A Summers County native could oversee the implementation of the $85 billion worth of sequestration cuts and be right in the middle of budget battles between Congressional leaders and the White House.
President Barack Obama has nominated Sylvia Matthews Burwell, who is originally from Hinton, to lead the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.
“I am confident that my nominee for OMB director is the right person,” the President said during a Monday announcement at the White House.
The President spotlighted Burwell’s mother, former state School Board member and former Hinton Mayor Cleo Matthews who was in the crowd.
“Sylvia loves to talk about her parents growing up in West Virginia and the values they instilled in her as educators and I think that reflects in everything that Sylvia now does,” Obama said.
The U.S. Senate will have to confirm the nomination of the Burwell, 47, who has most recently lead Walmart’s Foundation.
She was deputy director for the Office of Management and Budget during the Clinton administration and has served as chief of staff to former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin.