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 Nabors, a former deputy director of the White House's Office of
Management and Budget and a former head of legislative affairs, has
been a top negotiator for the administration in talks with lawmakers
over budget and deficit issues.
Alyssa Mastromonaco, another deputy chief of staff and a longtime
Obama aide, is also thinking about an exit, sources said.
The potential departures come amid a broad staff shake-up, with
long-serving Obama counselor Pete Rouse leaving soon. John Podesta,
a former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, will join the
White House in January.
"Neither Rob nor Alyssa have plans to leave and reports to the
contrary are inaccurate," White House spokeswoman Jamie Smith said
in an email.
Sources outside the administration said Nabors has indicated he is
ready to move on, and an administration official said Mastromonaco
was contemplating an exit.
"After five and a half years, the thought has crossed her mind," the
official said.
The two senior aides work under chief of staff Denis McDonough, who
has been in the top White House job for roughly a year.
Nabors is deputy chief of staff for policy and Mastromonaco is
deputy chief of staff for operations, responsible for planning
presidential events, hiring staff, and overseeing the White House
campus. Many of Obama's senior advisers who worked in his
administration and on his 2008 campaign have left. Climate and
energy adviser Heather Zichal departed in the fall. David Axelrod
and David Plouffe, who helped engineer his 2008 and 2012 electoral
victories, left Obama's official orbit after the last presidential
campaign.
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If the two deputies depart, it would leave a diversity hole in a
group of senior Obama advisers that critics say has an overabundance
of white men.
Nabors, who is African-American, worked in Bill Clinton's budget
office and then spent several years on Capitol Hill, serving as
staff director of the House of Representatives Appropriations
Committee, where he honed his budget skills.
"He understands the technical nature of budgeting in a way that few
people understand it," former Representative David Obey, a one-time
chairman of the House appropriations committee, told Reuters in an
interview last year.
"Rob is very much a person who wants to be in the background. He's
not somebody who's looking for a camera or a microphone. He just
wants to facilitate getting the job done."
The U.S. Senate passed a two-year budget deal on Wednesday to ease
automatic spending cuts and reduce the risk of a government
shutdown.
(Editing by Eric Walsh)
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