WASHINGTON (JTA) — The U.S. Senate confirmed Jack Lew, an Orthodox Jew, to the Cabinet-level position of the director of the Office of Management and Budget.
Lew, who was confirmed in a voice vote Nov. 18, will reprise the job he held late in the Clinton administration. Currently the deputy secretary of state, he succeeds Peter Orszag, who left for the private sector.
Lew has close ties to the capital’s Jewish groups and often speaks at public events of the difficulties of reconciling 24/7 government jobs with his Orthodoxy.
Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) had held up Lew’s confirmation for months while she sought assurances from the administration that it would reissue oil drilling licenses in the Gulf of Mexico after wells were shut down in the wake of the summer’s catastrophic oil leak.
Like many other such Senate holds, Landrieu’s objections had nothing to do with the target.
