Former Sens. Mitt Romney and Joe Manchin have found new jobs after retiring from Congress in early January.
The pair, known for bucking their respective caucuses and once considered a possible presidential ticket, will join the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget as board members.
“Both former senators have been staunch advocates for responsible budgeting, but more than that, they have not shied away from working across the aisle to find solutions that can bridge the ideological divide and get America pointed in the right direction,” Maya MacGuineas, the nonpartisan think tank’s president, said in a statement.
Manchin, a former chairman of the Senate energy committee, also landed a post-Congress job in February on K Street as a senior adviser at the Australia-based consultancy and lobbying firm Bondi Partners.
Romney, 78, chose not to run for a second term in 2024 because of his age. Manchin, the Democrat-turned-independent who was facing unlikely reelection odds against his now-successor, Sen. Jim Justice (R-WV), also declined to seek what would have been his third full term.
The CRFB is known for its hawkish stances on deficits and the federal budget, a topic of frequent conversation for Romney and Manchin when they were in the Senate. They regularly chastised both sides of the aisle for failing to address the national debt.
MacGuineas said Romney, a former Massachusetts governor and the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, has “demonstrated a commitment to fiscal conservativism, identifying opportunities to close budget deficits, increase efficiency, and address the key drivers of mandatory spending growth.”
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Manchin’s past roles, which also include secretary of state and governor of West Virginia, show he has “been a strong advocate for restoring fiscal sanity to Washington and demonstrate a continued willingness to work in a bipartisan fashion to address our nation’s fiscal challenges,” MacGuineas added.
Other former prominent politicians on the board include Obama administration official Leon Panetta, former GOP Ohio Gov. John Kasich, and former Democratic North Dakota Sen. Heidi Heitkamp.
