Richard A. Clarke has spent three decades at the highest government levels including the Defense and State departments and 11 years with the White House.
The Obama administration has given a framework to avoid the looming sequestration, but House Republicans say the proposals won't pass in either chamber. What now?
Obama wants him as the next administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy but whether he gets an actual confirmation vote is too tough to call.
The Obama administration and some lawmakers have tried to change the compensation amount to better match top federal officials' salaries, but have been unsuccessful.
The $20.2 million contract calls for General Dynamics IT to provide unclassified and classified mainframe computerized processing for the Army IT Agency.