Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday nominated two longtime colleagues to lead the federal budget office, making history as the first woman to lead the agency and the first African-American presidentially appointee to lead the Office of Management and Budget, the office announced.
Senator and former White House budget director Senator Max Baucus introduced each candidate to Senator Orrin Hatch, the senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, at a press conference Tuesday evening. Both Baucus and Hatch said they were past opponents of President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden; they praised the vice president’s record on personnel.
Shalanda Young will serve as the acting commissioner of the Office of Management and Budget for the upcoming fiscal year, a position that will commence on Jan. 1, according to a White House press release. Ms. Young was the deputy assistant secretary of budget for operations and management at the U.S. Agency for International Development and a special assistant to the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. She started her career at the White House counsel’s office under President Bill Clinton. She will likely take the place of Trump’s nominee for the position, Kevin Hassett, who withdrew his name from consideration for the position after the Senate confirmed Senator Jeff Sessions as U.S. attorney general earlier this month.
Ms. Coloretti will also serve as the acting commissioner of the Office of Management and Budget for the upcoming fiscal year, acting for former Acting Administrator Jeff Zients. Ms. Coloretti was the director of the International Monetary Fund’s Western Hemisphere Department and was appointed by the Trump administration as the Special Representative for International Trade and Investment in August. She was the chief economist for the Obama White House’s National Economic Council. She is the first woman to lead the Office of Management and Budget under the Modernizing Government Technology (MGT) Act of 2017, which required that a role that was formerly exempt from the executive order requiring presidential officials’ appearance before Congress be reviewed for possible reassignment or nomination.
“Today, the nation has good choices for the next leader of the Office of Management and Budget,” Secretary of Defense James Mattis said in a White House statement. “These two individuals are history-making choices for those jobs.”
“I am delighted with these choices,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said. “They represent two highly qualified public servants who have been leaders of their respective departments and served our nation well. I am pleased that they will be making contributions to further advancing the Trump Administration’s priorities on behalf of the American people.”
Read the White House press release here.