President Barack Obama announced Tuesday that he will nominate John Berry — a former top legislative aide to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) — to serve as director of the Office of Personnel Management.

Berry is currently director of the National Zoo, and he has previous experience working in the Treasury and Interior departments. Before that he served as Hoyer’s legislative director in his personal office, where he worked on issues that impact federal government workers — many of whom reside in the Maryland lawmaker’s district.

Hoyer said Tuesday that one of Berry’s notable achievements was his work on passing the Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act, which was signed into law in 1990. The OPM director manages human resources for federal government employees.

“As Legislative Director in my office for 10 years, he served as a valued advisor and was the policy lead on Federal employee issues,— Hoyer said in a statement. “Federal employees should feel very good about this nomination and that somebody as knowledgeable and positive as John Berry is about the Federal workforce has been appointed to this position.—