New top aide to Garrett

A Kansas native who served in the Bush administration as a deputy assistant treasury secretary handling banking affairs has taken over as chief of staff to Rep. Scott Garrett, R-Wantage.

Amy D. Smith had been a veteran House and Senate aide whose first congressional job was for former Kansas Sen. Bob Dole before she joined the administration in 2001.

But she later left treasury and worked as a lobbyist a while, then decided to go back to school in Emporia, Kan. to get her Master's Degree in business administration. But Washington beckoned again.

"I wanted to come back and work on the Hill again," she said, and landed a job with Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Calif.

Now she's moved to Garrett's team, where his committee assignments on financial services and budget fit her interestes. Like Garrett, she's excited about "making sure government spends taxpayer dollars correctly."

Smith replaces Michelle Presson, who has become chief of staff for Rep. Michele Bachmann, a first-term Republican from Minnesota who also serves on the financial services committee.