Obama announces budget chief to replace Sebelius [WATCH LIVE]

WASHINGTON, April 11 (UPI) -- President Obama will nominate budget chief Sylvia Mathews Burwell as the Secretary of Health and Human Services following Kathleen Sebelius's announcement Thursday she would step down.

Burwell was unanimously confirmed by the Senate last year to serve as the director of the White House's Office of Management and Budget, but has spent the past year wading into fiscal battles, including last fall's 15-day government shutdown.

The 48-year-old Rhodes scholar and Harvard graduate served in the Clinton administration, including as the deputy to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, then President Clinton's budget director. She has also worked for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and served as president of the Walmart Foundation.