Indian-American Neera Tanden is likely to be chosen for a top position in the White House. US President-elect Joe Biden is expected to name a longtime Democratic policy staffer Tanden as the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, media reports suggest.
Here are ten things you should know about Neera Tanden:
1. 50-year-old Tanden is currently tasked as chief executive of the left-leaning Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank in the country.
2. If confirmed by the United States Senate, Tanden will serve and oversee Biden-led administration’s budget and federal agencies.
3. The appointment, if comes through, will make her the first woman of colour and the first South Asian American to head the influential Office of Management and Budget at the White House.
4. Born in Massachusetts in 1970 to parents from India, Tanden is a graduate of University of California, Los Angeles and Yale Law School. Her parents divorced when she was five. Tanden and her brother grew up with their mother afterwards.
5. Tanden had also worked extensively with Hillary Clinton during the 2008 presidential bid, serving as policy director both in Clinton's Senate office and her presidential campaign.
6. She had previously served at the Department of Health and Human Services, as the domestic policy director for the Obama-Biden presidential campaign.
"Neera Tanden, who has an endless stream of disparaging comments about the Republican Senators' whose votes she'll need, stands zero chance of being confirmed," tweeted Drew Brandewie, a spokesman for Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas, on Sunday night.
7. Tanden and Nikki Haley (Indian-American woman governor at the age of 44) had been named among 50 Most Powerful Moms of 2014 by The Working Mother magazine.
8. In the same year, Tanden was also recognised by Fortune as one of the Most Powerful Women in Politics.
9. According to The Wall Street Journal, her nomination is expected along with former Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen as the first woman nominated to serve as treasury secretary, and Cecilia Rouse, a Princeton University economist, to chair the Council of Economic Advisers.
According to The New York Times, “With the picks, Mr Biden is showcasing a commitment to diversity in his advisers and sending a clear message that economic policymaking in his administration will be shaped by liberal thinkers with a strong focus on worker empowerment as a tool for economic growth."
10. Rouse, 56, and Tanden would be the first women of colour to serve in their roles. Biden also plans to hire an all-female White House communications team. Ronald Klain, Biden's first White House chief of staff, tweeted that the team is on course to fill "100 slots in the WH by the end of December!"
Feature Image Credit: AP News
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