White House domestic-policy adviser Claude A. Allen is not following in his immediate predecessor’s footsteps.
Mr. Allen took the job after the January 2005 departure of Margaret Spellings to become secretary of education. Mr. Allen, whose last day at the White House was Feb. 17, was leaving to spend more time with his family, according to an Associated Press report. The White House last week could not provide any information on Mr. Allen’s plans.
As President Bush’s domestic-policy adviser, Mr. Allen was in charge of a range of issues, including education.
On Feb. 2, for example, he briefed reporters aboard Air Force One on the president’s American Competitiveness Initiative, sketching out the education portion of the proposal, which aims to put thousands of new math and science teachers in classrooms, among other goals.
Mr. Allen, a former secretary of health and human services for the state of Virginia, has worked for the administration since Mr. Bush took office in 2001. He served as the deputy secretary of the federal Department of Health and Human Services until he started working at the White House last year.
In a Feb. 9 statement, President Bush thanked Mr. Allen for his service and said he had “helped develop policies that will strengthen our nation’s families, schools, and communities.”
