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Senior officials in the Biden administration expressed reservations about the event, which was set to take place in the Home Department’s library, and the White House then intervened before invitations could be sent.
A Biden administration official said that ‘the party was the thing that broke the camel’s back’ and was Van der Heide’s ‘last misjudgment’ in her new job, which she has started January 20. party planning accelerated the job change, which had been underway before the kerfuffle. A White House official said there were still plans for Van der Heide to move to a different role after the department was established. Another administration official said other unspecified issues precipitated the move.
A White House official had told Van der Heide to stop planning the party before March 8, but she still asked for estimates from the catering after learning the party was not expected to take place, according to one of the administration officials.
Van der Heide will now be a senior adviser to the Home Office, and a White House spokesman said Lawrence Roberts, who was head of the Indian Home Office at the end of the administration Obama would be the new chief of staff.
“Jennifer Van der Heide is an invaluable member of the Biden administration and the Home Office leadership,” White House spokesman Vedant Patel said. “She will continue to serve in administration and Secretary Haaland as a senior advisor within the department. Larry Roberts, who previously served under President Obama and has extensive knowledge of the Home Department, will assume the role of Chief of Staff.
Roberts, a member of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin, was most recently a partner at Kilpatrick Townsend, the law and lobbying firm, and earlier in his career he worked at the Department of Justice and the Protection Agency of the environment.
Van der Heide did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for the Interior Ministry declined to comment.
A White House official said these types of moves are not uncommon at the start of an administration, as the Presidential Office of Personnel tries to ensure appointees fill roles that best serve their agency, the agency chief, president and the American public.
In 2015, the Congressional Ethics Office said Van der Heide, when she was chief of staff to former Representative Mike Honda (D-Calif.), Appeared to be in violation of ethical guidelines intended to separate government activities from campaign activities, although the House Ethics Committee did not pursue any action in the matter. In August 2017, she then became Senior Advisor for Haaland’s Congress Campaign before becoming Chief of Staff of Haaland’s Congress.
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