WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden is expected to name Jeff Zents, who served as his next chief of staff during the early part of Biden’s tenure amid the COVID-19 pandemic, according to two people familiar with the matter. drove the administration’s response.
Ron Klein, Biden’s current top aide, is preparing to leave in the coming weeks.
Since serving as the COVID-19 response coordinator, Zients has returned to a low-profile position to work on staffing matters for the remainder of Biden’s first term in the White House.
Two people familiar with the matter were not authorized to discuss Biden’s plans publicly before the official announcement and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Washington Post first reported Zaents’ expected appointment. The White House did not respond to requests for comment.
Zients, vice chairman of Biden’s transition operations after the November 2020 election, brings significant managerial expertise in government and the private sector. He was director of the National Economic Council and acting director of the Office of Management and Budget during the Obama administration.
He is best known for leading that administration’s effort to repair HealthCare.gov after the site’s initial rollout in the fall of 2013. Zints was also a top executive at the Advisory Board Company of Washington consulting firm.
Ziants and his deputy on the White House’s pandemic response team, Natalie Quillian, left the Biden administration last April. Biden thanked her for the “amazing” and “resulting” progress she has made battling the pandemic.
โWhen Jeff took this job, less than 1% of Americans had been fully vaccinated; less than half of our schools were open; and unlike most of the developed world, the US lacked any in-home COVID tests. was,” Biden said when the White House announced Zients’ departure. “Today, nearly 80% of adults are fully vaccinated; more than 100 million have been boosted; virtually every school is open, and hundreds of millions of tests are delivered at home every month.”
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Associated Press writer Seung Min Kim in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, contributed to this report.
