History has been made again in President Joe Biden’s administration. This week, with a bipartisan Senate confirmation, a Black woman will be named the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget.
Shalanda Young was confirmed to the position of Budget Director on Tuesday, March 15 by members of both parties in a 61-36 vote.
Only the official title will be new.
Young has been doing the job for the last year, serving as acting director after Neera Tanden, a former adviser to Hillary Clinton, withdrew herself from consideration for the job after receiving bipartisan opposition in March 2021. Tanden would later assume a different position within the administration, one that did not require a Senate vote.
Young, in the acting capacity, headed up the OMB while serving concurrently as its deputy director during one of the toughest economic seasons of the nation’s history, including working on disaster aid and “major aspects of COVID-19 related spending.”
The New York Times reports that since assuming the role she has overseen the rollout of Biden’s first budget and assisted in laying out the contours of the $1 trillion infrastructure law that the new president pushed through Congress last fall.
Young’s gifts were used to negotiate the Biden administration’s first government spending package that received on Thursday, March 10, its final approval from Congress.
Several politicians have spoken out about the landmark appointment.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer commented that this historic appointment is “another glass ceiling shattered by a remarkable member of the President’s historic Cabinet.”
Read full story at Atlanta Black Star here.
