President Barack Obama meets with his National Security and Public Health teams to receive an update on the Ebola response, Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2014, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington. At left is Ebola Response Coordinator Ron Klain. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
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President Barack Obama's "Ebola czar" will leave his post in February, the White House said.
Ron Klain was named in October to coordinate the federal government's response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
Though fewer than six months seems short for a presidential appointee to serve, Klain was named as a "special government employee," a position with a term of 130 days, a White House official told TheBlaze.
President Barack Obama with Ebola Response Coordinator Ron Klain during a White House meeting on the U.S. Ebola response, Nov. 18, 2014. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Klain will be returning to work for Steve Case’s venture firm, Revolution LLC, Fortune reported. Case told Fortune that Klain committed he would be back on board by March 1, which could mean Klain could leave his White House job much earlier.
The White House confirmed to TheBlaze only that Klain intends to return to the private sector.
The administration had said early on that the role was temporary; Klain's pending departure comes after concerns about the spread of Ebola in the United States have waned.
The White House official said that under Klain's watch, the number of treatment facilities ready to handle Ebola in the United States has increased, and first phase of clinical trials for a vaccine has been completed.
Case told Fortune that Klain “was not eager to take on this assignment but felt it was an important thing to do. He agreed to do it with the understanding that it would be for a limited period of time.”
Klain is among the administration officials seeking to convince Congress to appropriate $6.2 billion in emergency funding to tackle Ebola in West Africa.
Klain previously served as chief of staff for Vice Presidents Al Gore and Joe Biden.
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