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.
The confirmation Thursday night means Lew will reprise the job he held late in the Clinton administration, and elevates him from his current job as deputy secretary of state. He replaces 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 24/6 orthodoxy.
Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) had held Lew’s confirmation up for months while she sought assurances from the administration that it would reissue oil drilling licenses in the Gulf after wells were shut down in the wake of the summer’s catastrophic oil leakage.
Like many other such Senate holds, Landrieu’s objections had nothing to do with the target.
Lew was approved in a voice vote.
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