WASHINGTON, DC, USA, January 20, 2009: President-elect Barack Obama has appointed a leading Indian-American lawyer Preeta Bansal as General Counsel and Senior Policy Advisor at the Office of Management (OMB) and Budget at the White House.
Bansal is currently Partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom LLP in New York City. Since 2003, Bansal has also been a Commissioner of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, serving as Chair from 2004-2005.
In that capacity, Bansal participated in US diplomatic missions to Iraq, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, China, Russia, Vietnam, Turkey, Hong Kong, and South Asia, and presided over a nationally acclaimed Commission study on DHS’s procedures for expedited removal of US asylum seekers.