President Biden Nominates Shalanda Young As White House Budget Director

President Joe Biden has nominated Shalanda Young as director of the Office of Management and Budget, who will take up the post if confirmed.

The nomination is a big deal because Young would become the first Black woman to hold the position if approved by the Senate.

NBC News reported that her selection comes as the role has not been filled for months. 

Since March, Young has been an acting budget director, but she would now formally move into the post as the Biden administration works to apply its economic agenda.

That includes a $1.9 trillion pandemic relief package and an infrastructure plan exceeding $1 trillion. It also will consist of a $1.7 trillion social safety net and climate change package potentially being passed by Congress in upcoming weeks.

“The Office of Management and Budget has been called the nerve center of our government,” Biden said in a video announcement. “This is an agency that not only helps me create the budget, but also makes sure that your tax dollars are spent efficiently and effectively.”

A longtime veteran of the House Appropriations Committee, Young was confirmed as deputy director of the OMB earlier this year in a bipartisan 63–37 vote. Young had been serving as acting director after Biden’s initial choice to lead the agency, Neera Tanden, was withdrawn over past comments she made on Twitter criticizing Republicans and Democrats in the Senate. Tanden is now White House staff secretary, a role not requiring Senate confirmation.

Biden also nominated Nani Coloretti as deputy director of OMB. She is now senior vice president for financial and business strategy at the Urban Institute and served in the Obama administration. Biden said Coloretti would be one of the most senior Asian Americans in government.

Biden said that both Young and Coloretti have been confirmed before with bipartisan support and pressed  the Senate to “swiftly confirm them again so they can lead OMB at this important time.”