Office of Management and Budget nominee Neera Tanden's chances of being confirmed are all but sunk after Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), often a swing vote in Congress, came out against the nominee.
"Neera Tanden has neither the experience nor the temperament to lead this critical agency," Collins said in a statement. "Her past actions have demonstrated exactly the kind of animosity that President Biden has pledged to transcend."
Shortly after her decision, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) also came out against the nomination. On the heels of Sen. Joe Manchin's (D-WV) own "no" vote, Tanden doesn't have the 50 votes she needs to become the next head of the OMB.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, however, announced on Twitter on Monday that they are standing by their controversial pick.
Neera Tanden=accomplished policy expert, would be 1st Asian American woman to lead OMB, has lived experience having benefitted from a number of federal programs as a kid, looking ahead to the committee votes this week and continuing to work toward her confirmation
— Jen Psaki (@PressSec) February 22, 2021
Senators are wary about Tanden, in part, because of her past partisan tweets. She's written that Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) is "a fraud," that vampires "have more heart" than Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), and that Sen. Collins is "the worst." She deleted many of those off-color messages and said in her confirmation hearings that she regretted hitting "publish."
Observers are reminding the Biden administration that the president pledged to bring a sense of "unity" to the country.
The Senate Homeland Security and Budget committees will vote on Tanden this week.
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