Press Release - President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to key Administration posts:

•      Representative Barbara Lee – Representative of the United States to the Seventieth Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations (U.S. Representative from the State of California)

•      Representative Chris Smith – Representative of the United States to the Seventieth Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations (U.S. Representative from the State of New Jersey)

•      Cassandra Q. Butts – Representative of the United States to the Seventieth Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations

President Obama said, "I am confident that these individuals will serve the American people well, and I look forward to working with them in the months to come."

Representatives Lee and Smith will be nominated as Representatives of the United States to the Seventieth Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations in addition to their duties in the United States House of Representatives.

President Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to key Administration posts:

Representative Barbara Lee, Nominee for Representative of the United States to the Seventieth Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations (U.S. Representative from the State of California)

Representative Barbara Lee represents the 13th District of California. She was first elected in 1998. Representative Lee is a member of the Committee on Appropriations, the Committee on the Budget, and the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee. From 1999 to 2011, she served on the Committee on Foreign Affairs. From 2009 to 2010, she served as Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. From 2002 to 2008, Representative Lee served as co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. She was also nominated as a Representative to the United Nations General Assembly in 2013. She received a B.A. from Mills College and an M.S.W. from the University of California, Berkeley.

Representative Chris Smith, Nominee for Representative of the United States to the Seventieth Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations (U.S. Representative from the State of New Jersey)

Representative Chris Smith represents the 4th District of New Jersey. He was first elected in 1980. Representative Smith is a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, where he is Chair of the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations. He is also Chair of the Congressional Executive Commission on China and the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe. Representative Smith co-founded the Congressional Human Trafficking Caucus and has served as a Special Representative on Human Trafficking to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's Parliamentary Assembly. He was also nominated as a Representative to the United Nations General Assembly in 2009 and 1989. Representative Smith received a B.A. from Trenton State College.

Cassandra Q. Butts, Nominee for Representative of the United States to the Seventieth Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations

Cassandra Q. Butts is Senior Advisor to the CEO of the Millennium Challenge Corporation, where she chaired the Investment Management Committee. Prior to that, she served as Deputy White House Counsel and General Counsel to the Obama-Biden Transition Project. From 2004 to 2008, Ms. Butts served as Senior Vice President for Domestic Policy at the Center for American Progress. From 2002 to 2004, she served as Counsel and Policy Director to House Democratic Leader Richard A. Gephardt and as Deputy Executive Director of the Democratic Policy Committee in the House of Representatives from 1996 to 2002. She has worked as an Associate Counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Legal Defense and Educational Fund, as a Legislative Assistant for U.S. Senator Harris Wofford, as an international election observer to parliamentary elections in Zimbabwe, and as a Fellow for the National Health Law Program in Washington, D.C. She is a member of the Board of Visitors of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a past recipient of the Georgetown Women's Law and Public Policy Fellowship. Ms. Butts received a B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.