The Biden administration will start sending vaccines directly to community health centers across the country as early as next week, White House says.
When then-President-elect Joe Biden unveiled his economic team in November, one nominee received stiff resistance from Senate Republicans: Neera Tanden, his choice to become director of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget.
Tanden’s confirmation hearing took place before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Tuesday morning, and in her opening statement, she said she regretted her past tweets.Neera Tanden, nominee for director of the Office and Management and Budget, swears in to testify before a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee confirmation hearing, Feb. 9, 2021 in Washington, DC.
“I also know that the role of OMB director is different from some of my past positions,” Tanden said. “Over the last few years, it’s been part of my role to be an impassioned advocate. I know there have been some concerns about some of my past language and social media, and I regret that language and take responsibility for it. I understand that the role of OMB director calls for bipartisan action as well as nonpartisan adherence to facts and evidence.
Sen. Rob Portman, of Ohio, the top Republican member of the committee, noted that “typically the OMB director is not a partisan” because the director needs to have relationships with lawmakers from both parties. He read specific things he said Tanden had tweeted about Sens. Susan Collins, Tom Cotton, Ted Cruz and Mitch McConnell.
“I believe that the tone, the content and the aggressive partisanship of some of your public statements, have added to the troubling trend of more incivility and division in our public life, and in your case, I’m concerned that your personal attacks about specific senators will make it more difficult to work with them,” Portman said.