US Senate confirmed Shalanda Young as the Deputy Director of OMB

Listen to this article

On Tuesday, US Senate has confirmed Shalanda Young (63-37 vote) to be deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget. She has received bipartisan honor from members of the US Congress over her work as the Democratic staff director for the House Appropriations Committee. Point to be noted that Young will be the first Black woman director of OMB. US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, and House Democratic Whip Jim Clyburn recommended her to lead the office. They issued a statement and cited Young’s “intellect, deep expertise on the federal budget and her determination to ensure that our budget reflects our values as a nation”. But some Asian American groups are now looking for Nani Coloretti. She served as deputy secretary of Housing and Urban Development in the Obama administration.

It is noteworthy that they are frustrated by the lack of Asian American and Pacific Islander representation in the Cabinet. Neera Tanden is Indian American and has been one of two Asian Americans in a Cabinet-level position. But, she withdrew her nomination after Democratic Senator Joe Manchin announced his opposition over her overtly partisan statements against Republican senators. Katherine Tai is the first woman of color to serve as US trade representative and the only Senate-confirmed Asian American in Biden’s Cabinet. On Monday, Hawaii Democratic Senator Mazie Hirono also criticized the White House at a virtual retreat for its lack of Asian-American representation in the Cabinet. Hirono said, “I shared the position that AAPI community has that there hasn’t been a significant number of AAPIs at the Cabinet-level”.

Hirono added, “I realize that we have Katherine Tai, but I don’t think the trade representative is what the community understands as a Cabinet-level position”. Gene Sperling (a former top economic adviser to Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama) and Ann O’Leary (a senior policy adviser to Hillary Clinton) has been considered potential picks to lead OMB. Sperling recently joined the Biden administration to oversee the implementation of the $1.9 Covid-19 relief package. O’Leary joined the law firm Jenner & Block and will teach a law school course at Stanford University. President Biden added the first Black Pentagon chief and Black chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, Lloyd Austin and Cecilia Rouse. The first female Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen, and the first African American and Asian American woman Kamala Harris as the Vice President.