WASHINGTON — The first of two Senate panels advanced President Joe Biden’s pick for deputy White House budget director on Wednesday morning, but not without some unexpected partisan fireworks.
The Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee’s party-line vote of 7-6 in favor of the nomination of Shalanda Young to be deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget was a somewhat surprising reversal from the bipartisan accolades Young has won thus far.
The panel’s top Republican, Ohio’s Rob Portman, based his opposition on Young’s support for removing the Hyde amendment from federal law. The 45-year old provision, named for former Rep. Henry J. Hyde, R-Ill., prohibits federal funding for abortions with limited exceptions for rape, incest or the woman’s life.
“I had planned to support Ms. Young based on her testimony before the committee,” Portman said. “In reviewing her answers to the committee’s questions for the record, though, I’ve got to say I was really troubled by her responses, particularly her strong advocacy for eliminating the Hyde amendment.”
Democrats say they’ll try to remove the Hyde amendment from the annual Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill later this year. Democrats also didn’t include explicit Hyde restrictions on federal health care funds in the $1.9 trillion pandemic relief package set to clear Congress later Wednesday, infuriating some Republicans.
“This is not esoteric anymore,” Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., said at the Homeland Security panel markup. “This week, what the House is voting on today, what the Senate passed on Saturday morning will be the first time in 44 years we as a country have used federal tax dollars to pay for abortion.”
Senate Homeland Security Chairman Gary Peters, D-Mich., said he didn’t understand how his GOP colleagues could object to a candidate they had said was qualified. Peters pointed out that Young had said in testimony before the committee and in her written responses to questions that she would follow the laws Congress approves, regardless of her personal views.
“In her written responses, Ms. Young stated that ending the Hyde amendment is a matter of economic and racial justice because its impact is felt most among low-income women of color. This is simply a statement of fact,” Peters said. “But she also confirmed that she will follow current law, which includes the Hyde amendment. So I have a hard time following the objections of my Republican colleagues.”
Young, a House Appropriations Committee staffer since 2007, is well-known and respected on both sides of the aisle and had been considered a lock for confirmation.
Top White House officials say that if she’s confirmed as deputy, Young will be installed as acting OMB director until Biden decides whom he’ll nominate to replace Neera Tanden, who dropped out of the running when it became clear she didn’t have the votes for confirmation.
Tanden withdrew her nomination in early March amid concerns from moderate Democrats that she wouldn’t be an effective voice for the Biden administration given controversy surrounding her open criticism of Republicans. GOP senators had expressed near-uniform opposition to Tanden, though Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski met with Tanden to hear her out and discuss priorities important to Murkowski’s constituents.
West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin III’s opposition to Tanden was a strong signal that her nomination was in trouble. Eventually both the Homeland Security and Budget panels postponed their committee votes on Tanden before she bowed out of the confirmation process, a sign there was more Democratic opposition than just Manchin.
Young’s reception thus far has been significantly different than Tanden’s.
Senate Appropriations Committee ranking member Richard C. Shelby, R-Ala., and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, the top Republican on the Budget Committee, have said they support her confirmation.
“Everybody that deals with you on our side has nothing but good things to say,” Graham said during Young’s confirmation hearing. “You might talk me out of voting for you, but I doubt it.”
Graham’s office did not immediately respond for a request for comment Wednesday morning about whether his level of support has changed.
The top three Democratic leaders in the House, the Congressional Black Caucus and the New Democrat Coalition have all sent letters to the White House urging Biden to nominate Young for the OMB director role.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday that Biden has yet to decide whom he will nominate for OMB director, but noted that Young will hold a central role in the administration even if she isn’t nominated for the top slot.
“He thinks so highly of her that he nominated her to serve as deputy director of OMB, which is an enormous job in the administration,” Psaki said. “And once she is confirmed she will serve as acting director of OMB.”
Psaki also said Tanden will become part of the administration.
“The president is committed to her serving in a role in the administration because he values her perspective and her experience,” Psaki said.
