The Biden government continues to firmly support the choice of Budget Director Neera Tanden, in addition to working to raise the federal minimum wage, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Sunday.
“We remain committed to fighting with our hearts for Neera Tanden,” Psaki told Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace. “We believe that she is the right person – she is qualified, she has experience – to lead the budget department. She brings a unique experience as someone who has lived to benefit from several of these programs and she worked on these issues for decades in the corridor, so we will continue to fight for it. “
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Psaki made similar comments during an appearance on “The View” on Thursday. Tanden’s hopes of becoming the next head of the powerful Office of Management and Budget are in jeopardy after Senator Joe Manchin, DW. Va., A decisive vote, announced its opposition due to its caustic history on Twitter.
On this December 1, 2020, photo from the archive appointed by President-elect Joe Biden to serve as Director of the Office of Management and Budget Neera Tanden speaks at The Queen theater in Wilmington, Del. (AP Photo / Andrew Harnik, Archive)
“We knew that some of these fights would be difficult, and this is certainly one of them, but it will have a series of ongoing commitments this week and we are certainly hopeful that we will be able to cross the finish line,” said Psaki on Sunday.
Psaki also addressed a setback in pressure from Demcrats to raise the federal minimum wage to $ 15 an hour. The Senate congressman said the salary increase could not be included in the $ 1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill. Psaki said that President Biden supports Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt .’s efforts to raise the minimum wage, but that his team has not yet analyzed Sanders’s proposal, which would remove tax deductions from large companies that don’t pay workers, at least $ 15 an hour.
“We have not yet revised that proposal. But the president supports exactly what Senator Sanders does, which is to raise the minimum wage for the American people, for workers who are just trying to make ends meet, and he thinks that should be done already. done a long time ago, “Psaki said.
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“We are going to have to spend the next few days or even weeks trying to figure out the best way to go, but he is committed to doing that,” said Psaki.
In addition, Psaki discussed the White House’s response after Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, DN.Y., made some strong words to the Biden government after news emerged that a detention center for migrant children in Texas was reopening. .
“This is not well, it has never been well, it will never be well – no matter the government or the party,” wrote the New York Congresswoman on Twitter.
Psaki insisted that Biden’s policy was the most “humane” option and countered critics who said the government was essentially encouraging underage migrants to cross the border illegally, ending the Trump administration’s practice of immediately returning unaccompanied minors.
“We have no ambiguities,” said Psaki. “This is not the time to come.”
Fox News ‘David Rutz, Sam Dorman and Morgan Phillips and Fox Business’ Brittany De Lea contributed to this report.