Budget office leaders chosen
Biden nominates two women of color to lead the key agency.
NANTUCKET, Mass. — Two women of color are President Biden’s picks to lead the White House budget office, a milestone for the powerful agency after his first choice withdrew following criticism over her previous attacks on lawmakers from both parties.
If confirmed by the Senate, Shalanda Young will become the first Black woman in charge of the Office of Management and Budget.
Nani Coloretti, a Filipina American, will be one of the highest-ranking Asian Americans in government if she is confirmed as Young’s deputy.
“Today it’s my honor to nominate two extraordinary, history-making women to lead the Office of Management and Budget,” the president said in a video released Wednesday while he was on Nantucket Island in Massachusetts for the Thanksgiving holiday.
“She has continued to impress me, and congressional leaders as well,” Biden said of Young, who has been acting director for most of the year. The president turned to Young after his first nominee for budget director, Neera Tanden, came under bipartisan criticism.
Sen. Joe Manchin III, a centrist West Virginia Democrat who has become a pivotal vote for Biden’s agenda in a chamber split 50-50, was the first member of the president’s party to oppose Tanden’s nomination. Lacking the necessary votes, Tanden ultimately withdrew her name from consideration.
Biden later gave her a job in the White House as a senior presidential advisor and staff secretary.
It is not clear how soon Young will face a Senate confirmation vote. She was confirmed as deputy director in March on a 63-37 vote, with backing from more than a dozen Republicans.
Young was previously staff director for the House Appropriations Committee, and has support from top Democratic leaders including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco.
In a statement issued Wednesday, Pelosi said Young’s nomination was “well-deserved.”
Other Democratic lawmakers expressed support for Young on Twitter.
“Good call,” wrote Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.).
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (DMd.), a member of the Senate Budget Committee, which will vote first on the nominations, tweeted that Young’s “leadership is just what we need to implement a federal budget that prioritizes the American people.”
In Congress, Young oversaw $1.3 trillion in annual appropriations bills, disaster aid and COVID-19-related spending.
The head of the Office of Management and Budget puts together the president’s annual budget for Congress and oversees a wide range of logistical and regulatory issues in the federal government.
Coloretti would rejoin the federal government from her current post at the Urban Institute think tank, where she is senior vice president overseeing financial and business strategy.
Her prior federal service includes stints as deputy secretary at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, assistant secretary for management at the Treasury Department and acting chief operating officer at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Biden said Young and Coloretti are “two of the most experienced, qualified people to lead” the budget office, and called on the Senate to vote quickly to confirm them.