WASHINGTON — The Senate on Tuesday confirmed Shalanda Young as director of the Office of Management and Budget, giving the agency full-time leadership in the preparation of the Biden administration’s second budget for the first time in more than a year.
The Senate confirmed Ms. Young, the first black woman to head the agency, by a vote of 61 to 36. The vote came almost a year after Ms. Young was confirmed as Deputy Director of Budget and began acting as head of the agency. agency.
“It shouldn’t have taken this long to confirm someone with such obvious qualifications as Shalanda Young,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer, New York Democrat and Majority Leader, adding, “She has proven her ability to work with both Republicans as well as Democrats.”
Ms. Young, a former senior aide on Capitol Hill, was seen as the favorite to head Biden’s White House budget office. She grew up in Clinton, Louisiana and received degrees from Loyola University New Orleans and Tulane University.
She joined the National Institutes of Health in 2001 and moved to the House Appropriations Committee in 2007. She rose through the ranks to become the first black woman to serve as chief director of the committee, running the annual marathon of recent years. overnight talks on a dozen bills that fund the government.
“Schalanda will bring to this important position a mastery of the appropriation process, deep knowledge of the law, and an unwavering commitment to America’s families,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement. “Widely respected on both sides of the aisle, she will be an invaluable strategic asset to Democrats and the nation as Congress continues to work with the administration to advance our security and economic interests.”
In her role in the House of Representatives, Ms. Yang helped legislate over $3 trillion in pandemic relief packages, in addition to yearly negotiations on how to keep the government funded, winning bipartisan applause for the way she handled herself.
Mr. Biden initially appointed Nira Tanden, a former adviser to Hillary Clinton and president of the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, to head his budget office. But Ms. Tanden left due to bipartisan opposition and has since taken on various roles in the White House that did not require Senate confirmation.
Ms. Yang was confirmed as deputy budget director last March, and Mr. Biden announced her appointment as director in November. Over the past year, Ms. Yang oversaw the release of Mr. Biden’s first budget, helped finalize a $1 trillion infrastructure bill, and negotiated the Biden administration’s first public spending package, which received final approval in Congress on Thursday. . Shortly before her confirmation, Ms. Yang was at the White House watching Mr. Biden sign the package into law.
“As evidenced by the strong bipartisan vote she received, Shalanda Young is well known to many of us for her many years of experience on the House Appropriations Committee,” Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, who described Ms. Young as “intelligent,” said in a statement. just and knowledgeable.”
Some Republicans have objected to Ms. Young’s promotion to a budget agency partly because of her support for getting rid of the so-called Hyde Amendment to the annual spending bill, which bans federal funds from most abortions.
At the urging of Republicans, whose votes were needed to pass the spending package Biden signed on Tuesday, that policy restriction remained in law.
The President appointed Nani A. Coloretti, former Deputy Secretary of the Obama Administration’s Department of Housing and Urban Development, to the position of Deputy Director of the Budget. If confirmed by the Senate, Ms. Coloretti would become one of the highest-ranking Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, or Pacific Islanders in the federal government, according to the White House.