White House Staffing | featured news

The U.S. Senate on Monday confirmed former federal prosecutor Mary Jo White as the new head of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the agency tasked with policing Wall Street and writing new rules of the road for financial markets.

President Obama will appoint Julia Pierson, a veteran U.S. Secret Service agent and senior official, as the first female director of the agency, White House officials said Tuesday. Pierson, 53, began her career in the Secret Service as an agent in Miami three decades ago. She serves as the service’s chief of staff.

President Barack Obama on Monday nominated Tom Perez, head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, as labor secretary, a cabinet member who will play a key role in the administration's efforts to raise the minimum wage and reform immigration laws.

Susan E. Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations who lost out in a bruising bid for the job of secretary of state, may have the last laugh.

President Barack Obama announced three nominees for his second term cabinet on Monday, choosing a philanthropy expert to run the White House budget office, an air quality expert to run the Environmental Protection Agency and a scientist to lead the Energy department.

A senior administration official says President Barack Obama will nominate Walmart's Sylvia Burwell as his budget chief.

President Barack Obama intends to name Edith Ramirez the chairwoman of the Federal Trade Commission, a White House official said on Thursday.

The Senate has confirmed Jack Lew, a former budget director and chief of staff to the president, as the next Secretary of the Treasury. The vote was 71 to 26.

Decorated Vietnam veteran Chuck Hagel was sworn in as U.S. defense secretary on Wednesday after a bruising Senate confirmation battle, and promised to renew old U.S. alliances and forge new ones without attempting to "dictate" to the world.

With a 71-to-27 vote, the Senate has cleared the way for Chuck Hagel’s confirmation as defense secretary, despite complaints from Republicans about his readiness for the job.