Neera Tanden will help shape USA policies as White House staff secretary
This morning Neera Tanden was appointed as the White House staff secretary. While starting on the new job next week, she will continue to serve as a senior adviser to President Joe Biden’s Administration.
Traditionally the staff secretary has “control over the documents that make it to the president, whether they be briefing books or decision memos laying out the arguments on major decisions,” The Washington Post reported.
As staff secretary, Tanden will report to Biden’s chief of staff Ron Klain. Klain was on the board of the Center For American Progress (CAP), where Tanden served as chief executive.
CAP is a policy and lobbying group whose mission is to promote “bold, progressive ideas, as well as strong leadership and concerted action. Our aim is not just to change the conversation, but to change the country.” In the 2020 elections, individuals affiliated with CAP, its employees and their family members donated $607,000 to Democratic candidates, including $64,000 to Joe Biden’s campaign.
Last November U.S. President-elect Joe Biden nominated Neera Tanden as the director of the Office of Management and Budget, a role to prepare the annual Federal Budget and oversee its administration.
But in March, Tanden’s nomination was withdrawn after Senator Joe Manchin, Democrat from West Virginia, said he would oppose her confirmation. With the Republicans also opposed, she had no chance of being confirmed as Budget Director, given the 50:50 split between Democrats and Republicans in the Senate.
In May, Tanden was named as a senior adviser to The White House. In this role, she is assisting in the political effort to pass Biden’s economic plans, according to The Washington Post. She is also overseeing a review of the U.S. Digital Service, which designs and maintains the federal government’s technology infrastructure.
Before working at CAP, Tanden was a senior adviser at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, developing policies for President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act. Earlier, she was the director of domestic policy for the Obama-Biden presidential campaign. She also served as the policy director for Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign.
Tanden served as legislative director in Senator Hillary Clinton’s office and deputy campaign manager for Clinton’s 2000 Senate campaign. She began her career as an associate director for domestic policy under President Bill Clinton. She said she owes a lot to Hillary Clinton for her career success and was her loyal soldier.
At UCLA, Tanden received her bachelor of science. She earned her law degree from Yale University. Her husband Benjamin Edwards is a visual artist and writer, whom she met while studying at UCLA UCLA and both worked on the Democrat Michael Dukakis 1988 presidential campaign. They and their son and daughter live in Washington DC.
Tanden’s parents, who had an arranged marriage, emigrated from India in the 1950’s. Her father earned a Master’s degree from Harvard Law School and her mother earned a degree from Brandeis University. Tanden’s parents divorced when she was five.
She was then brought up by her mother. They survived for two years on government welfare payments, including food stamps and subsidized government housing. Her mother, who found a job as a travel agent, put Tanden and her brother Raj through school in Bedford, Massachusetts. Tanden realized at an early age that she had to work extra hard since she came from a family with few connections. She worked to support herself while at UCLA.
The post of White House staff secretary has often led to more senior roles in government. For instance, John Podesta, who served in the role under President Bill Clinton, went on become Clinton’s chief of staff. In 2003, Podesta, who is a mentor to Tanden, founded CAP.
In 2007, Tanden told The Times of India, that having benefitted a great deal from government support while growing up, she is most proud of a career that “allowed me to serve in the government and therefore serve the public.”
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