Rob Nabors
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Robert Lee Nabors II (; born March 27, 1971) was the Chief of Staff of the
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a Cabinet-level executive branch department of the federal government charged with providing life-long healthcare services to eligible military veterans at the 170 VA medical centers an ...
from 2014 to 2016. He previously served as White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and several other senior roles in the
Obama White House Barack Obama's tenure as the 44th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 2009, and ended on January 20, 2017. A Democrat from Illinois, Obama took office following a decisive victory over Republican n ...
.


Early life and education

He was born in
Fort Dix Fort Dix, the common name for the Army Support Activity (ASA) located at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, is a United States Army post. It is located south-southeast of Trenton, New Jersey. Fort Dix is under the jurisdiction of the Air Force A ...
, New Jersey and lived in Arizona, Maryland, Germany, Virginia, South Korea, Florida, Italy, Massachusetts in his youth. He received a B.A. from the University of Notre Dame in 1993 and an M.A. from the
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...
in 1996.Rob Nabors: Approps staffer sees beyond the numbers
Libit, Daniel. Accessed November 25, 2008.


Clinton Administration

Nabors first joined the Office of Management and Budget, straight out of graduate school, as a program examiner in 1996. Assigned to the Bureau's commerce branch, he was given responsibility for the decennial census, and while he was working on that task, he was recognized as a "budding wunderkind" by OMB Director Jack Lew, who promoted him to special assistant to the director in 1998. In 2000, he was further promoted to assistant director for administration and executive secretary.


Congressional staff

Nabors joined the minority staff of the powerful House Appropriations Committee at the end of the
Clinton Administration Bill Clinton's tenure as the 42nd president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1993, and ended on January 20, 2001. Clinton, a Democrat from Arkansas, took office following a decisive election victory over Re ...
. Appropriations Chair Dave Obey promoted him to minority staff director in 2004. When the Democrats won the House in 2006, Nabors became majority staff director. "'He was just the best man for the job,' says Appropriations Committee Chairman Dave Obey, 'and he understands the House, he understands the committee, he understands the town, he understands the bureaucracy, and he doesn’t take any crap from anybody. His demeanor is very nice and very cool, but he doesn’t take any crap from people.'" Nabors said it was his job not just to "recite" budget numbers but to "own the information" and understand the human meanings behind the numbers.


Obama Administration

Nabors' selection as Deputy Director of OMB, along with the selection of Peter Orszag as Director of OMB, was announced by President-Elect Barack Obama on November 25, 2008. In February 2010 Nabors became senior advisor to then- White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. Jeff Liebman replaced Nabors as Acting Deputy Director at OMB. In January 2011 it was announced that Nabors had succeeded
Phil Schiliro Philip M. Schiliro is an American political consultant and strategist. He has spent much of his career on the staff of prominent elected officials, including President Barack Obama. Schiliro was born August 6, 1956 in Brooklyn, New York and grew ...
as the head of the
White House Office of Legislative Affairs The White House Office is an entity within the Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP). The White House Office is headed by the White House chief of staff, who is also the head of the Executive Office of the President. The ...
. Nabors' tenure as Director of Legislative Affairs was characterized by difficult and contentious negotiations with the new Republican House Majority in the
112th Congress The 112th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, from January 3, 2011, until January 3, 2013. It convened in Washington, D.C. on January 3, 2011, and ended on January 3, 2013, 17 ...
, most vividly on display in the debt-ceiling crisis of 2011. The stand-off eventually produced the compromise
Budget Control Act of 2011 The Budget Control Act of 2011 () is a federal statute enacted by the 112th United States Congress and signed into law by US President Barack Obama on August 2, 2011. The Act brought conclusion to the 2011 US debt-ceiling crisis. The law inv ...
, which resulted in the budget sequester in 2013. In November 2011, Nabors was included on ''The New Republic's'' list of Washington's most powerful, least famous people. At the start of President Obama's second term, Nabors was named White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy, alongside the new Chief of Staff Denis McDonough. In May 2014, in response to the Veterans Health Administration scandal, the President dispatched Nabors to oversee a review of practices at the Veterans Administration. Emails released by the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs show that Nabors pressured the IG to downplay the link between extended waiting times and veteran deaths. On January 19, 2016 he became Director of Policy and Government Affairs covering the U.S., Canada and Asia Pacific at the Gates Foundation.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nabors, Rob 1971 births Living people Obama administration personnel People from Fort Dix United States Department of Veterans Affairs officials United States Office of Management and Budget officials United States presidential advisors University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni University of Notre Dame alumni White House Deputy Chiefs of Staff