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**APRIL 9, 2021**

Kuttner on TAP

RIP OMB?

****

For reasons that are all tangled up with diversity politics and
jockeying for power within the administration, Team Biden can't quite
bring itself to green-light the appointment of Shalanda Young to head
the Office of Management and Budget.

Young, who is African American, was confirmed by the Senate as deputy
director more than two weeks ago, 63-37, and is functioning as acting
director while the White House dithers on the top job.

Young, as Democratic staff director of the House Appropriations
Committee, has won praise from both parties. She has the strong support
of the congressional leadership and the Black Caucus.

So what's the holdup? You may recall that Biden's first choice for
OMB director, Neera Tanden, had to withdraw because key senators from
both parties refused to support her. That left Asian-American groups,
and senators such as Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, unhappy at the relative
paucity of Asian Americans in Biden's cabinet.

"I realize that we have Katherine Tai [at USTR]," Hirono complained

at a virtual White House retreat, "but I don't think the trade
representative is what the community understands as a Cabinet-level
(position)."

But in the meantime, despite the absence of a confirmed OMB director,
trillion-dollar budget decisions are being made, and not at OMB. As
Young's fate is left hanging, other White House power centers are
evidently happy not to have to run the OMB gauntlet.

It's a far cry from the Clinton-Obama era, when OMB under such budget
hawks as Alice Rivlin, Jack Lew, and Peter Orszag were in a major power
position. Given that OMB tends to attract fiscal conservatives, its
demotion is fine with me.

And speaking of USTR, a similar fate may befall that agency. The
aforementioned Katherine Tai has not emerged as a major power player. As
I reported in this space

on Wednesday, Biden's people leaked a truly bizarre likely appointment
of corporate Democrat and Biden old hand Sarah Bianchi as deputy U.S.
trade rep in charge of China policy. Problem is ... Bianchi has scant
background on China.

It kind of makes you think that the key power players, National-Security
Adviser Jake Sullivan in the case of China policy, and National Economic
Council director Brian Deese in the case of spending initiatives, are
just as happy to have these once powerful agencies demoted to the second
tier.

That seems fine in the case of OMB. But on China, trade policy is really
complicated. It makes sense to have Sullivan make the big strategic
calls on how geopolitical and industrial goals trade off. But it still
takes a competent trade agency to carry the policy out.

~ ROBERT KUTTNER

Follow Robert Kuttner on Twitter

Robert Kuttner's latest book is
The Stakes: 2020 and the Survival of American Democracy
.

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