Biden Nominee for OMB, Neera Tanden, in Trouble as Committees Postpone Vote

Feb. 24 , 2021 (EIRNS)—The confirmation of Neera Tanden, Joe Biden’s nominee as director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), is now in trouble, after the Senate Budget Committee and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee postponed the vote that was scheduled to take place on her nomination today, prior to going to the Senate floor. According to USA Today, the Senators postponed the vote saying they need more time to discuss the nomination.

Democrats are already looking for alternatives to Tanden, should she not be confirmed, the Wall Street Journal reported Feb. 23. Reportedly under consideration are Shalanda Young, former House Appropriations committee staffer, who is Biden’s nominee for deputy OMB head, and Gene Sperling, who led the White House National Economic Council under both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin is causing headaches for the Democrats because he’s said he won’t vote for Tanden, and several other moderate Republicans—Mitt Romney (R-UT), Susan Collins (R-ME) and Rob Portman (R-OH)—have said they won’t vote for Tanden, either.

Tanden had written in 2011 to consider using Libya’s oil to pay the U.S. back for the privilege of destroying its functioning government. As president of the Center for American Progress, she opposed a 2016 plank in the DNC Platform supporting healthcare is a human right, and spoke out to prevent opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership from becoming part of the 2016 Democratic Platform. She pushed the idea of the electoral college installing Hillary Clinton as President over Trump’s supposed violation of the “emoluments” clause. She was then a fervent promoter of the fanciful idea that Russian hackers deprived Clinton of her rightful place as the 2016 presidential victor, as well as the even more ludicrous notion that Vladimir Putin had blackmail control over President Trump.