Joe Biden’s choice to head the Office of Administration and Budget, Neera Tanden, withdrew his nomination after she faced opposition from Democratic and Republican senators because of his previous controversial tweets.
Her withdrawal marks the president’s first failure as he seeks confirmation from the Senate for cabinet nominees.
“I accepted Neera Tanden’s request to remove his name from the nomination for director of the Office of Management and Budget,” said Biden in a statement. “I have the greatest respect for her record of achievements, her experience and her advice, and I hope she will play a role in my administration. It will bring a valuable perspective and insight to our work. “
Tanden’s confirmation faced increasingly steep odds. Republican senators who opposed his nomination cited tweets attacking members of both parties prior to his nomination. And last week, Joe Manchin, a conservative Democratic senator, announced that he would oppose his nomination, also citing his tweets. This left Tanden without a majority of the votes needed in the Senate floor and on the committees involved.
Manchin, a moderate deciding vote in the Senate, said last month: “Your openly partisan statements will have a toxic and damaging impact on the important working relationship between members of Congress and the next director of the Office of Management and Budget.”
Susan Collins, the Republican senator from Maine, meanwhile, cited Biden’s own standard of conduct in opposing Tanden, stating in a statement: “His previous actions demonstrated exactly the kind of animosity that President Biden promised to transcend.”
Tanden was an unexpected choice to head Biden’s budget team. She is a longtime ally of Hillary Clinton and has openly criticized both Republicans and Democrats, especially Bernie Sanders supporters. Tanden said in his confirmation hearings that he regretted previous statements, but that was not enough to influence the required number of senators.
Eleven of the 23 Biden cabinet nominees who require Senate approval have been confirmed, the majority with strong bipartisan support.
“Unfortunately, it now seems clear that there is no way forward to obtain confirmation, and I do not want the continued consideration of my appointment to be a distraction from his other priorities,” wrote Tanden in a letter to Biden.
Tanden needed only 51 votes in an evenly divided Senate, with Kamala Harris, the vice president, acting as a tiebreaker. But without Manchin’s support, the White House struggled to find a Republican to support it.
A possible Republican vote, Lisa Murkowski, an Alaskan senator, told reporters on Tuesday that she had not yet decided on Tanden’s nomination.
The White House remained with Tanden even after several central Republicans made their opposition known, insisting that her experience growing with social assistance and working on progressive policies while running the liberally oriented Center for American Progress made her the right candidate at the time.
Ron Klain, the White House chief of staff, initially insisted that the government was “fighting our guts” for it.
Tanden apologized during his confirmation hearing for “people on the left or on the right who were hurt by what I said”. Just before the hearing, she deleted hundreds of tweets, many of which were critical of Republicans.
Collins cited these deleted tweets in his statement, saying the change “raises concerns about his commitment to transparency”. She said that Congress “has to rely on the director of the OMB to make numerous decisions impartially, in compliance with the law and the intention of Congress.”
The head of the Office of Management and Budget is tasked with drawing up the administration’s budget, as well as overseeing a wide range of logistical and regulatory issues across the federal government.
Tanden’s withdrawal leaves the Biden government without a clear replacement. The apparent leader is Shalanda Young, a former director of the House’s funding committee who has been actively pressured by members of the Congressional Black Caucus.
Other names mentioned include Ann O’Leary, former chief of staff to Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, and Gene Sperling, who served as economic adviser to Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.