White House not ready to name Tanden replacement

President Biden is not expected to name a new nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) until next week at the earliest after Neera Tanden withdrew from consideration for the job late Tuesday.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Wednesday would not elaborate on the political math that prompted Tanden to withdraw as the nominee for OMB director, but she said Biden would take a few days before naming a replacement.

“Given Neera Tanden withdrew her nomination just last night … you should not expect any announcement on a future nominee this week,” Psaki said at a briefing with reporters.

Tanden withdrew from consideration Tuesday night as her path to confirmation remained extremely narrow, with only a few senators yet to publicly state how they would vote on her nomination.

But the timing of the decision raised questions after Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), the lone Republican yet to say whether she’d support Tanden, said she had not yet told the White House how she planned to vote when the nomination was pulled.

“I’m not going to get into the details of who was or wasn’t against her or for her or was or wasn’t going to vote for her or against her,” Psaki said. “We can leave that to members of the Senate to speak to on their own. But it was recognition that Neera Tanden made.”

“We certainly of course … accepted her decision to withdraw her nomination. And when we have an announcement about the new nominee we will make that,” she added.

Psaki did not speculate on a potential nominee to lead OMB moving forward. Top Democrats in Congress have backed Shalanda Young, who is the nominee for deputy director, to run the agency.