President Joe Biden on Wednesday nominated pro-abortion Shalanda Young to take the position of director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), a spot that had been unfilled for months now.
Since March, Young has served as acting budget director, but the Democratic leader's nomination will make her the first black woman to lead the OMB once the Senate approves the nomination. Young is President Biden's new choice following his withdrawal of the nomination of his first choice, Neera Tanden, who was met with bipartisan criticism.
According to the New York Post, Tanden's series of profanity-laced tweets about both Republicans and Democrats that were unearthed had jeopardized her chances of being confirmed. Some of those tweets were aimed at the very senators she needed to support her to be confirmed as OMB director.
Young, on the other hand, was confirmed by a 63-37 Senate vote but was also met with some controversy, as she once described access to abortion as a "racial justice" matter in a confirmation questionnaire in response to an inquiryon the Hyde Amendment.
"The President has spoken in favor of Congress ending the Hyde Amendment as part of his commitment to providing comprehensive health care for all women," Young wrote in her response to inquiries about the Hyde Amendment, which provides protection against federal funding for abortion except in cases of rape, incest, or life-threatening situations for the mother.
"Further, eliminating the Hyde Amendment is a matter of economic and racial justice because it most significantly impacts Medicaid recipients, who are low-income and more likely to be women of color."
Young, who was previously part of the House Appropriations Committee as a staff director, also raised questions during a June House Budget Committee meeting when she refused to answer queries on whether President Biden's proposed budget included funding for research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China, where many believe COVID truly originated from.
When Republican Rep. Jason Smith asked if Young could confirm that taxpayer money will not be used to fund coronavirus research, she deflected and said that despite having started her career in the the National Institutes of Health (NIH), she recommended to wait for the review before jumping to conclusions.
In a video announcement recorded by President Biden, the Democratic leader said, "The Office of Management and Budget has been called the nerve center of our government. 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," NBC News reported.
The OMB is set to oversee the $1.9 trillion pandemic relief package and a more than $1 trillion infrastructure plan drafted by President Biden, as well as his proposed $1.7 trillion social safety net and climate change package, which the Congress will pass in the coming weeks.
President Biden expressed confidence in Young, saying that she "has continued to impress me and congressional leaders as well" during her eight-month stint as acting director of OMB. He also announced that he would nominate as deputy director of OMB Nani Coloretti, who now serves as the senior vice president for financial and business strategy at the Urban Institute and has also served under the Obama administration. Finally, he urged the Senate to "swiftly" confirm his two nominees.
