New OMB Associate Director for General Government Programs

Xavier de Souza Briggs, whose credentials encompass one of the most enormous paragraphs I've seen outside of a William Faulkner novel, will be the new associate director for general government programs at the Office of Management and Budget. The position's been vacant since Michael Bopp departed for a position at law firm Gibson Dunn in September, leaving no one directly overseeing the appropriations for the Departments of Homeland Security, Justice, Treasury, Housing and Urban Development, and Commerce.

Briggs is familiar at least with HUD, having led the policy research and development division there during the Clinton administration. But his expertise is in community-level problem solving. I have no idea how he'll apply that knowledge to the budgets of the departments now under his purview, but given the magnitude of the challenges that many of those departments face, community problem-solving might come in handy!