President Biden withdrew the nomination of Neera Tanden to lead the Office of Management and Budget, the White House said Tuesday evening.
In a statement, Biden praised Tanden’s “record of accomplishment, her experience and her counsel” and said he looks forward to Tanden serving in another role.
“She will bring valuable perspective and insight to our work,” he added.
Tanden faced bipartisan opposition in the Senate due to years of acerbic Twitter broadsides targeting everyone from onetime Democratic Party presidential primary candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders to Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, alienating key votes needed to confirm her nomination in the evenly divided Senate.
Tanden held 46 meetings with Senate lawmakers and met with numerous advocacy groups, outreach that started soon after Biden announced her nomination.
As the first prospective Asian American woman to lead the office, Tanden garnered crucial endorsements from the worlds of business and labor.
She was backed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Communications Workers of America, and multiple organizations representing Asian Americans.
Tanden, who has deleted more than 1,000 of her tweets, apologized for her past insults during a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing in February.
She stepped up her outreach to senators as her nomination began to stall.
Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a Democrat, said in February that he would oppose her, meaning the White House would require at least one Republican vote.
Her path grew more challenging as several centrist Republicans joined Manchin in staking out their opposition to her, including Sens. Mitt Romney of Utah and Susan Collins of Maine.
“We’re fighting our hearts out for Neera Tanden,” press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters last week. Chief of staff Ron Klain made similar comments.
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But when two Senate committees postponed their scheduled nomination votes, Tanden’s fate looked sealed.
Her last best hope came this week as she met with Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a centrist Republican, who said after the meeting that she had not yet decided which way she would go.
“I’m still doing my assessment,” Murkowski told reporters. “I have some more follow-up questions.”
Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby said last week he would support the OMB deputy director-designate, Shalanda Young, for the senior role if Biden were to nominate her.
Asked about Young last week, the White House said it was still behind Biden’s first pick.
“There’s one nominee to lead the budget department. Her name is Neera Tanden, and that’s who we‘re continuing to fight for,“ Psaki said.
On Tuesday, during a Budget Committee hearing, Republican lawmakers heaped praise on Young, a former clerk and staff director for the House Appropriations Committee.
Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina asked if she could run OMB, then quipped, “You’ll get my support, maybe for both jobs.”
“Everybody who deals with you on our side has nothing but good things to say. You might talk me out of voting for you, but I doubt it,” Graham said.
Young is tipped as a favorite for the budget chief position.
“She made a very strong presentation today,” Sanders, an independent and the Senate Budget Committee chairman, told CNN on Tuesday shortly before the White House’s announcement.
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Asked if he would vote to confirm Tanden for budget chief, Sanders, once a frequent target of Tanden’s Twitter ire, said he would decide at the time of the vote.
