In A Historic First For Democrats Joe Biden May Nominate Indian-American Neera Tanden To Cabinet

US President-elect Joe Biden is expected to nominate Neera Tanden as the director of the Office of Management and Budget. The office oversees the administration’s budget and federal agencies. If confirmed by the senate, Neera Tanden will become the first Indian-American to be appointed to a cabinet position in a Democratic administration.

Tanden is currently the head of the Centre for American Progress, a public policy research organisation. She is expected to be nominated along with the former Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen as treasury secretary and Cecilia Rouse, a Princeton University economist, to chair the Council of Economic Advisers.

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As head of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Tanden will be responsible for preparing Biden’s budget submission and will have to supervise and command several hundred budget analysts, economists and policy advisers.

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Shekar Narasimhan, who is a top fundraiser for Biden, and a close adviser to the campaign and has known Tanden for a long time said," Big job and a real important first in the Cabinet. She has a great story (as she was raised by a single mother and knows what it is to be poor) but went to Harvard and is the most well-versed person in progressive economics I have ever met." He also mentioned that he is a huge fan of Neera.

Tanden was born in Massachusetts in the year 1970. Her parents got divorced when she was five. Tanden and her siblings were brought up by their mother. She has also spoken about how her family used to rely on food coupons to get by. She graduated from Yale. Later, she started working on domestic policy on Capitol Hill, in think tanks, and for various Democratic senatorial and presidential campaigns.

Picture Credit: NY Times

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Khushi Gupta is an intern with SheThePeople.TV