Obama's 'bright-as-hell' nominee for OMB worked in the Clinton administration before joining the world's largest retailer
Sylvia Mathews Burwell's nomination to one of the most influential jobs in politics marks her return to Washington after a remarkable career with some of the world's most powerful charities and people. It also marks the most senior government appointment to date for a Walmart alumnus – an appointment that has critics of the mega-retailer worried.
Announcing her nomination for head of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on Monday, President Obama said Mathews Burwell was somebody who "understands that our goal, when we put together a budget, is not just to make the numbers add up, but to reignite the true engine of economic growth in this country that is a strong and growing middle class."
Walmart president Mike Duke called Mathews Burwell a strong leader with a "clear vision for making big things happen." Republican vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan also praised the appointment and her "impressive career in both the public and private sectors." In 1996, the pair appeared in an article in the Washingtonian magazine about "young guns" making an impact in DC.
Not everyone is so happy with the news, however. "What better place to plant a partisan corporation heavyweight than as budget chief in the Office of Management and Budget?" said Kenneth J Harvey, a filmmaker and author of the WalmartSucks blog. "Obama is an intelligent and fair man, which makes it highly unnerving to suddenly find him so lovingly in bed with Walmart."
Scott Nova, the executive director of the Worker Rights Consortium, said: "The administration is apparently wedded to filling key economic posts with executives from corporations, like Goldman Sachs and Walmart, that bear substantial responsibility for the burgeoning inequality and general economic morass the nation is suffering. Presumably, the president is aware that there are talented people in this country who are not on the payroll of some giant corporation with a dismal record on ethics and worker rights."
Dean Baker, the co-director of Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), said the appointment was a "cause for concern". "Obviously Walmart has a lot of interests in, say, labor rights that are not in alignment with the best interests of the country. If she shares those views that would be an issue." Baker said it was highly unlikely that her appointment would be challenged.
The OMB is the largest of the president's offices. Its director is a cabinet member and helps the president prepare the budget and to assess whether other programmes and policies meet the president's standards. The appointment could hand Burwell significant influence over federal policy-making. The OMB can review and even block federal regulations and her appointment has Walmart critics worried about the retail giant's growing influence in Washington.
Peter Orszag, the previous head of the OMB, was a high-profile and influential policy adviser. But Dean said other appointees have been more low-key. "The influence of the role is very much about the appointee," he said.
Mathews Burwell grew up in Hinton, West Virginia (pop. 3,000) to Greek American parents. After graduating from Harvard, she went to Oxford University as a Rhodes scholar. She then spent two years at consulting firm McKinsey, picking up, by some accounts, a love of management jargon, before joining Bill Clinton's presidential campaign in 1992.
Bob Rubin, who was to become Clinton's Treasury secretary, was an early champion. He would speak to Mathews Burwell when she was working on Clinton's presidential campaign in Little Rock, Arkansas, offering up economic talking points for the team. She had "good political sense, was extremely well-organized, bright as hell, very well-motivated," Rubin told the Washington Post in 1999.
Rubin wasn't the only one to notice her smarts. Mathews Burwell served as one of Clinton's two deputy chief of staffs and was an aide to Clinton's OMB director Jack Lew – now Obama's Treasury secretary.
After two terms she clearly found the hours grueling. "It was a wonderful experience. I feel very privileged I had the opportunity to serve. But I was ready to move on, in terms of just the sheer physical ability to go at that speed. I made a rule in my last year that unless it was an extraordinary circumstance I would try to leave by 9 or 9.30. And when I was deputy chief of staff, our first meeting was at 7.15. It's weekends as well. It is a very rare occasion you would have a weekend off," she told the Seattle Times.
Not that she's afraid of hard work – even in her personal life. She married attorney Stephen Burwell in 2007. "About five dates in, he asked if I wanted to go on a 100-mile, two-day bike ride. Even though my bike still had the sticker on and flat tires from when I moved from Washington, DC, I said 'absolutely'," she told the Seattle Times.
After Washington, Mathews Burwell went on to work for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, eventually serving as president of the global development program from 2006 to the end of 2011. She joined the Walmart Foundation in late 2011.
The Walmart Foundation focuses on hunger relief and healthy eating, sustainability, women's economic development and career opportunities. Last year, Michelle Obama and Walmart launched an initiative to make healthy food available in so-called "food deserts" – urban and rural areas with little or no access to large grocery stores. Walmart and the Walmart Foundation announced they would be donating $2bn to fight hunger.
It was a major PR coup for Walmart, which has had often tetchy relations with Democrats in the past. And Obama has continued to sing the firm's praises as she champions health eating. "For years, the conventional wisdom said healthy products just didn't sell," Obama said on a visit to a Minnesota store earlier this month. "Thanks to Walmart and other companies, we're proving the conventional wisdom wrong," she said. Praising Walmart's commitment to affordable healthy food, Obama said: "You didn't just dip your toe in the water. You went all in."
But the foundation has its critics, too. In a recent article, The Nation highlighted the foundation's giving in areas where Walmart is pushing to expand. The article also mentioned a foundation memo that calls for its sponsors to " spread the word" in the press and social media.
Walmart Foundation has regularly contributed to charities in areas where it is lobbying to open new stores. New York City has fought off Walmart for years, arguing that it would have a negative impact on small business. Brooklyn borough president Marty Markowitz has opposed the retailer's plans to open a store there. In 2011, Walmart spent about $150,000 to become a corporate sponsor of Markowitz's summer concert series, prompting the headline "Just call him Wal-Marty Markowitz" in the New York Post.
Markowitz had "softened his once-staunch criticism of the store," said the Post. Markowitz said he was "not philosophically opposed to Walmart, but I have been consistent in demanding they show a commitment to Brooklyn by paying a fair wage, offering health benefits [and] using union workers in any construction projects in New York City." Walmart backed out of plans to open a store in Brooklyn last year, a year after the sponsorship deal.
The foundation's activities pale beside Walmart's political lobbying. The company spent over $6m lobbying last year and $7.8m in 2011, according to the Center for Responsive Government. The retailer lobbied OMB to block the employees free choice act – which aimed to make it easier for workers to unionize. Last year, Walmart faced unprecedented strike action from staff over pay, hours and benefits. Union and other labour rights groups will be watching carefully to see how the new OMB head will treat possible legislation that affects her old bosses at Walmart.
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