The Senate has confirmed (72-22) Shaun Donovan to be Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the government’s chief budget officer.
Donovan has been Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) since 2009 and replaces Sylvia Mathews who recently became the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS).
When President Obama announced Donovan’s nomination in May for the OMB post he said Donovan “has earned a reputation as a great manager, a fiscally responsible leader, and somebody who knows how the decisions we make here in Washington affect people’s lives all across the country.”
While serving as HUD secretary, Donovan chaired the Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force, which was charged with developing a regional plan to guide future disaster recovery. Along with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Donovan headed the Long-Term Disaster Working Group that developed the National Disaster Recovery Framework.
Prior to becoming HUD secretary, Donovan served as commissioner of the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD). Before that he worked in the private sector on financing affordable housing and was a visiting scholar on the preservation of federally-assisted housing at New York University. Donovan also was a consultant to the Millennial Housing Commission established by Congress to expand housing opportunities.
During the Clinton administration, Donovan served as a Deputy Assistant Secretary for Multifamily Housing at HUD. He has also worked at the Community Preservation Corporation (CPC) in New York City and earlier as an architect.
Donovan becomes the government’s 40th budget head. In 1921, the Bureau of the Budget was established in the Treasury department under the Budget and Accounting Act. In 1939, it moved to the Executive Office of the President and in 1970 became the Office of Management and Budget.
