WASHINGTON – Neera Tanden’s appointment as director of the Office of Management and Budget got another blow on Monday when Senator Susan Collins, R-Maine, announced her opposition.
“Neera Tanden does not have the experience or the temperament to lead this critical agency,” Collins said in a statement. “Her actions in the past have shown exactly the kind of hostility that President Biden has promised to surpass.”
Collins said Tanden’s decision to “remove more than a thousand tweets in the days before her nomination was announced raises concerns about her commitment to transparency.”
“If Congress needs to review documents or actions by OMB, we need to trust that the director is present,” she said. ‘The OMB needs consistent, experienced, responsive leadership. I would vote against me. To confirm teeth. ”
Collins’ announcement comes after Senator Joe Manchin, DW.Va., said Friday that he would oppose Tanden to serve as OMB director. He said he had reviewed Tanden’s previous tweets in which he criticized officials across the political spectrum, saying he could not support her nomination because “her openly biased statements would have a toxic and detrimental impact” on the relationship between the Congress and OMB.
With Manchin’s opposition, Democrats will need at least one GOP vote to confirm her on the Senate floor. Collins’ rejection of the nomination does not bode well for Tanden, as the Maine senator is among the more moderate members of the party who sometimes join the Democrats in key votes.
President Joe Biden said Friday in response to Manchin’s announcement that he has no plans to withdraw Tanden’s nomination.
Former Senator Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., tweeted the weekend that she hopes Tanden will be confirmed, calling her ‘smart, experienced and qualified’ to lead OMB.
“We must always remember that in the future there will be a Republican president who wants his / her nominees confirmed,” he said.
