Obama announces cabinet picks for budget office, EPA, energy

WASHINGTON (REUTERS) - President Barack Obama announced three nominees for his second term cabinet on Monday, choosing a philanthropy expert to run the White House budget office, an air quality expert to run the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and a scientist to lead the Energy department.

Obama named Sylvia Mathews Burwell, head of the Walmart Foundation, to become director of the White House Office of Management and Budget.

He chose Gina McCarthy, currently the assistant administrator for the EPA Office of Air and Radiation, to become the agency's chief.

For the position of head of the Department of Energy, he picked nuclear physicist Ernest Moniz.