Obama Administration Unveils More Nominations For Government Posts
April 08 2009 - 12:56PM
Dow Jones News
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