Robert "Rob" Fairweather is an American economist and career civil servant who served as Acting Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) starting January 20, 2021.^[1][2] Throughout a 44-year career within the federal government, which included 42 years at the OMB, he held several key positions including budget examiner, chief of the Environment Branch, and deputy associate director for natural resources between 2001 and 2010. He also served as the deputy associate director for international affairs.^[3] His extensive experience in budget policy and economic analysis across multiple administrations led him to author The Inside Story of OMB: How the President's Swiss Army Knife Wields Power^[3], a book that examines the agency's internal operations and its broader influence on executive governance.^[4]

Fairweather is an American economist and career civil servant. He served as the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)^[5] at the start of the Biden administration, holding the position from January 20 to March 24, 2021.

Fairweather spent over 40 years at the OMB, where he held various leadership roles including deputy associate director for natural resources and deputy associate director for international affairs. He began his federal career in 1975, as a labor economist at the Department of Labor before joining the OMB in 1977. In 2024, he published The Inside Story of OMB: How the President's Swiss Army Knife Wields Power^[3], a memoir and policy guide detailing the agency's internal operations and its role in executive governance.^[6]

Fairweather began his career as a Labor Economist at the Department of Labor, where he served from 1975 to 1977. Upon joining the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), he held progressively senior roles including Budget Examiner and Chief of the Environment Branch. Between 2001 and 2010, he served as the Deputy Associate Director for Natural Resources. In this capacity, he was responsible for the budgetary oversight of several major federal entities, including the Department of Agriculture, the Department of the Interior, and the Environmental Protection Agency. Throughout this period, his work focused on the coordination of budget planning and policy implementation across the government's natural resource and environmental portfolio.^[7]

Following his tenure in natural resources, Fairweather became the Deputy Associate Director for International Affairs, overseeing the budgets for the Department of State, USAID, and various intelligence programs. In early 2021, he was designated as the Acting Director of OMB by President Joe Biden, making him the first career official to lead the agency since 2013. During his two-month leadership, he managed the initial rollout of the administration's fiscal policy and oversaw the agency's operations until the confirmation of political leadership. He retired from federal service shortly after the transition was complete. concluding a 46-year career in the executive branch.