Portman Leaves amid Fanfare over Job at OMB

WASHINGTON — White House budget director Rob Portman is going home to Ohio – this time for more than a weekend visit.

Portman, a former Ohio congressman who has been making the regular commute from Washington, D.C., to his Cincinnati home nearly every weekend for nearly 14 years, announced Tuesday that he will step down from the job he's held for little more than a year to spend time with his wife and three teenage children.

"It's just time," he said. "I have all the respect in the world for public service. I hope to get back to it someday, but at this point I hope to be home."

Though he will not discuss what's next beyond spending time with family, his decision paves the way for a possible bid for governor in 2010, as well as a role supporting the Republican presidential nominee in Ohio.

Portman, a six-term congressman, left Congress in 2005 to become a U.S. trade representative. He became Office of Management and Budget director in May 2006.

President Bush was effusive in his praise. "There's no finer man in public service than Rob Portman," he said when announcing Portman's decision to step down.

Taxpayer groups gave credit to Portman for cracking down on congressional spending during an era when Bush's polls were low. "He was one of the best friends taxpayers ever had at OMB, and we will certainly regret his departure," said Tom Schatz of Citizens Against Government Waste, who cited the administration's creation of a congressional earmark database at www.earmarks.omb.gov and the OMB's assessment of 96 percent of all federal government spending as evidence of Portman's performance.

Most recently, Portman's tenure was marked by a battle between congressional Democrats and Bush over whether to insert a deadline for withdrawing troops in a supplemental spending bill funding the war in Iraq. Portman argued for the removal of heavily criticized earmarks in that bill. And an upcoming battle over appropriations bills – Bush has vowed to veto any nonmilitary spending he deems too high – looms.

Still, Democrats were among the well-wishers.

"I regret that Budget Director Rob Portman is resigning," said Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., Senate Budget Committee chairman. "He is a person of credibility and decency that commanded respect on both sides of the aisle."

Portman will hang onto the job until early August – plenty of time for the U.S. Senate to confirm his nominated replacement, former Rep. Jim Nussle, R-Iowa.

After that, he'll have to answer to Republicans who want him to run for statewide office in 2010, when Democratic Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland faces re-election. Portman has $1.4 million in a dormant congressional campaign fund.

"Whatever Rob's future holds, I hope he stays involved in Republican party politics and we're able to convince him to be a part of the statewide ticket in 2010," said Ohio Republican Party Deputy Chairman Kevin DeWine.

Others feel differently.

"We wish Rob Portman well in his retirement," said Randy Borntrager, spokesman for the Ohio Democratic Party.