THE confirmation hearing of Indian-American political consultant Neera Tanden would be held on February 9, a Senate panel has announced.
Tanden, 50, has been nominated by US president Joe Biden as his budget director. If confirmed by the Senate, she would be the first woman of colour and first Indian-American to lead the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
The office serves the US president in overseeing the implementation of his vision across the executive branch.
Specifically, the OMB’s mission is to assist the president in meeting his policy, budget, management and regulatory objectives and to fulfill the agency’s statutory responsibilities.
The hearing will be done by the Senate homeland security and governmental affairs committee. According to experts, it is likely to be one of the most contentious confirmation battles of the Biden administration.
Republican senators allege that she deleted more than 1,000 tweets, including criticism of Republicans.
Soon after Biden announced her nomination, influential Senator John Cornyn, who is also co-chair of the Senate India Caucus, described Tanden as the worst nominee of Biden.
“I think in light of her combative and insulting comments about many members of the Senate, mainly on our side of the aisle, that it creates certainly a problematic path to confirmation,” he said.
Announcing her nomination, Biden described Tanden as “a brilliant policy mind with critical practical experience across government.”
Tanden was a close ally of Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state and the 2016 Democratic presidential candidate, and helped pass the Affordable Care Act under president Barack Obama.
