Biden appoints Jeff Zients as White House chief of staff

WASHINGTON. On Friday, President Joe Biden announced Jeff Zients as his next White House chief of staff, appointing a seasoned technocrat who has led his administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic as Biden braces for re-election while facing an onslaught of investigations from the House’s newly empowered Republican majority.

Zients will succeed Ron Klein, a longtime member of Biden’s political orbit who has guided the White House through all of its ups and downs – passing consistent legislation like the massive infrastructure bill and the Democrats’ climate, health care and tax bill, and dozens of judges confirmed in its first two years. , as well as its failures, such as the difficult withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan. The transition is the first major personnel reshuffle in the administration, in which there has been minimal turnover at the highest levels and in the cabinet.

“I’m confident that Jeff will continue Ron’s example of smart and sustainable leadership as we continue to work hard every day for the people we were sent here to serve,” Biden said in a statement.

The 56-year-old Zients will be tasked with leading White House operations at a key Biden two-year mark as the Democratic administration shifts from ambitious legislative initiatives to implementing those policies and fending off Republican efforts to discount gains. Zients is also tasked with leading the White House as he struggles to contain the fallout from the discovery of classified documents at Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, and at his former institute in Washington, prompting a special counsel investigation.

Klein, in his resignation letter to Biden, said now is “the right time” to make the transition.

“The middle of your first term – two successful years behind us and key decisions for the next two years – is the right time for this team to take on new leadership,” he wrote. “I have served longer than eight of the last nine chiefs of staff, and have given this job all my strength; now it’s time for someone else to take over.”

Zients, who is not a political figure, is expected to focus on the task of governance as a separate circle of advisers lead policy, such as senior adviser Anita Dunn and Jen O’Malley Dillon, the deputy chief of staff who ran Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign. Presidential adviser Steve Ricchetti, senior adviser Mike Donilon and deputy chief of staff Bruce Reid will remain in Biden’s inner circle, while Klein, a longtime Democratic Party official, will continue to advise and engage from outside.

In both the Obama and Biden administrations, Zients has helped resolve major operational issues, such as the nationwide coronavirus vaccination campaign, or fix bureaucratic clutter, such as the crashes and crashes that marked the launch of HealthCare.gov in the fall. 2013.

Then-President Barack Obama also brought Zients into play in 2009 to close the gap on the Cash for Clunkers program, which offered discounts to drivers who traded old cars for economy cars. Zients later took on a similar task to make it easier to register for an updated version of the GI Bill.

Zients was Biden’s vice chairman of the transition after he won in November 2020, and served as director of the National Economic Council under the Obama administration and acting director of the Office of Management and Budget.

As coordinator for COVID-19, Zients led the effort to deliver more than 220 million vaccinations in the first 100 days of Biden’s rule, while strengthening and distributing the nation’s stocks of therapeutics and tests. Zienz gradually switched the administration from so-called “wartime” efforts that fought COVID-19 at the most difficult levels to a strategy that would allow people to return to normal with a virus that would likely be endemic.

Although Zients left the administration in April 2022, he has quietly returned in recent months to ensure that the remaining two years of Biden’s term are adequately staffed, a prelude to him taking on a much broader managerial role.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., said Biden’s first two years “wouldn’t have been nearly as successful without Ron Klein at the president’s side,” and noted that he spoke with the outgoing chief of staff several times a day. , knowing that his advice and questions would be passed directly to Biden.

“I’ve known Jeff for many years and I can’t think of a better person to help smoothly implement the transformation bill passed by Congress,” Schumer said. “Jeff is the epitome of what an outstanding chief of staff should be. He is organized, driven, and forward-thinking—just the right person to lead a Biden administration and help the American people see and feel the benefits of these new laws.”

In the private sector, Zients held a senior management position at the consulting firm Advisory Board Co. from Washington and maintains close relationships with the business community. His net worth is between $90 million and $400 million, according to a financial disclosure he filed when he entered the White House in 2021.

“I have a lot of respect for him,” Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, who spoke regularly with the Zients during his tenure as COVID-19 response coordinator, said this week. “He is a very bright guy. I hope to be able to communicate with him.”

However, these business ties have already drawn criticism of Zient’s election from some on the left, who have criticized the new chief of staff for his experience in the private sector. Progressives expect a transition from Klein, who regularly leaned towards this ideological wing of the party and maintained close ties to liberal lawmakers.

Zients was also an original investor in Call Your Mom, a local bagel shop, although he sold his shares prior to entering administration in 2021. He was also chairman of the Children’s National Hospital in Washington DC.