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Getting to know Biden's budget director – over breakfast

Shalanda Young, director of the Office of Management and Budget, sat down with reporters at a Monitor breakfast to speak about a potential government shutdown and the need for bipartisan trust in budget negotiations.

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Troy Sambajon/The Christian Science Monitor
Shalanda Young, left, director of the Office of Management and Budgeting, speaks with the Monitor's Washington Bureau Chief, Linda Feldmann, and reporters at a Monitor Breakfast on January 5, 2024, at the St. Regis Hotel in Washington, D.C.

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We were delighted to welcome President Joe Biden’s budget director, Shalanda Young, to her first Monitor Breakfast on Jan 5. The timing couldn’t have been better. Congressional Republicans and Democrats are deep in negotiations to prevent a two-phase government shutdown, set to start Jan. 19.

Ms. Young, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, is in the loop. And while she’s not directly involved in negotiations, her southern Louisiana roots may yet prove beneficial. GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson is also from Louisiana, so I asked Ms. Young if that could help.

“Well, he’s from the north part of the state,” the OMB director deadpanned, to reporters’ laughter. But, she added, Speaker Johnson went to Louisiana State University and “my mother’s an LSU grad, so I’ll give him that.”

Ms. Young got high marks as a “quietly essential figure” in the May debt ceiling talks. Her years of work as a Capitol Hill staffer on budget matters certainly helped, but as a White House official, her ability to earn bipartisan trust has set her apart. Today, she’s still getting to know the new speaker.

“Those personal relationships do matter. And whatever it takes to get through these next few weeks, we are willing to do it,” Ms. Young says. “Being from the great state of Louisiana, one finds common ground quickly."

We had a packed room for the breakfast, including C-SPAN cameras, and generated lots of media coverage. My own article on the breakfast highlighted Ms. Young’s skepticism that a government shutdown could be avoided. 

After the breakfast ended, I couldn’t resist asking about Ms. Young's toddler daughter and 95-year-old grandmother. Grandma is “still sharp and still ornery,” she said. “The two-year-old reminds me a lot of her. And they kind of don't get along!”

The room exploded with laughter. “How can a 95-year-old not get along with a two-year-old?” I asked.

“Because my grandmother is like the center of everything,” Ms. Young said. “And now we’ve got this new baby. And I’m like, ‘Oh my God, are you competing for attention?’”

Perhaps Ms. Young’s bipartisan skills can come in handy at home.

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