President Biden withdrew Neera Tanden's nomination to lead the Office of Management and Budget, the White House announced Tuesday.
"I have accepted Neera Tanden’s request to withdraw her name from nomination for Director of the Office of Management and Budget," Biden said in a statement. "I have the utmost respect for her record of accomplishment, her experience and her counsel, and I look forward to having her serve in a role in my Administration. She will bring valuable perspective and insight to our work."
In a letter to Biden, Tanden wrote that "it now seems clear that there is no path forward to gain confirmation, and I do not want continued consideration of my nomination to be a distraction from your other priorities."
"It has been an honor of a lifetime to be considered for this role and for the faith placed in me," Tanden continued.
If confirmed by the Senate, Tanden would have become both the first woman of color and the first South Asian American woman to oversee the federal agency, which is responsible for preparing the White House’s budget requests to Congress.
Tanden's nomination was in peril from the very start given her history of partisan tweets and fierce criticism of Senate Republican and some Democratic members. After Sen. Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) announced that he would oppose Tanden, the White House scrambled to find enough Republican votes to reach a 50-50 tie.
The Biden administration also turned to Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) lawmakers and advocacy groups to rally behind Tanden. In a letter to the Senate last week, members of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) wrote that Tanden's nomination "bears historic significance for the AAPI communities that we represent."
The Democratic National Committee and administration officials also encouraged digital efforts aimed at swaying GOP Senators using hashtags like #YESNeera.
“It is incredibly frustrating to watch because we are talking about individuals who are preeminently qualified, but also coming from communities that have been screaming at the top of their lungs to be visible and valued by this country,” National Council of Asian Pacific Americans national director Gregg Orton told POLITICO.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
