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Obama Picks Galante for FHA Chief Amid Partisanship

""President Barack Obama"":http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/president-obama/ fielded ""HUD"":http://portal.hud.gov/portal/page/portal/HUD official Carol Galante as a new nominee to head up the ""Federal Housing Administration"":http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/federal_housing_administration (FHA), even as the future remains unclear for other federal nominees.

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The White House announced the decision in a statement in which the president offered new names for other posts.

""I am grateful these accomplished men and women have agreed to join this Administration, and I'm confident they will serve ably in these important roles,"" Obama said in the statement. ""I look forward to working with them in the coming months and years.""

This marks the second appointment for Galante, who joined HUD in 2009 as deputy assistant secretary for the Office of Multifamily Housing. She currently serves the department as an acting assistant secretary.

Brian Sullivan, a spokesperson for HUD, did not immediately respond to a request for comment by e-mail.

Before joining the ranks of other HUD officials, she headed up ""BRIDGE Housing"":http://www.bridgehousing.com/ as president and CEO, where she spent

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25 years leading efforts to shore up mixed-income housing facilities.

She helped manage economic development projects and revitalization efforts with the nonprofit.

Galante also helped head up ""Eden Housing, Inc."":http://edenhousing.org/, as executive director for Santa Barbara, and holds degrees from Ohio Wesleyan University and University of California.

She recently made moves in the reverse mortgage market by ""announcing"":http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/documents/huddoc?id=FHACG_05OCT11_FINAL.PDF a series of adjustments, premiums, and property charges for eligible and delinquent homeowners.

It remains uncertain whether any of the current partisan wrangling over other nominees will impact the confirmation process for Galante.

The ""Senate Banking Committee"":http://banking.senate.gov/public/ cleared ""Consumer Financial Protection Bureau"":http://www.consumerfinance.gov/ (CFPB) enforcement chief Richard Cordray for director-nominee in a straight party-line vote in early October.

Lawmakers from either side of the aisle vowed to support and defeat Cordray in the confirmation process, which saw current Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren leave for her Harvard law post when Obama withdrew her in August.

""Mark Calabria"":http://www.cato.org/people/mark-calabria, director of financial regulation studies with the ""Cato Institute"":http://www.cato.org/, gave the CFPB director-nominee a 30-percent chance based on the fact that 44 Republican senators pledged to deny Cordray the post.

More recently, ""37 state attorneys general vouched for the embattled nominee in a recent letter"":https://themreport.com/articles/thirty-seven-ags-back-cordray-for-cfpb-director-2011-10-18 to Senate party leaders and lawmakers.

Galante will need to receive clearance from a committee, and Cordray awaits scheduling for a full chamber vote.