Business & Economy

On The Money: Senate panels postpone Tanden meetings in negative sign | Biden signs supply chain order after ‘positive’ meeting with lawmakers

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THE BIG DEAL—Senate panels postpone Tanden meetings in negative sign: Neera Tanden’s confirmation keeps slipping away.

Two Senate panels postponed meetings on Wednesday to consider advancing Tanden’s nomination to be President Biden’s budget chief, a bad sign for her prospects of winning confirmation.

Why the delay happened: The White House early Wednesday morning reiterated its support for Tanden, but she doesn’t appear to have 50 votes in the Senate after Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) last week said he would vote against her.

Several centrist GOP senators have also come out in opposition, and it is unclear whether Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who chairs the Senate Budget Committee, will support her confirmation.

The prognosis: Asked at a briefing Wednesday afternoon if she believed the delay in the meetings represents a setback, Psaki answered: “I wouldn’t put it in those terms. I think we are committed to continuing to fight for all our nominees.”

But let’s be real here. There is already one Democrat opposed to Tanden, another who is undecided, and three Republicans who’ve already said they won’t support her. And Sen. Lisa Murkowksi (R-Alaska), one the few remaining undecided moderates, apparently just found out that Tanden accused her of “getting high off her own supply” on Twitter, so that probably doesn’t help.

It’s not impossible that Tanden gets out of this jam, but it’s pretty darn close. The Hill’s Morgan Chalfant has more here.

Who may replace her: The White House is still all-in on Tanden’s nomination, but a consensus alternative has already emerged in Shalanda Young, Biden’s nominee to be Tanden’s deputy.

Young served as the House Appropriations Committee’s Democratic staff director since 2017 and has already received bipartisan support as a potential replacement for Tanden.

 

LEADING THE DAY

Biden signs supply chain order after ‘positive’ meeting with lawmakers: President Biden on Wednesday signed an executive order directing a review of supply chains for critical products across numerous sectors, including health, defense and communications.

Why? The order is meant to support jobs, particularly in traditionally marginalized groups such as communities of color, through helping to rebuild manufacturing jobs. It is also intended to address the ongoing shortage of semiconductors, which are essential to a wide range of tech products and the focus of a major competition with China.

“This is about making sure the United States can meet every challenge we face in this new era — pandemics but also defense, cybersecurity, climate change, and so much more,” Biden said in the State Dining Room before signing the order. “The best way to do that is by protecting and sharpening America’s edge by investing here at home.”

The Hill’s Maggie Miller and Morgan Chalfant explain here.

 

Most Fed services restored after ‘operational error’ causes outages: The Federal Reserve’s systems for transferring money and financial assets among banks, businesses and government entities went offline for a period of time on Wednesday, upending crucial parts of the country’s financial infrastructure.

The Fed said that a “Federal Reserve operational error” disrupted nearly all of the services the central bank provides as of 11:15 a.m Eastern.

What happened: 

 

ON TAP TOMORROW:

 

GOOD TO KNOW

 

ODDS AND ENDS