WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden announced Jeff Zients on Friday as the next White House chief of staff, tapping the experienced technician who led the administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic as Biden prepares for his re-election bid in the face of an onslaught of investigations. from the majority of the House Republican newly given power.
Zients replaces Ron Klain, a longtime player in Biden’s political orbit who led the White House through high-profile pieces of consequential legislation like the Democrats’ big infrastructure and climate bills, health care and tax laws, as well as dozens of judges confirmed in the first two years – as well the lowest, such as the total withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan. The transition is the first major personnel change for an administration that has had minimal turnover in the top ranks and throughout the Cabinet.
“I’m confident Jeff will continue Ron’s example of smart and steadfast leadership, as we continue to work hard every day for the people we send here,” Biden said in a statement.
Zients, 56, will be tasked with shepherding White House operations at Biden’s crucial two-year mark, as the Democratic administration moves away from an ambitious legislature to enact policies and fend off Republican efforts to undermine his achievements. Zients is also charged with directing the White House as it struggles to contain the fallout from the discovery of classified documents at Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, and at his former institution in Washington, which has sparked a special counsel investigation.
Klain, in his resignation letter to Biden, said it was the “right time” to transition.
“The halfway point of your first season – with two successful years behind us, and important decisions in the next two years – it is the right time for this team to have new leadership,” he wrote. “I’ve served more than eight of the last nine Chiefs of Staff, and have given all of these jobs; now it’s time for someone else to take over.”
Zients, who is not known as a political operative, is expected to focus on managing tasks as a separate circle of advisers who lead politics, such as senior adviser Anita Dunn and Jen O’Malley Dillon, deputy chief of staff managing Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign. Presidential adviser Steve Ricchetti, senior adviser Mike Donilon and deputy chief of staff Bruce Reed will continue in Biden’s inner circle, while Klain, a longtime Democratic operative, will continue to advise and participate from the outside.
Through the Obama and Biden administrations, Zients became the go-to person for significant operational challenges — such as a nationwide coronavirus vaccination campaign — or to fix bureaucratic messes such as the glitches and crashes that marked the launch of HealthCare.gov in the fall. 2013.
Then-President Barack Obama also tapped Zients in 2009 to eliminate a backlog in applicants for the Cash for Clunkers program, which offers rebates to drivers who trade in their old cars for fuel-efficient vehicles. Zients later took on the same challenge to smooth the sign-up for the updated version of the GI Bill.
Zients served as Biden’s transition vice chairman after his November 2020 victory and served as director of the National Economic Council during the Obama administration and acting director of the Office of Management and Budget.
As the COVID-19 coordinator, Zients led an effort that provided more than 220 million vaccinations in Biden’s first 100 days, while approving the state’s therapeutic and testing supplies and distributing them. Zients is gradually moving the administration from a so-called “wartime” effort that is struggling with COVID-19 at its most severe level, to a strategy that allows people to resume normalcy with the potentially endemic virus.
Although Zients is leaving the administration in April 2022, he has quietly returned in recent months to ensure that the remaining two years of Biden’s term will be adequately staffed, as necessary to take on a more managerial role.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., said Biden’s first two years “wouldn’t have been successful without Ron Klain at the President’s side” and noted that he spoke with his outgoing chief of staff several times a day, knowing that. advice and questions will be directly communicated to Biden.
“I’ve known Jeff for many years and can’t think of a better person to help smoothly implement the transformational legislation that Congress has passed,” Schumer said. “Jeff exemplifies what it takes to be an exceptional chief of staff. He is organized, focused and deliberate, exactly the right person to lead the Biden administration and ensure that the American people see and feel the benefits of this new legislation.
In the private sector, Zients serves as a top executive at Advisory Board Co., a Washington consulting firm, and he maintains close ties to the business community. He is worth about $90 million to $400 million, according to financial disclosures filed when he enters the White House in 2021.
“I respect him very much,” Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, who spoke regularly with Zients during his tenure as the coordinator of the COVID-19 response, this week. “He is a very bright person. I look forward to communicating with him.
But those business ties have prompted criticism of Zients’ choice from some on the left, who blasted the incoming chief of staff because of his private sector background. Progressives are hoping for a change from Klain, who regularly leans toward the ideological wing of the party and maintains close ties with liberal lawmakers.
Zients was also an early investor in Call Your Mother, a local bagel shop, although he divested his stake before joining the administration in 2021. He is also chairman of Children’s National Hospital in Washington.