Biden Nominates Former House Staffer Young as His Budget Chief
Biden Will Nominate Shalanda Young as His Budget Chief
(Bloomberg) -- President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced he’d nominate Shalanda Young as the chief of the Office of Management and Budget, a position she has held in an acting capacity for much of this year.
Young assumed the role of acting director after Biden’s first nominee, Neera Tanden, dropped out of Senate consideration in March. The president also announced he’d nominate Nani Coloretti -- a former Obama administration official -- as deputy OMB director.
If confirmed, Young, who is Black, would be the first non-White woman to serve as OMB director. Coloretti, a Filipina American, would be one of the highest-ranking Asian Americans in Biden’s administration, according to a person familiar with the matter.
“Today, it is my honor to nominate two extraordinary, history-making women to lead the Office of Management and Budget,” Biden said in a statement posted on Twitter, adding that OMB “has been called the nerve center of our government” and ensures tax dollars “are spent efficiently and effectively.”
The president had originally nominated Young as deputy director and the Senate confirmed her to that post. Top House Democrats including Speaker Nancy Pelosi pushed Biden to promote Young, who had been on the staff of the House Appropriations Committee.
OMB, according to the White House website, “oversees the implementation of the president’s vision across the Executive Branch.” Even so, the job of permanent director was one of many top posts across the administration that remain unfilled.
Tanden’s nomination last November touched off an angry backlash on the right and the left over sarcastic Twitter posts that were critical of her political opponents, including supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and as well as prominent Republicans, who would have voted on her selection.
Tanden, who had been president of the liberal Center for American Progress, then joined the White House staff as a senior adviser and in October was named staff secretary.
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