Page 32 - The Indian EYE 031221
P. 32
NORTH AmERIcAN Newsline MARCH 12, 2021 | The Indian Eye 32
neWsmaKers of tHe WeeK
neera tanden CHiraag bains & Pronita guPta
after senate setback, Biden two appointed to Biden’s do-
promises new role mestic Policy council
A
day after joking that Indian Americans were taking over
the US, President Joe Biden has appointed two more to his
Domestic Policy Council (DPC) to advise him on Criminal
Justice and Labor and Workers.
While Chiraag Bains would serve as Special Assistant to the
President for Criminal Justice, Pronita Gupta would do so for
Labor and Workers, according to a White House announcement
Friday by Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Both of them had served in the administration of former Pres-
resident Joe Biden promised Indian American Neera Tan- ident Barack Obama, when Biden was the Vice President.
den, his controversial pick for budget director, another job Bains and Gupta join over three dozen Indian-Americans
Pafter he was forced to pull her nomination in the face of bi- appointed to key posts in the Biden-Harris administration. As
partisan opposition over her offensive tweets. “I look forward to members of the President’s staff, they don’t not require Senate
having her serve in a role in my administration. She will bring valu-
able perspective and insight to our work,” stated Biden Tuesday confirmation.
after facing his first major political setback. “These qualified, impressive, and dedicated individuals reflect
It was not clear what job Tanden would get, but she may be the diversity and strength of America and will play critical roles
advancing the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to
appointed to an administration role that does not require Senate tackling the crises we face and building back our country better,”
confirmation. the White House said announcing 21 new appointments.
Earlier, Tanden, who would have been the second Indi-
an-American in a US presidential cabinet after Republican Nikki Bains was recently the Director of Legal Strategies at Demos,
Haley, who served as President Donald Trump’s ambassador to a national public policy organization where he led voting rights
UN with cabinet rank, accepted the inevitable. litigation and advocacy across the country. Before that, he was
a senior fellow at Harvard Law School and at the Open Society
“I am writing to you to withdraw my nomination,” Tanden Foundations.
wrote to Biden after the White House failed to win over at least From 2010 to 2017, Bains served in the Justice Department’s
one Republican senator in the 50-50 senate with West Virginia Civil Rights Division, first as a prosecutor of civil rights crimes
Democrat Joe Manchin dead set on opposing her.
Indian American vice-president Kamala Harris’ casting vote and then as senior counsel to the Assistant Attorney General. He
would have failed to carry her through without all 50 Democrats was a member of the team that investigated and sued Ferguson,
backing her in the evenly divided Senate without a Republican Missouri, for constitutional violations.
Bains clerked for Karen Nelson Moore on the Sixth Circuit
vote. “Unfortunately, it now seems clear that there is no path Court of Appeals and Judge Nancy Gertner in the District of
forward to gain confirmation, and I do not want continued con- Massachusetts. He graduated from Yale College, the University
sideration of my nomination to be a distraction from your other
priorities,” Tanden wrote. of Cambridge, and Harvard Law School. Gupta, who served as
Tanden would have been the first Indian American and first deputy director of the Labor Department’s Women’s Bureau in
woman of color to lead the powerful office of management and the Obama administration, was till recently the director of job
budget (OMB) charged with crafting the $5 trillion US budget quality for the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP).
and vetting government policies and appointments. Continued on next page... >>
www.TheIndianEYE .com
