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White House officials expect Lawrence Summers to leave his job as the president’s National Economic Council director after November’s congressional elections, according to three people familiar with the matter.
His departure would leave Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner as the only member of President Barack Obama’s original top-tier economic team. Summers, 55, and the president have discussed his future plans, according to one person.
Administration officials are weighing whether to put a prominent corporate executive in the NEC director’s job to counter criticism that the administration is anti-business, one person familiar with White House discussions said. White House aides are also eager to name a woman to serve in a high-level position, two people said. They also are concerned about finding someone with Summers’ experience and stature, one person said.
The people familiar with White House discussions spoke on condition of anonymity because no decisions have been made.
White House officials declined to comment directly on Summers’ plans. Robert Gibbs, Obama’s chief spokesman, said today it “is not a surprise, that there will be people who have worked enormously hard over the past few years to make decisions to go back to doing” what they did before joining the administration.
The second half of a president’s term typically is a time of turnover in staff and advisers, many of whom also had roles in the presidential campaign. Obama yesterday indicated he realized that some members of his White House economic team may leave.
‘Tough’ Work
“This is tough, the work that they do,” he said in an hour-long town hall discussion on the economy broadcast on CNBC. “They’ve been at it for two years, and they’re going to have a whole range of decisions about family that will factor into this, as well.”
Just last night at the CNBC Summitt, Obama was asked about the future of Geithner and Summers:
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