Biden selects two women to lead Office of Management and Budget
President Biden will nominate Shalanda Young to lead the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on Wednesday, two people directly familiar with the forthcoming nomination tell CBS News. Young, who's been acting director since March, would be the first Black woman to officially hold the post if confirmed.
This comes after the Biden administration withdrew Neera Tanden's nomination in March after controversy arose over some of her social media posts. Tanden is now the staff secretary at the White House, a senior level position.
The sources also say Nani Coloretti will be nominated as OMB deputy director.
That would make her one of the highest-ranking Asian Americans in government, and would mean OMB would be led by two women of color.
Congressional leaders had been pushing the White House to tap Young for the permanent position for months. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and top Democrats recommended her for the job, saying in a joint statement that "her leadership at the OMB would be historic and would send a strong message." The Congressional Black Caucus also endorsed Young and has been lobbying for her to get the full-time directorship.
"We have more than a decade history with her," CBC Chair Representative Joyce Beatty told CBS News earlier this year. "We've watched the financial magic that she's worked. I think she has proven herself in these days of working with Democrats and Republicans, not giving us a divided or different message."
Young previously worked on Capitol Hill as a clerk and staff director for the House Appropriations Committee, where she oversaw annual spending bills and a series of pandemic relief packages.
She was confirmed as deputy director of the budget office by the Senate in a bipartisan vote of 63-37 in March.
While some Republicans criticized Young's stance on abortion, several GOP lawmakers indicated they would be willing to support her as the budget director nominee. "You may be more than the deputy. You may be the sheriff," Senator John Kennedy, a Republican from Louisiana, noted during her first confirmation hearing.
Young would play a key role at a pivotal time in the administration. Mr. Biden recently signed a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill into law and is hoping to pass a larger social spending package through Congress before the end of the year to fulfill his Build Back Better agenda.
Young went on maternity leave this fall. OMB deputy director of management Jason Miller said he is running the day-to-day operations while she is "taking some time" with her newborn daughter.
"We have a fantastic team here at OMB," Miller told reporters this month. "We're confident about where we are and we're getting a lot of stuff done."
Coloretti is the senior vice president for financial and business strategy at the Urban Institute. She was in the Obama administration for almost eight years, including three years as deputy secretary of Housing and Urban Development and five at the Treasury Department, where she helped set up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
