President Obama announced on Monday that he planned to nominate Lanhee J. Chen, the top policy adviser to Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign, to fill an opening on an independent federal panel whose task is to recommend improvements to Social Security.
The announcement of Mr. Chen’s nomination was peculiarly timed, just a day before the health insurances marketplaces created under the Affordable Care Act â€" which Mr. Chen has argued should be repealed â€" can begin accepting customers.
Mr. Chen, 35, was born in Taiwan and grew up in California. He earned four degrees from Harvard University, where he was active in Republican politics. He is currently a research fellow at the Hoover Institution and a professor of law and public policy at Stanford University.
Mr. Chen, who specializes in health care policy, has worked in academia, campaigns and government, including stints as a health care adviser to the Bush-Cheney ticket in 2004 and as a domestic policy adviser on Mr. Romney’s 2008 presidential campaign. In 2008, he was also a senior counselor to the deputy secretary of Health and Human Services.
In 2010, he was the deputy campaign manager of Steve Poizner’s California gubernatorial campaign for eight months, before leaving in August to become a visiting scholar at the University of California’s Institute of Governmental Studies. He worked four months as the policy director of Mr. Romney’s Free and Strong America PAC, before he was tapped in April to join Mr. Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign as policy director.
Mr. Obama will nominate Mr. Chen to serve on the Social Security Advisory Board, a bipartisan panel of seven experts, who serve six-year terms and must be confirmed by the Senate.
