New Delhi: US President-elect – Joe Biden on Monday announced his ‘Crisis tested’ economic team.
In his team Joe Biden added Neera Tanden as Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Cecilia Rouse will be the Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers and Jared Bernstein and Heather Boushey will be the members of the Council of Economic Advisers.
Joe Biden added Janet Yellen also in his ‘Crisis tested’ team as a Secretary of the Treasury and Wally Adeyemo as Deputy Secretary of the Treasury.
A-50-year-old Tanden would be the first woman of colour and the first Indian-American to head the influential office at the White House. Neera Tanden is already working as President and she is CEO (Chief Executive Officer) of the Centre for American Progress, a public policy research and advocacy organisation.
About the Neera – The Biden transitions said that “A veteran of multiple presidential administrations, Tanden has been a leading architect and advocate of policies designed to support working families, foster broad-based economic growth, and curb inequality throughout her career”
Her experience as a child relying on food stamps and Section 8 housing — a social safety net that offered her single mother the foundation she needed to land a good job and punch her family”s ticket to the middle class — instilled in her the true necessity of an economy that serves the dignity and humanity of all people, the transition added.
Tanden was born in Bedford, Massachusetts to immigrant parents from India. Her parents divorced when she was five, after which Tanden’s mother was on welfare for nearly two years before obtaining a job as a travel agent.
The senior advisor of the former president Barack Obama – Valarie Jarret said that “Tanden grew up on welfare and lived in public housing. She experienced firsthand the importance of our social programs,” Valarie Jarrett was Assistant to the president for public engagement and intergovernmental affairs from 2009 to 2017.
“Her extraordinary career has been devoted to improving opportunities for working families. She is an excellent choice to lead the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)” Jarret said.
The president of third yay progressive think-tank – Jon Cowan said that “Tanden will be a fantastic OMB Director and she is a battle-tested policy expert who is widely respected for her passion and intelligence,” he said in a statement.”
Neera currently serves on the New Jersey Restart and Recovery Commission, and previously served as senior adviser for health reform at the US Department of Health and Human Services developing policies and provisions of the Affordable Care Act, as director of domestic policy for the first Obama-Biden presidential campaign, and in a variety of other roles in government and on the campaign trail.
On Neera’s work – American media published a report, in which they wrote that “Tanden has advocated aggressive spending to alleviate economic harm from the pandemic and has dismissed concerns about adding to the deficit at the current moment.”
“She’s a strategic policy wonk with lived experience who will fight tirelessly for working families and kids. I was a budget examiner at OMB & the career staff there is the best in the business. Neera will be an exceptional leader,” said Winnie Stachelberg from Center for American Progress.
An American political advisor and former Communications Director at White House (2015 to 2017) Jen Psaki said that “Tanden is a brilliant policy expert and knows how vital funding for govt programmes is and as a child for a period her family relied on food stamps to eat, on Section 8 vouchers to pay the rent and on the social safety. Her fresh perspective can help meet this moment.”
_Vinayak