OMB Fills a Top Spot

With the budget-planning season in full swing, the Office of Management and Budget is plugging a gaping personnel hole.

Barbara A. Chow, a former budgeteer who has of late been working the Senate for the White House, starts on Dec. 1 as OMB's associate director for human resources.

She'll monitor spending on welfare, labor and education programs, replacing Kenneth S. Apfel, who left to run the Social Security Administration.