Longtime Obama aide to take ‘expanded’ role in West Wing
White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley will be turning over some management duties in the West Wing to Pete Rouse, a senior counselor to the president who helped recruit Daley for the job ten months ago.
In a Monday meeting with top advisors to President Obama, Daley informed the staff that Rouse would be taking on an “expanded operational and coordination role,” according to a senior administration official.
The official said Daley was not relinquishing his role as chief of staff nor turning over responsibility for daily supervision, but rather trying to improve efficiency in how the Obama team functions.
The changes follow a rocky period in relations between the Obama White House and Capitol Hill, marked by a summer of debt and deficit talks that often saw the two sides talking past each other.
As a veteran of Hill staff, Rouse is known by some fans as the “101st senator.”
But early accounts of the new assignment suggest Rouse’s new duties will involve coordination within the White House, not outreach to lawmakers.
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