Biden makes it official: Young gets WH budget director nod
President Joe Biden on Wednesday said Shalanda D. Young would be his nominee for White House budget director, solidifying a role she’s been filling in an acting capacity for months.
Young, a former Democratic staff director for the House Appropriations Committee, has served as acting director of the Office of Management and Budget since the Senate confirmed her as deputy director in March on a 63-37 vote.
Biden originally nominated Neera Tanden, former head of the Center for American Progress think tank, to be OMB director. But she withdrew her nomination in early March after several moderate Democrats voiced concerns amid unified Republican opposition. Later, Biden named Tanden a senior adviser and, ultimately, White House staff secretary.
The Louisiana native has become one of the top advocates for the Biden administration’s fiscal 2022 budget request, which proposed a 16.5% boost for domestic and foreign aid programs while asking Congress to increase defense funding by 1.6%.
Young’s nomination comes just as year-end spending negotiations are starting to heat up.
Republicans rebuked the Biden administration for proposing a narrow funding increase for defense, arguing that it could cede the United States’ role as a leading military power.
Senate Budget Committee ranking member Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who backed Young’s nomination for deputy director, told her during a June 8 hearing that the defense spending level was the “real problem” with the proposal.
Hyde amendment
Republicans, who were opposed to Young’s stance on federal funding for abortion when she was the deputy nominee, aren’t likely to rethink their opposition now.
Young had been on track to get broad GOP support after her confirmation hearings, but eight of 11 Republicans on the budget panel and all seven on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee voted against reporting her nomination to the Senate floor.
“I had planned to support Ms. Young based on her testimony before the committee,” Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said at the Homeland Security Committee’smarkupinMarch. “In reviewing her answers to the committee’s questions for the record, though, I’ve got to say I was really troubled by her responses, particularly her strong advocacy for eliminating the Hyde amendment.”
The 45-year old provision, named for the late Rep. Henry J. Hyde, R-Ill., prohibits federal funding for abortions, with limited exceptions for rape, incest or the woman’s life.