The White House announced Wednesday that President Barack Obama intends to nominate four individuals to fill openings in the Homeland Security, Labor, Justice and Transportation departments. All are subject to confirmation by the U.S. Senate.

Robert Beers, a career civil servant, is Obama's intended undersecretary for National Protection and Programs in the Homeland Security Department. Beers previously served in the White House and State Department as an adviser on counter-terrorism.

The administration intends to name Mary Smith, a partner at Schoeman, Updike, Kaufman & Scharf LLP, to be an assistant attorney general in the Justice Department's tax division. Smith previously was senior litigation counsel at Tyco International Inc. (TYC); an attorney at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP; and was the highest-ranking Native American in the Clinton White House, where she was associate counsel and associate director of policy planning.

Obama intends to name Jane Oates as assistant secretary in the Labor Department's Employment and Training Administration. Oates currently is executive director of the New Jersey Commission on Higher Education and a senior policy adviser to Gov. Jon Corzine. She previously was a senior policy adviser on education and labor issues to Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass.

Peter Rogoff, whom Obama intends to nominate as the Transportation Department's Federal Transit Administration administrator, has spent 22 years as a congressional staffer, including 14 years as Democratic staff director for the Senate Transportation Committee.

 
   -By Judith Burns, Dow Jones Newswires, 202-862-6692; Judith.Burns@dowjones.com