President George W. Bush selected Rob Portman '78 on Tuesday to serve as the director of his Office of Management and Budget, as part of an attempt to revitalize his staff during one of the most trying political moments of his presidency. Portman will replace former director Joshua Bolten, who recently became the new White House chief of staff.
Bush said in a press briefing that Portman would "have a leading role on my economic team."
Portman will face the increasingly difficult task of meeting Bush's goal to cut the current 8.5 trillion dollar deficit in half by 2009 and making permanent the tax cuts Bush proposed at the beginning of his term.
Bush said that Portman's time in Congress had been "marked by an ability to work across the aisle and bring people together," and he predicted that "he's going to bring that same skill to his new post."
According to a Washington Post article, administration officials expect Portman to be a popular choice thanks to his bipartisan connections, offering the Bush administration contact with Congress at a time when tensions between Capitol Hill and the White House have crippled much of Bush's second-term agenda.
Portman's connection to the Bush family goes back to the first Bush administration, in which Portman first served as an associate counsel before rising to the position of head of the White House Office of Legislative Affairs. More recently, Portman acted as Al Gore for Bush's practice presidential debate in 2000, as well as portraying Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) and former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) for Vice President Dick Cheney.
A Newshouse News Article quotes Cheney as saying he is "a huge fan" of Portman despite the fact that Portman caught a bigger trout when the two men went fishing the day before the vice-presidential debate.
The Washington Post said that Portman's popularity stems from the fact that many view him as someone who puts pragmatism before his own fiscal conservatism.
Representative Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.), the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, called Portman "a skilled administrator and a dedicated fiscal conservative."
The Washington Post also stated that Portman could help stabilize Bush's ebbing influence in Washington before it becomes too late in the term for him to accomplish any of his goals.
Before accepting his new position, Portman served as Bush's trade envoy after leaving the House of Representatives last year. His chief accomplishments as trade envoy included helping secure the passage of the Central American Free Trade Agreement and completing bilateral trade deals with Bahrain, Peru, Oman and Colombia.
Portman also spent 12 years in the House of Representatives as a Republican from the area in and around Cincinnati, Ohio.
At Dartmouth, Portman studied anthropology before receiving a law degree from the University of Michigan. While at the College he and former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Energy Dan Reicher '78 became part of a small group believed to be the first ever to kayak the entire 2,000 miles of the Rio Grande River.
