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Moving to the Executive Suite

When Christopher Frech returned to work after the autumn recess he found himself commuting to the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue. The former chief of staff and Rules Committee associate for House Republican Conference Chairwoman Deborah Pryce (Ohio) has taken on the role of special assistant to President Bush for legislative affairs.

Frech, 37, will now serve the president on House-related issues including financial services, judiciary, science and government reform. His government experience began as an intern for Pryce in 1993. Since that time, Frech has served the Congresswoman in various leadership roles.

Frech is also a qualified wildland firefighter for the U.S. Forest Service. He completed the vigorous training for the program in 1996 and was deployed in the John Day Wilderness on the Umatilla National Forest fire in eastern Oregon.

Born in Passaic, N.J., Frech attended Wheeling Jesuit University where he earned a bachelor’s degree in international studies. He also holds a master’s in public policy from West Virginia University.

Budget Expansion. Senate Budget ranking member Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) announced four new additions to the Budget panel late last month. They are Jim Klumpner, chief economist; Jamie Morin, senior defense analyst; Cliff Isenberg, budget analyst for environmental and energy issues; and Anne Page, executive assistant. [IMGCAP(1)]

Klumpner returns to the committee from a five-year stint as the chief economist for the House Budget Committee. He has also served as a senior economist for the Joint Economic Committee and worked for the Commerce Department in the office of the chief economist.

Klumpner earned his undergraduate degree in economics from Pomona College and holds two master’s degrees from Princeton University’s economics department and Woodrow Wilson School of Public Affairs.

Taking over responsibility for defense, intelligence and other national security issues is Morin, 28. Morin was previously a research fellow at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center for Public Affairs, he was also a visiting fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments and served on the staff of the office of the Defense secretary.

Morin, a Detroit native, earned his undergraduate degree from Georgetown University and holds a master’s degree in public administration from the London School of Economics and a doctorate in political science from Yale University.

Isenberg, 31, will cover environmental and energy-related issues. He has worked for the past four and a half years as a policy analyst for the Concord Coalition and previously served on Capitol Hill as a legislative assistant for Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.).

A Memphis, Tenn., native, Isenberg completed his undergraduate work at Washington University in St. Louis and holds a degree from the University of Virginia School of Law.

Page will now coordinate all organizational and administrative duties for the Democratic staff on the committee and supervise the staff assistants and interns. Page, a Washington, D.C., native who attended Montgomery College in Maryland, has 15 years of Congressional experience working for former Speakers Jim Wright (D-Texas) and Tom Foley (D-Wash.). She has also worked as a legislative assistant on the House Appropriations Committee, at the Federal Reserve Board, for the Downey McGrath Group and at the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.

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