from the position of director of the Congressional Budget Office, the agency charged with providing nonpartisan analyses of economic issues to lawmakers.

He served during former president Bill Clinton’s administration as an assistant to the president for economic policy and a senior adviser at the National Economic Council.

Information for this article was contributed by Stephen Ohlemacher of The Associated Press.

Front Section, Pages 2 on 06/23/2010

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