According to NBC News, President Joe Biden’s Domestic Policy Chief, Susan Rice, is stepping down from her position in May. Rice has spent the last two years overseeing the president’s domestic agenda. During her tenure, Biden has signed executive and legislative actions on issues ranging from healthcare to gun safety and student loans. “It is extraordinary when you think about what she’s done in terms of public service across her career, capped off by being the first person ever to be the national security adviser and domestic policy adviser,” said White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients, whose known Rice since high school.
Rice served as former President Obama’s national security adviser and was also on Biden’s shortlist for potential vice presidential candidates in 2020. When entering her role as domestic policy chief, she faced criticism, having primarily worked in foreign affairs for both the Obama and Clinton administrations; however, her work has been praised by Democratic leaders. “Susan was there during this two-year period where there was just an incredible and historic burst of policymaking, and the next year and a half is going to be different. It’s going to call for a different approach to policy,” said Brian Deese, who worked with Rice as director of the National Economic Council.
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Though her departure may seem sudden, Rice told colleagues that she never intended to stay with the administration for longer than two years, according to NBC News. In fact, the timing of Rice’s departure was only delayed to help solidify several projects she’d been overseeing, including an anti-semitism strategy and a federal response to recidivism for formerly incarcerated people. With these focuses, it seems that the ambassador is ending her time in the White House the way she began it: confronting hard-hitting and, sometimes, controversial issues with policy changes that support the needs of the American people.
Something President Biden says no one does better than Rice. “I surprised a lot of people when I named Ambassador Susan Rice as my Domestic Policy Advisor,” the president said in a statement. He continued, “But what I knew then and what we all know now – after more than two years of her steady leadership of the Domestic Policy Council – it’s clear: there is no one more capable, and more determined to get important things done for the American people than Susan Rice.”
Rice’s last day in the White House will be May 26.
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