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President Barack Obama, center, introduces Heather Higginbottom, left, as Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Gene Sperling, second left, as the new director of the Council of Economic Advisors, Katharine Abraham, second right, as a member of the council, and Jason Furman as Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and Principal Deputy Director of the National Economic Council in Landover, Maryland.

President Barack Obama plans to nominate Jason Furman, a White House official well-versed in staff rivalries and relationships, to replace Alan Krueger as the head of the Council of Economic Advisers, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Krueger plans to return to Princeton University to resume his teaching duties for the start of the next academic term in
September, according to the people, who requested anonymity because the decision hasn’t been made final.

Installing Furman at the CEA may signal a revitalized role for the office, which has taken a back seat to the National
Economic Council in driving policy inside the White House, the people said.

Furman has been the principal deputy on the National Economic Council, which coordinates economic advice for the
president, since January 2009. The CEA makes recommendations to the president on economic matters and briefs him on data. Its chairman is a member of the Cabinet, and the nomination is subject to Senate confirmation.

Original post is Obama Tapping Furman for CEA Chair by Political Capital.

Photograph by Win McNamee/Getty Images

Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx, right, speaks after being introduced by President Barack Obama as the nominee for Secretary of Transportation at the White House, next to outgoing Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, left, on April 29, 2013 in Washington, DC.

Anthony Foxx, whose nomination as Transportation Secretary has slid under the radar as picks for the labor and commerce departments get more scrutiny, will get his moment in Washington at a confirmation hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee.

Foxx, 42, is scheduled for his hearing tomorrow, the day before the panel headed by Senator Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat, considers the nomination of Penny Pritzker to be commerce secretary.

Foxx is the part-time mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina, and has little experience with transportation policy outside his state. Obama nominated him to replace Ray LaHood, a former Republican U.S. House member from Illinois, who is stepping down.

After criticism that too many of his second-term cabinet nominees were white men, President Barack Obama increased the diversity of his nominations for those posts. Foxx would be Obama’s second black cabinet officer, after Attorney General Eric Holder.

Rockefeller has said he doesn’t expect Foxx to have trouble getting confirmed and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, has called Foxx’s confirmation a priority.

As mayor, Foxx led Charlotte as it hosted the Democratic National Convention last year when Obama was nominated for a second term. When his nomination was announced, Foxx drew support from lawmakers and transportation groups.

The Senate is working its way through Obama’s nominees to second-term posts. Last week, a Senate panel approved the nomination of Thomas Perez to be labor secretary. Last month, the Senate confirmed Sally Jewell, an outdoor-equipment company executive, to become interior secretary.

Original post is Low-Key Mr. Foxx Goes to Washington by Political Capital.

Photograph by Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

President Barack Obama, left, greets Penny Pritzker, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Pritzker Realty Group LLC and Obama’s nominee as secretary of commerce, in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, D.C., on May 2, 2013.

Is Penny Pritzker the wealthiest person ever to be nominated to the president’s Cabinet?

No.

The Chicago businesswoman, philanthropist and political fundraiser has a personal net worth estimated at more than $1.5 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

That’s chump change, when compared with Andrew W. Mellon, a banker who was secretary of the treasury before and during the Great Depression. Estimates vary, but when adjusted for inflation the Pittsburgh financier was worth tens of billions of dollars. Among the companies he helped found was Gulf Oil.

Mellon, a Republican, was appointed to his Treasury post in 1921 by Warren Harding. The Depression hurt his standing and he resigned in 1932.

An avid art collector and philanthropist, Mellon’s money and paintings helped establish the National Gallery of Art in Washington.

Original post is Pritzker’s Wealth in Perspective by Political Capital.

Photograph by Georges Gobet/AFP via Getty Images

EU Council president Herman Van Rompuy, right, and States Secretary of Treasury Jack Lew arrive to give a press conference following a working session on April 8, 2013 at the EU Headquarters in Brussels.

Call it diplomatic speed-dating.

Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew, on his first trip to Europe since taking office five weeks ago, is getting to know a lot of the region’s top economic officials very quickly.

Lew arrived in Brussels this morning for meetings in succession with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, European Union Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn, EU financial services chief Michel Barnier and EU President Herman Van Rompuy. Each of those sessions was scheduled for 45 minutes, with no more than 10 minutes between them.

After the Treasury Department released the original schedule, it added another meeting, also in Brussels, with Italian Finance Minister Vittorio Grilli for this afternoon. That’s before a late afternoon flight to Frankfurt to see European Central Bank President Mario Draghi. Lew then travels tonight to Berlin, where he’ll meet tomorrow with German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble. The trip ends tomorrow in Paris in a visit with French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici.

Though Lew has talked on the phone with his European counterparts over the past several weeks, this trip is his first European immersion course. It will end abruptly within hours of Lew’s return to Washington tomorrow night: The following morning, April 10, President Barack Obama sends his overdue fiscal 2014 budget to Congress. Lew, Obama’s former White House budget chief, will be defending it before Congress on April 11.

Original post is Lew in Europe: Call Me Jack by Political Capital.

Photograph by Jeff Siner/The Charlotte Observer/AP Photo

Charlotte mayor Anthony Foxx, right, and others chant for Mitch Stewart during the grand opening of President Obama’s regional campaign office on Jan. 5, 2012 in Charlotte.

President Barack Obama is considering Charlotte, North Carolina, Mayor Anthony Foxx for secretary of transportation, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Foxx, 41, has been a proponent of street car and light-rail projects as mayor of the city, where the Democratic National Convention was held last year. He was first elected in 2009 and re-elected in 2011.

Obama also is considering Deborah Hersman, the head of the National Transportation Safety Board, for the position, according to one of the people, both of whom asked for anonymity because the deliberations haven’t been made public. The president is considering candidates from within the transportation department as well.

The current transportation secretary, Ray LaHood, announced in January that he would leave the job once a successor is confirmed by the Senate. Amy Brundage, a White House spokeswoman, declined to comment, as did Alexander Killeffer, Foxx’s press secretary.

Original post is Charlotte’s Foxx Eyed for DOT by Political Capital.

Photograph by Jewel Samad/AFP via Getty Images

President Barack Obama speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington on Nov. 28, 2012.

President Obama fills out his second-term Cabinet today by selecting Ernest Moniz to head the Energy Department and Gina McCarthy to run the Environmental Protection Agency. He’ll also tap Sylvia Mathews Burwell, president of the Wal-Mart Foundation, to head the White House budget office, Bloomberg News reports.

Obama holds a Cabinet meeting this afternoon to lay out his plans for his second term. Topic A on the agenda may be the sequestration and how to implement $85 billion in budget cuts over the next seven months. Obama made calls over the weekend to lawmakers seeking bipartisan support for recasting the cuts while Republicans and Democrats traded blame for allowing the across-the-board reductions.

Topic B, closely related, may be discussions on averting a possible government shutdown. House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio said Congress will take up legislation this week to fund the government beyond March 27.

Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Janet Yellen speaks at the National Association Assn for Business Economics policy conference in Washington today. Yellen signaled Feb. 11 that the Fed may keep interest rates near zero after bond-buying ends to maintain stimulus. CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf and former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker will also speak.

Vice President Joe Biden addresses an AIPAC policy conference. The FHFA releases it annual report on Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae’s progress on meeting benchmarks for winding down operations. The Institute of International Bankers holds its annual Washington Conference. Speakers include Under Secretary of the Treasury Mary J. Miller, Fed Goverrnor Jerome Powell, Comptroller of the Currency Thomas Curry, CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler and FDIC Chairman Martin Gruenberg.

Drugs to ease menopausal hot flashes from Depomed, Hisamitsu will be considered by FDA advisers today.

And Secretary of State John Kerry meets with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Saudi Arabia. Yesterday, Kerry announced release of $250m of pledged $1b in aid for Egypt during visit to country as part of tour through Middle East

Original post is Washington Daybook: Cabinet Filling by Political Capital.

Photograph by Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Attorney General Eric Holder during a news conference at the Justice Department in this file photo.

Attorney General Eric Holder has a message for the Republicans and Democrats who voted to hold him in contempt in 2012: You get no respect.

Holder, who has never made a secret of his displeasure with the 255 lawmakers who made him the first Cabinet member ever held in contempt by a chamber of Congress, said this week that the event actually didn’t faze him.

“I have to tell you that for me to really be affected by what happened, I’d have to have respect for the people who voted in that way,” Holder said in an interview with ABC News. “And I didn’t, so it didn’t have that huge an impact on me.”

It didn’t take long for some on Capitol Hill to take offense to the broadside.

Rep. Darrell Issa, the California Republican who led the investigation into the botched federal gun probe known as “Fast and Furious”  that got Holder into hot water, said the attorney general is among the “highly partisan figures” in Washington “who are arrogantly dismissive of those who question them and demand transparency.”

“Attorney General Holder’s admission that he does not respect the Democratic and Republican Members of Congress who voted to hold him in contempt offers a window into why Washington is so dysfunctional,” Issa, whose committee has sued Holder for access to documents related to Fast and Furious, said in a statement.

Holder, who was cleared of any involvement in the bungled gun operation, probably could have timed his comments a little better. He testifies on Capitol Hill next week.

Original post is Holder to Congress: No Respect by Political Capital.

Photograph by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

REI Chief Executive Officer Sally Jewell is congratulated by outgoing Interior Secrtary Ken Salazar after she was nominated by President Barack Obama to be the next Secretary of the Interior in the State Dining Room of the White House on Feb. 6, 2013.

Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski, ranking Republican on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, is threatening to put a hold on the nomination of Sally Jewell to head the Interior Department until it agrees to reverse a preliminary decision rejecting a road through a wildlife refuge,  Bloomberg BNA’s Lynn Garner reports.

After meeting with the nominee yesterday, Murkowski said she didn’t ask Jewell for a commitment, though she made it clear that she views the issue as one of public safety since the road could be used for medical emergencies.

Murkowski said she hopes the current secretary, Ken Salazar, will resolve the issue before he leaves office in the next few weeks.

If that doesn’t happen, Murkowski said she would use “every tool in the tool box,” including putting a hold on Jewell’s nomination.

The only way for residents of King Cove, a fishing community in southwest Alaska, to reach the Cold Bay airport is by boat or airplane, often in high winds and blizzard conditions. There have been 11 fatalities in 30 years attributed to the lack of road access to the Cold Bay airport,  according to Alaskan officials. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rejected a proposed land exchange that would allow construction of a 20-mile gravel road.

Murkowski sent a Feb. 11 letter to Jewell raising the emergency road issue: “I am prepared to consider all actions available to me as a U.S. senator to convince this administration that denying the people of King Cove reliable access to medical care would be a travesty.”

Original post is Senator May Throw Speed Bump in Path of Interior Nomination by Political Capital.

Photograph by Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Chuck Hagel, nominee for U.S. secretary of defense, listens to a question during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing in Washington on Jan. 31, 2013.

From Bloomberg Government’s Congress Tracker blog:

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin will seek a vote by the panel tomorrow on Chuck Hagel’s nomination as Defense secretary, according to a committee aide who asked not to be identified.

Senate Democrats are working to overcome Republican opposition to President Barack Obama’s nomination of Hagel to replace the retiring Leon Panetta as the Pentagon’s top official.

South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham said yesterday that he may place a hold on the nomination until he gets answers about what the president did personally to encourage military action at the time of the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya.

A committee vote could pave the way for a vote by the full Senate later this week, according to a Senate Democratic leadership aide who also asked not to be identified when discussing the plans.

Original post is Panel Said to Plan Hagel Vote Tomorrow by Political Capital.

Photograph by Daniel Acker/Bloomberg

Penny Pritzker, chairman and chief executive officer of PSP Capital Partners LLC, in Chicago.

Written with John McCormick

President Barack Obama is close to choosing Chicago businesswoman Penny Pritzker, who led fundraising for his 2008 campaign, as his next commerce secretary, according to three people familiar with the matter.

Pritzker, whose family built the Hyatt Hotels Corp. chain, would replace acting commerce secretary Rebecca Blank, an economist who took over for John Bryson after he resigned last June for health reasons, as Bloomberg’s Hans Nichols and John McCormick reported today.

Selecting Pritzker, 53, would ensure that one of Obama’s original Chicago supporters would have a voice in shaping his second term, said two of the people, who requested anonymity to discuss personnel decisions. The president hasn’t made a final decision, said a third person, who also requested anonymity.

A White House spokesman, Eric Schultz, declined to comment on Pritzker’s potential nomination. Pritzker’s spokeswoman didn’t respond to an e-mail seeking comment.

After facing criticism for picking men to lead the State, Treasury and Defense Departments, Obama has announced the appointment of two women for key positions. Yesterday, he selected Sally Jewell, chief executive officer of Recreational Equipment Inc., to be secretary of the Interior Department. Last month, he named Mary Jo White, a former U.S. attorney for Manhattan, as his choice to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Obama is also considering Wal-Mart Foundation President Sylvia Mathews Burwell for budget director and Ruth Porat, chief financial officer at Morgan Stanley, for deputy Treasury secretary. Jeffrey Zients, the acting White House budget director, is a leading candidate for U.S. trade representative during Obama’s second term, according to one of the people.

Like Jewell, Pritzker would bring a business background to the administration, helping Obama fulfill what he has said is a goal to add private sector experience in his Cabinet.

The Chicago businesswoman has developed a skyscraper in her hometown, worked as president of a commercial real estate and luxury senior housing company, and served as chairwoman for a credit-reporting company. Priztker’s net worth as of September was estimated at $1.8 billion, according to Forbes magazine’s list of the 400 richest Americans.

See the full report on Pritzker at Bloomberg.com. 

Original post is Pritzker’s Prize: Commerce Candidate by Political Capital.