OMB taps Koch to fill final e-gov portfolio position

The Office of Management and Budget has named Jeff Koch to oversee the Internal Efficiency and Effectiveness e-government portfolio.

Koch, who was the acting GovBenefits project manager, starts today and replaces Tim Young, who became OMB's associate administrator for e-government and IT last August. Young had been doing both jobs. The position is a political appointment.

"This is an opportunity to work on larger projects," Koch said. "As rewarding as GovBenefits has been, working on larger and more projects will be just as rewarding."

Koch takes over an eight-project portfolio including a number of projects that are at crucial points, such as E-Training, Recruitment One-Stop and Integrated Acquisition Environment. The Office of Personnel Management is reviewing proposals for E-Training and Recruitment One-Stop, while the General Services Administration is prioritizing what additional functions to bring online with IAE.

Koch had been acting project manager for GovBenefits since August 2004. No replacement has been named yet.

Before taking over GovBenefits, Koch was special assistant to the CIO for more than two years and was chief of staff for Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) for four years. Koch also worked as a radio engineer for Raytheon Corp. and RF Monolithics Inc. of Dallas.

Koch received a bachelor's degree from the University of Missouri.