Back in February, when Neera Tanden’s nomination to head the Office of Management and Budget was on the brink of collapse, the White House said if she doesn’t get confirmed she would be put in a position “that doesn’t require Senate confirmation.”
Since her nomination was pulled, Tanden worked as a senior adviser in the White House, but on Friday, the president named her White House staff secretary in what The New York Times describes as a “little known but influential West Wing post.”
In her new job, Ms. Tanden will be at the center of the flow of information between Mr. Biden and his senior White House advisers.
A White House official, who asked to remain anonymous because he was not authorized to speak publicly about internal staff moves, described Ms. Tanden’s new role as “the central nervous system of the White House,” helping to facilitate presidential decision-making.
But the official said that Ms. Tanden would retain the title of senior adviser and would continue to offer advice to the president and other senior White House officials on a range of topics.
The decision by Mr. Biden is a remarkable comeback for Ms. Tanden, who met fierce resistance from members of the Senate on both sides of the aisle for her frequent caustic remarks on social media.
Tanden’s nomination fell through after senators expressed concerns about her temperament and “extreme rhetoric” after she deleted more than a thousand mean tweets.
“You wrote that Susan Collins is ‘the worst,’ that Tom Cotton is a fraud, that vampires have more heart than Ted Cruz, you called Leader McConnell ‘Moscow Mitch’ and Voldemort,” Sen. Rob Portman said during her confirmation hearing.
Tanden said she “regretted” her tone and apologized for anyone hurt by them.
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