Tanden faces new hurdles in confirmation.
WASHINGTON >> The increasingly slim odds — and surprisingly thin outreach from the White House — for Neera Tanden’s nomination as head of the Office of Management and Budget are raising growing questions about how long the president will stick with her, in an early test of how he will use his limited political capital.
In the latest sign of trouble for Tanden, two Senate panels slated to take up her nomination, the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and the Budget Committee, both postponed meetings scheduled for Wednesday.
For the third successive day, the White House batted off questions about Tanden’s path to confirmation after at least one key Democrat and multiple Republicans came out against her.
Facing steep headwinds, President Joe Biden must make the calculation whether it’s worth expending political capital to defend Tanden as he faces tough fights with a divided Congress on everything from his $1.9 trillion coronavirus aid package to coming legislative packages on infrastructure and immigration.
Biden said Tuesday that the administration was going to keep pushing on Tanden because “we still think there’s a shot, a good shot.” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Wednesday that the White House is still “fighting for her nomination.”
Tanden’s confirmation prospects were thrown into doubt over the last week after Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia said he could not support her, citing her controversial tweets attacking members of both parties.
Tanden needs 51 votes in an evenly divided Senate, with Vice President Kamala Harris acting as a tiebreaker.
CIA nominee hearing
Biden’s nominee to run the CIA told lawmakers he would keep politics out of the job and deliver “unvarnished” intelligence to politicians and policymakers even if they don’t want to hear it. William Burns told members of the Senate Intelligence Committee at his confirmation hearing that “politics must stop where intelligence work begins.”
“That is exactly what President Biden expects of CIA. It was the first thing he told me when he asked me to take on this role,” Burns said. “He said he wants the agency to give it to him straight and I pledged to do just that and to defend those who do the same.”
Manchin will vote for Haalland
Sen. Manchin, chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said he will vote for New Mexico Rep. Deb Haaland to serve as interior secretary, clearing the way for her likely approval as the first Native American to head a Cabinet agency.
Manchin, a moderate from West Virginia, had been publicly undecided through two days of hearings on Haaland’s
nomination.
Manchin said Haaland had earned his vote despite disagreements over drilling on federal lands and the Keystone XL oil pipeline.
“I believe Deb Haaland will be a secretary of the Interior for every American and will vote to confirm her,’’ Manchin said in a statement.