Neera Tanden joins US govt as adviser to prez

WASHINGTON: Neera Tanden will start on Monday as a senior adviser to US President Joe Biden in the White House two months after her cabinet nomination ran into trouble in the Senate.

Tanden, a veteran Democrat, will be tasked with preparing the administration’s response to any fallout from a challenge mounted by Republicans to the healthcare act in the Supreme Court, and the US digital service, which works to make the government more accessible online, according to news reports.

There has been no White House announcement of the appointment, but news reports said Tanden starts work on Monday. President Biden had appointed Tanden earlier to head the Office of Management and Budget, a key department with broad oversight over the entire federal government. If confirmed, she would have become the first Indian-American to hold a cabinet position in the federal government.

Misgivings about her nomination began to be expressed immediately about tweets she had posted and since removed. She had targeted Bernie Sanders, an independent Senator who caucuses with Democrats, over his challenge to Hillary Clinton for the 2016 presidential nomination, and Republicans.

The final blow, however, came from a fellow Democrat, Senator Joe Manchin, whose vote in an evenly split Senate would be critical. He killed her chances by announcing his opposition to her nomination citing her “overtly partisan statements”.

The White House withdrew Tanden’s nomination shortly saying it was doing so at her request. But, President Biden made it clear he would find a place for her in his administration in some other capacity.