Washington, DC--The federal budget is a document that is enormously complex and is one that directly affects every American. But as Director of the Office of Management and Budget under then President Clinton, Jack Lew has done it before and he did it extremely well. He was the only OMB director to ever preside over a budget surplus for three consecutive years. When he left in 2000 he handed the next administration a record $236 billion budget surplus which was projected to become more than a trillion dollars in 2010. We saw how that turned out. When President Obama took office the country had a record deficit of $1.3 trillion.

As OMB director under President Clinton, Jack created a surplus after years of deficit spending, and President Obama is bringing him back to do it again. He is leaving his position as Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources, where he oversaw the State Department’s extremely complex and challenging budget.

Jack is a good friend and fellow Riverdalian and I congratulate him on his nomination. He will be an excellent OMB Director and under his astute guidance I look forward to having federal budget surpluses once again.

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