Born in New York City, Lew was educated atHarvard College and theGeorgetown University Law Center. He began his legal career as alegislative assistant to RepresentativeJoe Moakley, and as a senior policy adviser to formerHouse SpeakerTip O'Neill. Lew then worked as an attorney in private practice before joining Boston's office of management and budget as a deputy. In 1993, he began work for theClinton administration as aspecial assistant to the president. In 1994, Lew served as associate director for legislative affairs and deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, then served as the agency's director, from 1998 to 2001. Following his work in the Clinton administration, Lew became executive vice-president of operations atNew York University, serving from 2001 to 2006, then the COO atCitigroup, from 2006 to 2008. During theObama administration, Lew served as the firstdeputy secretary of state for management and resources from 2009 to 2010, before returning to his former post of OMB Director from 2010 to 2012. He then served as chief of staff for the remainder of PresidentBarack Obama’s first term from 2012 to 2013.
On January 10, 2013, during Obama's second term, Lew was nominated to replace retiring Treasury SecretaryTimothy Geithner,[1] was confirmed by the Senate February 27, 2013, and then sworn in on the following day, serving until the conclusion of the Obama administration. Since 2017, he has been a managing partner atLindsay Goldberg,[2] aprivate equity firm headquartered in New York City. He is currently a visiting professor at theSchool of International and Public Affairs ofColumbia University.[3]
On September 5, 2023, President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate Lew to serve as United States ambassador to Israel.[4] His nomination was confirmed by theUnited States Senate on October 31, 2023.[5]
Lew was born in New York City, the son of Ruth (née Turoff) and Irving Lew.[6][7] His family is Jewish.[8] He attended New York City public schools, graduating fromForest Hills High School.[9] His father was a lawyer and rare book dealer who came to the United States from Poland as a child.[10] Lew attendedCarleton College in Minnesota for a year, where his faculty adviser wasPaul Wellstone, who eventually represented Minnesota in the U.S. Senate.[11] He graduated fromHarvard College in 1978 and theGeorgetown University Law Center in 1983.[12]
He worked as an aide to Rep.Joe Moakley (D-Mass.) from 1974 to 1975.[13] In 1979, he was a senior policy adviser toHouseSpeakerTip O'Neill.[14] Under O'Neill he served at the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee as Assistant Director and then Executive Director, and was responsible for work on domestic and economic issues includingSocial Security,Medicare, budget, tax, trade, appropriations, and energy issues.[15]
Lew practiced as an attorney for five years as a partner atVan Ness Feldman and Curtis.[16] His practice dealt primarily with electric power generation. He has also worked as Executive Director of the Center for Middle East Research, Issues Director for theDemocratic National Committee's Campaign 88, and Deputy Director of the Office of Program Analysis in the city ofBoston's Office of Management and Budget.[17][18]
Lew left theWhite House in October 1994 to work as OMB's Executive Associate Director and Associate Director for Legislative Affairs.[21] From August 1995 until July 1998, Lew served as Deputy Director of OMB.[22] There, Lew was chief operating officer responsible for day-to-day management of a staff of 500. He had crosscutting responsibilities to coordinateClinton administration efforts on budget and appropriations matters. He frequently served as a member of the Administration negotiating team, including regarding theBalanced Budget Act of 1997.
President Clinton nominated Lew to be director of the OMB,[23] and his nomination was confirmed by theUnited States Senate on July 31, 1998.[24] He served in that capacity until the end of the Clinton administration in January 2001. As OMB director, Lew had the lead responsibility for the Clinton Administration's policies on budget, management, and appropriations issues. As a member of the Cabinet and senior member of the economic team, he advised the president on a broad range of domestic and international policies. He represented the Administration in budget negotiations with Congress and served as a member of theNational Security Council.
After leaving public office in the Clinton administration, Lew served as the executive vice president for operations atNew York University and was a clinical professor of public administration at NYU'sWagner School of Public Service.[25] While at NYU, Lew aided the university in ending graduate students' collective bargaining rights. The Obama administration has maintained that Lew supports workers' union rights.[26] According to a 2004 report in NYU's student newspaper, theWashington Square News, Lew was paid $840,339 during the 2002–2003 academic year.[27] In addition, the university forgave several hundred thousand dollars in mortgage loans it made to Lew.[28] In 2004, PresidentGeorge W. Bush appointed Lew as a member of the board of directors of theCorporation for National and Community Service, a position he held until 2008.[29]
In June 2006, Lew was named chief operating officer ofCitigroup's Alternative Investments unit, aproprietary trading group. The unit he oversaw invested in a hedge fund "that bet on the housing market to collapse."[30] During his work at Citigroup, Lew had invested heavily in funds inUgland House while he worked as an investment banker at Citigroup during the 2008 financial meltdown.[31] Lew also had oversight of Citigroup subsidiaries in countries including,Bermuda, theCayman Islands, and Hong Kong; and during his time at Citigroup, Citigroup subsidiaries in the Cayman Islands increased to 113.[32][33]
As Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources, Lew was theState Department's chief operating officer and was primarily responsible for resource issues, whileJames Steinberg, who also served as Deputy Secretary of State during that period was responsible for policy.[37][38] Lew was co-leader of the State Department'sQuadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review.[39]
On July 13, 2010, the White House announced that Lew had been chosen to replacePeter Orszag as director of theOffice of Management and Budget (OMB), subject to Senate confirmation.[40] During confirmation hearings in the Senate, in response to questioning bySenator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Lew said that he did not believe deregulation was a "proximate cause" of thefinancial crisis of 2007–2008: Lew told the panel that "the problems in the financial industry preceded deregulation," and after discussing those issues, added that he didn't "personally know the extent to which deregulation drove it, but I don't believe that deregulation was the proximate cause."[41][42]
On November 18, 2010, Lew was confirmed by the Senate byunanimous consent.
The $3.7 trillion 2011 budget President Obama unveiled the administration estimated reductions to federal spending deficits by $1.1 trillion over the next decade if adopted and economic assumptions were fully achieved. Two-thirds of that estimated reduction would come from spending cuts through a five-year freeze in discretionary spending first announced in Obama's2011 State of the Union address, as well as savings to mandatory programs such asMedicare and lower interest payments on the debt that would result from the lower spending. Tax increases are responsible for the other third of the reduction, including a cap on itemized reductions for wealthier taxpayers and the elimination of tax breaks for oil and gas companies.[43] Economist and former financial fraud investigatorWilliam K. Black warned that the OMB budget statement prepared under Lew's direction was "an ode to austerity," and that austerity would force the U.S. economy back into recession.[44]
Lew meeting with President Barack Obama and the Legislative Affairs DirectorRob Nabors
In an op-ed in theHuffington Post, Lew cited top Administration priorities to achieve deficit reduction; including: $400 billion in savings from non-security discretionary spending freezes, $78 billion in cuts to theDepartment of Defense, returning to the Clinton-era tax rates for the top 2% of income earners, and lowering thecorporate tax from 35% to 25%.[45]
On January 9, 2012, President Obama announced that Lew would replaceWilliam M. Daley as White House Chief of Staff.[46] Lew's nomination was followed with criticism[47][48][49][50] after renewed reports that he received over $900,000 in bonuses while working atCitigroup, which had been rescued with $45 billion from theTroubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) after losing $27.7 billion, or 90% of its value.[51][52]
During his tenure as chief of staff, Lew was seen as a supporter and top negotiator for a "grand bargain" deal between President Obama and House SpeakerJohn Boehner, to avoid "fiscal cliff" sequester cuts and tax increases.[15]
Lew's signatureLew's currency signatureLew’s official Treasury portrait, 2013
On January 10, 2013, President Obama nominated Lew for the position ofSecretary of the Treasury.[1] The nomination became the subject of some humorous commentary, due to Lew's unusual loopy signature, which would have appeared on all newly issued U.S. paper currency for the duration of his tenure;[53] the signature generated enough media attention that Obama joked at a press conference that he had considered rescinding his nomination when he learned of it.[54] Lew later adopted a more conventional signature for currency.[55] TheSenate Finance Committee held confirmation hearings for Lew on February 13, 2013.[56] During his confirmation hearings before theUnited States Senate Committee on Finance, Republican senatorChuck Grassley expressed concern that Lew did not know whatUgland House was, though he had invested in it.[57] Lew had invested heavily in funds in Ugland House, while he worked as an investment banker at Citigroup during the 2008 financial meltdown.[58] Lew had taken advantage of current tax law, and his financial allocation in the venture resulted in Lew taking roughly a 2.8% loss, a $1,582 decrease in his investment principal.[59] The committee approved his nomination by a 19–5 vote on February 26, 2013, sending his nomination to the full Senate.[60]
Lew is sworn as Secretary of the Treasury by Vice PresidentJoe Biden in theOval Office of the White House, February 28, 2013.
On February 27, 2013, the full Senate voted and approved Lew for Secretary of the Treasury by a 71–26 vote.[61] He was sworn into office on February 28, 2013.[62]
In December 2013, Lew said that the government might run out of cash to pay the country's bills by late February or early March 2014. That set up yet another showdown in Congress over raising or suspending thedebt limit, a statutory limit on the total amount of United States borrowing, early in the year. "The creditworthiness of the United States is an essential underpinning of our strength as a nation; it is not a bargaining chip to be used for partisan political ends," Mr. Lew said in the letter. "Increasing the debt limit does not authorize new spending commitments. It simply allows the government to pay for expenditures Congress has already approved."[63]
On September 5, 2023, President Biden nominated Lew as the U.S. ambassador toIsrael. A hearing on his nomination took place before theSenate Foreign Relations Committee on October 18, 2023. Lew's confirmation coincided with Congress responding to theOctober 7 attacks by Hamas on Israel and the ensuingwar in Gaza. Although Biden had nominated Lew before the war began, the urgency surrounding his confirmation heightened as hostilities between Israel and Gaza intensified. While Republicans recognized the necessity of a Senate-confirmed ambassador, they opposed Lew, expressing concerns about his role in themultinational nuclear pact with Iran during the Obama years. They argued that this made him an unreliable interlocutor with Israel and questioned him about the deal during his confirmation hearing.[67][68]
On October 25, 2023, the committee advanced his nomination by a 12–9 vote, with SenatorRand Paul, Republican ofKentucky, joining all of the Democrats to advance his nomination to the full Senate.[69] On October 31, 2023, theUnited States Senate invoked cloture on his nomination by a 53–44 vote.[70] Later that day, Lew's nomination was confirmed by a 53–43 vote, with Republican senatorsRand Paul andLindsey Graham voting to confirm his nomination.[71][72] Lew presented his credentials to PresidentIsaac Herzog on November 5, 2023.[73]
In January 2024, Lew advocated theUS State Department to approveBoeing manufacturedGBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb sales to Israel, asserting that the Israeli air force would minimize civilian death. GBU-39 bombs were later identified in attacks on dense civilian areas, including theTel al-Sultan attack,Al-Sardi school attack, andAl-Tabaeen school attack. Embassy officials in both Jerusalem and Washington say that concerns about civilian death tolls, including the targeting of Palestinian embassy employees and their families, were brought to Lew repeatedly. Such concerns were not found in Lew's diplomatic cables.[74]
Lew married his high school sweetheart, Ruth Schwartz.[75] As Chief of Staff, Lew commuted to Washington from the couple's home in the Riverdale neighborhood of the Bronx, New York City.[75][76] They have two grown children,[75] one of whom isShoshana Lew, head of theColorado Department of Transportation.[77]
In 1971, at the age of 16, Lew helped organize The New York March Against Hunger. In 2018, Lew was honored byQueens Community House for his lifelong contributions to social equality.[84]
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