The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC) and Budget Committees were set to vote Wednesday on Neera Tanden's nomination to become director of the Office of Management and Budget, but announced last minute that the meetings would be postponed.
The delay comes as Tanden's confirmation has been imperiled by Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a moderate Democrat who said he would use his critical vote to oppose the confirmation over her "overtly partisan statements."
Without Manchin's support, and with the Senate evenly divided between the parties, Tanden would need backing from at least one Republican.
However, senators Susan Collins (R., Maine) and Mitt Romney (R., Utah) signaled on Monday that they would not support the confirmation either.
"Congress has to be able to trust the OMB director to make countless decisions in an impartial manner, carrying out the letter of the law and congressional intent," Collins said in a statement on Monday. "Neera Tanden has neither the experience nor the temperament to lead this critical agency."
Yet the White House has continued to back Tanden, with White House press secretary Jen Psaki defending the nominee as an "accomplished policy expert" in a tweet after Collins's announcement on Monday.
Tanden "would be 1st Asian American woman to lead OMB, has lived experience having benefitted from a number of federal programs as a kid, looking ahead to the committee votes this week and continuing to work toward her confirmation," Psaki wrote.
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