United States President-elect Joe Biden is expected to appoint Neera Tanden as Director of the Office of Management and Budget, which oversees the budget of the administration and federal agencies, making her the first American of Indian descent to be appointed to a cabinet position in a Democratic administration.
Tanden, who currently heads the Center for American Progress, a think tank, is expected to be appointed by Biden along with former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen as Secretary of the Treasury and Cecilia Rouse, an economist at the University of Princeton, to chair the Council of Economic Advisers, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Although Tanden will be the first Native American in a Democratic president’s cabinet, if confirmed by the Senate, she will be the second overall for the community. Nikki Haley was President Donald Trump’s first as US ambassador to the UN, a rank position in the cabinet that was demoted to her successors.
“Great job and a really important first in the Cabinet. She has a great story (single mom, she knows what it’s like to be poor) but she went to Harvard and is the most knowledgeable person in progressive economics I’ve ever met, ”said Shekar Narasimhan, one of Biden’s top fundraisers and a consultant. close to the campaign and transition team who has known Tanden for a long time. He added, “I’m (a) huge Neera fan!”
Tanden, who went to Yale, was born in Massachusetts in 1970 to Indian parents, who divorced when she was five. Tanden and his brother were raised by their mother, as Narasimhan said. Tanden has talked about his family depending on food stamps to survive.
“Immediately after Kamala Harris becomes the next vice president, it is great to see another well qualified Indian-American woman nominated for a cabinet-level position,” said MR Rangaswami, founder of Indiaspora, an advocacy group for the community. “It is gratifying to see someone who has dedicated themselves to public service be recognized for this important role in managing the country’s budget.”
Biden, who injured an ankle while playing with one of her dogs on Sunday, also announced a pioneering women’s press team for his White House with Jen Psaki as the most visible face of the team as press secretary. She is a veteran of the Obama administration and is well known and considered among reporters covering the White House.
Two more Indian-Americans are in the mix for other cabinet positions. Vivek Murthy, a physician and former surgeon general, is one of the leading aspiring secretary of health and human services, a possibility that has been prompted by his appointment by Biden as co-chair of his advisory council to combat Covid-19, which, The president-elect has said it will be his first assignment after taking office in January.
Others in the race are Michelle Lujan Grisham, Hispanic governor of New Mexico, and Jeffery D Zients, director of former President Barack Obama’s National Economic Council.
The second American Indian among the Cabinet potentials is Arun Majumdar. He is reportedly running for Secretary of Energy, to head a department whose key mandate includes the maintenance, not the deployment or use, of America’s nuclear arsenal. The department has its origin in the Manhattan Project.
Majumdar, an alumnus of IIT Bombay, heads Stanford University’s Precourt Institute of Energy and confronts Ernest Moniz, Obama’s energy secretary who played a key role in shaping the Iran nuclear deal, a political achievement. distinctive exterior of the Obama-Biden administration.
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