On Thursday, Vice President Harris swore in congressional aide Shalanda Young as the head of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
Young is now the first Black woman in history to assume the Cabinet position.
Young was confirmed in a bipartisan 61-36 vote. For the past year, she has served as acting budget director. President Joe Biden nominated her after conservatives blocked his previous nominee, Neera Tanden.
“This morning I had the honor of swearing in Shalanda Young as our next Director of the Office of Management and Budget. Shalanda brings exceptional experience in budget management and longtime public service and will be the first Black woman to lead the agency,” Harris tweeted while sharing an image of the history-making event.
Young grew up in Clinton, La., and earned degrees from Loyola University New Orleans and Tulane University. She then went on to work at the National Institutes of Health in 2001 and then the House Appropriations Committee in 2007. While there, Young made history by becoming the first Black woman to serve as the committee’s majority staff director.
“I want to thank the president for the trust he has placed in me, as well as members of both parties in the Senate for their support,” Young said in a statement. “Together with the extraordinary team at O.M.B., we will continue to build on the historic progress our country has made, advance the president’s ambitious agenda and deliver results for the American people,” she said.
“Another glass ceiling shattered by a remarkable member of the President’s historic Cabinet,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said ahead of the vote.
Schumer added, “It shouldn’t have taken this long to confirm someone as obviously as qualified as Shalanda Young. She’s been leading the OMB for nearly a year. She knows the budget and appropriations processes like the back of her hand. She’s proven capable of working with Republicans and Democrats alike. And it was through her guidance the administration notched some of its biggest victories including the passage of the bipartisan infrastructure law.”
