CQ NEWS Dec. 14, 2018 Trump Names Mulvaney as Acting Chief of Staff Dec. 14, 2018 – 6:06 p.m. By David Lerman, CQ

White House budget director Mick Mulvaney will serve as the acting White House chief of staff when John F. Kelly steps down from that post at the end of the year, President Donald Trump announced Friday on Twitter.

The move suggested the search for a permanent new chief of staff will take more time as Kelly's pending departure nears. Mulvaney, a former South Carolina congressman, is a trusted Trump ally who also served as acting head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

"I am pleased to announce that Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget, will be named Acting White House Chief of Staff, replacing General John Kelly, who has served our Country with distinction," Trump wrote in a Twitter posting. "Mick has done an outstanding job while in the Administration. I look forward to working with him in this new capacity as we continue to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"

Russ Vought, the current deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, will succeed Mulvaney as the budget chief, a senior administration official told reporters.

But it wasn't clear how long Mulvaney would serve as Trump's new top aide. Mulvaney was named as "acting" chief of staff, instead of simply the new chief of staff, "because that's what the president wants," the official said. Still, the official said, "there's no time limit" for Mulvaney's tenure as acting chief.

The turnover within the White House budget office comes as Congress stares down a one-week deadline for reaching a year-end spending deal to avoid a partial government shutdown.

Mulvaney, a former member of the House Freedom Caucus, is a fiscal conservative who has regularly battled Democrats over spending levels. As White House budget chief, he issued several statements of administration policy this year objecting to nondefense spending that he considered excessive.