Senate Confirms OMB Deputy Director for Management

The Senate voted 81-13 on Tuesday to confirm Jason Miller to be deputy director for management for the Office of Management and Budget.

Miller is a former Obama administration economic adviser and most recently a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and CEO of the Greater Washington Partnership, a nonprofit civic alliance. 

“Mr. Miller has an extensive track record of tackling difficult management challenges and driving innovation both in government and in the private sector,” Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said ahead of the vote. “OMB is and will continue to be central to the administration’s efforts to combat the pandemic and spur economic activity in communities all across our nation. Mr. Miller’s diverse experience and commitment to getting results for the American people will be an asset to the OMB as it takes on these current challenges and those challenges yet to come.” 

During his confirmation hearing on March 4, alongside Shalanda Young, then-nominee for deputy director of OMB, Miller committed to transparency and improving financial oversight.

Noting that if confirmed, he would be the executive chair of the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency, he said, “it's absolutely imperative that OMB repair the relationship with inspectors general and make sure they have the resources and the access necessary to do their jobs.”

In response to a question from Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., about recruiting and retaining a diverse federal workforce, Miller spoke about the challenges and opportunities. 

“Successful organizations require talented, diverse, highly engaged teams” and in the federal government, “the engagement levels, the morale levels are not where they should be,” he said. “We do need to broaden the sources of recruitment into the federal government, including by inspiring more people to serve. This includes a focus on diversity and inclusion, it also includes a focus on technical talent. We need to look at any bottlenecks in the system to bring people in.” He pledged to work with the Chief Human Capital Officers Council, Office of Personnel Management and Congress to improve federal hiring. 

The White House will release its full budget request at some point this spring, which is expected to include the administration’s management priorities. The White House already previewed some of them in the outline of the fiscal 2022 discretionary spending proposal. 

Biden has yet to name a new nominee for OMB director after Neera Tanden withdrew her nomination on March 2. 

“Federal agencies have enormous influence over the policies that affect the day-to-day lives of the American people...Having capable, experienced and energetic public servants at the top of these agencies matters,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., on the Senate floor on Tuesday morning. “And it matters too that they come from different backgrounds and have lived different experiences.”