PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — President Barack Obama is elevating a Maine woman to his Cabinet.

Obama announced Friday that the U.S. Small Business Administration’s administrator, a position now held by Nancy Mills, will become part of his Cabinet.

The announcement came as Obama called on Congress to give him the authority to reorganize and consolidate government. The decision to bring the SBA administrator into the Cabinet doesn’t require congressional approval.

Mills, who has headed the SBA since 2009, lives in Brunswick with her husband, Bowdoin College President Barry Mills.

U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe, a Republican who serves on the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, praised the Democratic president’s decision.

“I was an early and ardent advocate for the administration to elevate the SBA administrator position to the Cabinet level since before President Obama took office because, given the central job creation role small businesses play in our nation’s economy, it is absolutely essential the head of the SBA have a seat at the Cabinet table with the president,” Snowe said.

Mills did not issue a statement following the announcement, and the SBA press office referred questions to the White House.

The SBA aims to help small businesses grow and create jobs by providing access to capital, federal contracting opportunities, disaster assistance and more.

But the SBA wouldn’t be a stand-alone agency for long under a plan announced by Obama to merge six major governmental operations that focus on business and trade.

Under Obama’s proposal asking Congress to give him authority to merge agencies, he said his first project would be to combine the Small Business Administration; the Commerce Department’s core business and trade functions; the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative; the Export-Import Bank; the Overseas Private Investment Corporation; and the Trade and Development Agency.