Obama
© AP
President Obama rushed to fill nearly 100 federal government vacancies during a frenzy of appointments in his final few weeks in office.

Since the new year, Obama has named 72 people to federal job openings and nominated another 17 for positions requiring Senate confirmation, according to CBS reporter Mark Knoller.

On Monday night, Obama announced appointments for 27 officials to government positions and named two to jobs requiring Senate confirmation.

The wave of announcements includes several White House officials, who will serve well after Obama leaves office.


They include Avril Haines, named a member of the National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service; Sarah Hurwitz, a speechwriter for Michelle Obama, and Raffi Freedman-Gurspan, a White House official, to be members of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council; Christy Goldfuss, DJ Patil, Amy Pope, Dan Utech and Cristin Dorgelo, all White House officials, to be members of the National Infrastructure Advisory Council.

Monday's announcement also included Todd Phillip Haskell to be ambassador to Congo and Jason E. Kearns to be a member of the US International Trade Commission โ€” both positions requiring Senate confirmation.