OMB health desk appointment

Executive Summary

Keith Fontenot has been recruited from the Congressional Budget Office to head the health desk at the Office of Management and Budget. At OMB he will join his former boss, Peter Orszag, OMB's new director. Fontenot previously served as a top aide for health care budgeting at CBO and is a 26-year veteran of budget analysis in health and human service areas. His new role puts him in a prominent position to monitor the purse strings of government activities, including entitlement programs run by CMS, research funding by the National Institutes of Health and drug regulation by FDA