WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Christina Romer, one of President Barack Obama's top economic advisers, said on Thursday she was stepping down, an exit that comes as the White House struggles to keep the recovery on track with congressional elections looming in November.
Romer said she was quitting her post, effective September 3, to return to her job as professor at the University of California at Berkeley.
As chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, Romer helped oversee the response to the economic crisis, emerging as one of the most prominent voices promoting Obama's stimulus spending policies in the face of Republican accusations of government overreach.
Her departure marks the second big change in Obama's economic team. White House Budget Director Peter Orszag left earlier in the summer.
Romer's resignation comes at a critical juncture as Obama grapples with stubbornly high joblessness and signs of a slowing recovery from the deepest recession in decades. July unemployment numbers are due out on Friday.
Voter anxiety over the stumbling economy could translate into big losses for Obama's Democratic Party in the pivotal mid-term elections.
There was no immediate word on Romer's successor. Among those who could be considered are Austan Goolsbee, a member of the Council of Economic Advisers, Vice President Joe Biden's chief economist Jared Bernstein, and Laura Tyson, a senior economist in former President Bill Clinton's White House.
PRAISE FROM OBAMA
"Christy Romer has provided extraordinary service to me and our country during a time of economic crisis and recovery," Obama said in a statement released by the White House.
"The challenges we faced demanded more of Christy than any of her predecessors, and I greatly valued and appreciated her skill, commitment and wise counsel."
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said "her contributions to this administration have been enormous, and I will miss her strong voice and deep intellect at the table."
Romer, 51, will continue to advise Obama as a member of his Economic Recovery Advisory Board headed by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker.
Obama said Romer had made clear her preference to return to California for "family commitments." Her son will be starting high school there in the fall, the White House said.
An expert on the Great Depression, Romer has often joked that her academic background made her ideal to help pull the United States back from the brink of what many had feared would become a second depression.
Even before Obama took office in January 2009, she had co-authored the administration's economic recovery plan.
With her plain-spoken style and cheerful demeanor, she then made frequent appearances on television news programs to help sell Obama's economic policies to the American public.
Romer has struggled at times to explain her overly optimistic prediction early on that Obama's $862 billion stimulus program would keep unemployment below 8 percent. Many independent economists say the heavy spending helped avert a deeper crisis, though Republicans say it has been wasteful.
Her job has become even tougher in recent months as positive economic news has dwindled. The government reported last Friday that economic growth slowed to 2.4 percent in the second quarter, adding to signs of a slowing recovery.
According to a Reuters poll, the U.S. Labor Department is expected to report on Friday that the jobless rate edged up to 9.6 percent in July from 9.5 percent in June.
Obama, whose approval ratings have been hurt by the struggling economy, on Thursday defended his policies and said the economy still needed more time to heal.
Romer had been mentioned as a possible candidate to succeed Janet Yellen as president of the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank. The Senate is expected to act on Yellen's nomination to be vice chairman of the Federal Reserve Board when lawmakers return after their summer break.
"While I look forward to returning to research and teaching, the opportunity to help shape economic policy these past 20 months, and to work with the other members of the economic team and my colleagues on the CEA, is one I will always cherish," Romer said in the statement.