President Joe Biden’s nominee for leading the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Neera Tanden, will not have Sen. Mitt Romney’s (R-Utah) support.
Romney made it clear he will not vote to confirm Tanden for the position.
His office said in a statement on Monday, “Senator Romney has been critical of extreme rhetoric from prior nominees, and this is consistent with that position. He believes it’s hard to return to comity and respect with a nominee who has issued a thousand mean tweets,” according to The Hill.
Tanden’s confirmation appears to be endangered. The statement from Romney’s office comes shortly after Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) made known Monday she will not support confirming Tanden.
“Neera Tanden has neither the experience nor the temperament to lead this critical agency. Her past actions have demonstrated exactly the kind of animosity that President Biden has pledged to transcend,” Collins said in a statement.
She continued:
“The OMB needs steady, experienced, responsive leadership. I will vote against confirming Ms Tanden.”
Democrats hold a 50-50 majority in the Senate — meaning they do not need any Republican support if all Democrats vote to confirm Tanden. However, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) on Friday pointed to Tanden’s past criticism of Republicans in tweets as his reason to oppose her confirmation.
Manchin wrote in a statement, “I believe her overtly partisan statements will have a toxic and detrimental impact on the important working relationship between members of Congress and the next director of the Office of Management and Budget. For this reason, I cannot support her nomination.”
Two committees are expected to vote this week in an effort to push Tanden’s nomination to the full Senate, according to The Hill.
During a confirmation hearing on Feb. 10, Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) confronted Tanden about her past criticism of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), as IJR reported.
“I mean, you called Sen. Sanders everything but an ignorant slut…and when you said these things, did you mean them?” Kennedy said.
Tanden responded that she “deeply” regrets her past comments.
In case you missed it:
CLIP: Exchange between Senator Kennedy and OMB nominee Neera Tanden.@SenJohnKennedy: "You called Senator Sanders everything but an 'ignorant slut.'"
— CSPAN (@cspan) February 10, 2021
Full video here: https://t.co/vjUdxHtPdu pic.twitter.com/OtXAAz7c8B
Kennedy later added, “I want the record to reflect that I did not call Sen. Sanders an ignorant slut,” before Sanders commented with a laugh, “I don’t know how I should take that Sen. Kennedy.”
