Richardson to be Obama's Commerce Secretary

Chicago, Nov.24 : New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, who served as Energy Secretary and U.N. Ambassador under President Bill Clinton, will be the United States' next Commerce Secretary.

A Democratic official was quoted by CBS as saying that President-elect Barack Obama will name Richardson as his Commerce Secretary.

The official said the announcement would be made after Thanksgiving.

Richardson would be the most visible Hispanic named to Obama's Cabinet. Richardson ran for the Democratic nomination but dropped out in January and endorsed Obama.

Obama is set to make the formal announcement of the top members of his economic team tomorrow.

CBS News has confirmed that Obama will name New York Federal Reserve President Tim Geithner as his Treasury Secretary, and former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers to direct the National Economic Council.

Geithner would have chief responsibility for tackling the economic slowdown and credit crunch. Summers, 53, treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton and one-time president of Harvard University, will advise Obama from the White House.

The men will confront an economic crisis that continues to deepen in spite of hundreds of billions of dollars in federal emergency spending in recent weeks.

Both men will appear with Obama at a Monday news conference in Chicago. The move followed in one-two fashion Obama's declaration on Saturday that his administration planned to create 2.5 million jobs over the next two years.

Obama wants Congress to approve it quickly to approve the recovery plan so he can sign it shortly after his January 20 inauguration.

On Saturday, Obama named longtime spokesman Robert Gibbs as White House press secretary. Gibbs went to work for Obama's Senate campaign in 2004 and was communications director while Obama was in the Senate.

The president-elect is virtually certain to offer Congressional Budget Office chief Peter Orszag the job of directing the White House Office of Budget and Management, and Orszag is likely to accept, Democratic officials said.

ANI