U.S. President-elect Joe Biden on Tuesday formally introduced key members of his economic team, including Janet Yellen, who would be the first woman to serve as Treasury secretary, and Neera Tanden, 50, who would be the first woman of color and first South Asian American to oversee the office if confirmed.
CNN reported that Tanden said it is her “profound honor to help shape the budgets and programs to keep lifting Americans up, to pull families back from the brink, to give everybody the fair chance my mom got, and that every single person deserves.”
“That’s the America they were drawn to, the America the President-Elect and Vice President-Elect are ready to grow,” she added.
Tanden noted that as Vice President-elect Harris, her mother also was born in India and immigrated to the US to pursue a better life.
A day earlier, Tanden tweeted: “After my parents were divorced when I was young, my mother relied on public food and housing programs to get by. Now, I’m being nominated to help ensure those programs are secure, and ensure families like mine can live with dignity. I am beyond honored.”
Biden’s announcement on Monday that he planned to nominate Tanden sparked backlash from Republicans as well as some on the left.
But Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor that Tanden “is so eminently qualified that some on the Republican side, grasping at straws, have taken issue with comments made on Twitter criticizing the policy positions of Republicans in Congress.” He said: “Honestly, the hypocrisy is astounding. If Republicans are concerned about criticism on Twitter, their complaints are better directed at President [Donald] Trump.”
According to Wikipedia, “[Tanden] is the president of the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank in Washington, D.C., where she has served in different capacities since 2003.
“Tanden has worked on several Democratic presidential campaigns, including those of Michael Dukakis in 1988, Bill Clinton in 1992, and Barack Obama in 2008. Tanden advised Hillary Clinton’s successful 2016 primary campaign and unsuccessful 2016 general election campaign. She was also a senior staffer on Clinton’s unsuccessful campaign for the 2008 Democratic nomination. During the Obama administration, Tanden helped draft the Affordable Care Act.”
A native of Bedford, Massachusetts, Tanden received her bachelor of science degree from UCLA and her JD from Yale Law School.
