Politico cites a blog post by Sheila Herrling, director of CGD's Rethinking U.S. Foreign Assistance Program about USAID.
From the article:
"First off, Sheila Herrling at the Center for Global Development's Rethinking U.S. Foreign Assistance blog notes, the drop dead date for the currently acting USAID administrator to remain in the job is November 16th. That's by virtue of the fact, Herrling says, that under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998, vacancies can be filled by the "acting" capacity for no more than 300 days in transition years. Which for acting USAID administrator Alonzo Fulghum, is November 16th."
...
"So we found this hint in Herrling's column about write-ins for Under Secretary of Agriculture for Research, Education and Economics and Chief Scientist Rajiv Shah intriguing. Whiz kid (he's 36), the former Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation director of agriculture development and financial services, and manager of the foundation's $1.5 billion vaccine fund. A trained medical doctor, Shah has some interesting political credentials, having campaigned for Obama, served as the former health care policy advisor to Al Gore's presidential campaign, and as a member of Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell's health transition committee. He seems to know his way around the offices of key Senate Foreign Relations Committee members such as Richard Lugar (R-IN) and Robert Casey (D-PA) in particular on the issues of agriculture, food security and food aid. He was confirmed in April just a month after being announced without a hitch, and has been involved in numerous philanthropic efforts to combat poverty in India and around the world, and worked at the World Health Organization."