The Story:
The President’s choice to head the Office of Management and Budget, Neera Tanden, has withdrawn herself from consideration. It had become clear that the votes were not there in the Senate for confirmation. Oddly, President Biden’s choice for OMB Director was defeated by a controversy over … mean tweets.
Background:
OMB Director is not a cabinet post but it is cabinet level. This official has, in several prior administrations, proved critical to pressing the President’s agenda, as well as at crunching the related numbers. The office has been filled by, for example, David Stockman and James C. Miller (under President Reagan), Leon Panetta and Alice Rivlin (Clinton), Peter Orszag and Jack Lew (Obama).
The job, in one sentence is to coordinate the work of all the executive departments in putting together a single administration budget proposal.
The Thing to Know:
Tanden graduated from Yale Law in 1996, after serving as an editor at the law review there. She has worked on budget policy on Congressional staffs, in think tanks, and for various Democratic presidential campaigns since. She has also expressed herself in a vivid way on twitter, saying for example that vampires that more heart than Ted Cruz. Senators who needed an excuse to cast an anti-Biden vote seem to have seized on that one.
