Biden nominates Indian American Seema Nanda as Labour Department solicitor

Her nomination to the senior administration position will have to be approved by the Senate.She is returning to the Labour Department having served as its chief of staff and deputy solicitor in President Barack Obama's administration. The Labour Department's solicitor oversees a staff of 700, including 400 lawyers, according to the department.

At the DNC, she was the CEO for about two years and stepped down last year to facilitate coordinating fundraising with arm of Biden's campaign. Nanda, who has specialised in labour and employment law, is now a fellow at Harvard Law School’s Labor and Worklife Program.

In prior stints in government, she has also led what is now the Justice Department's Office of Immigrant and Employee Rights Section and was a supervisor attorney in the National Labor Relations Board.

Nanda has also been the COO and vice president of Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. She was appointed to the position by Vanita Gupta, who was the organisation's president and is now Biden's nominee for associate attorney general.

Confirmation of Gupta's nomination is still pending with the Senate. Only one Indian American to a senior administration position, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, has cleared the Senate.

Biden has made more than 20 Indian American appointments so far, though not all of these need to be confirmed by a divided Senate.

 On Thursday the White House formally withdrew the nomination of Neera Tanden for the cabinet-level position of the director of the Office of Management and Budget. She ran into opposition from Senators of Democratic and Republican parties because of her intemperate tweets.

(South Asia Monitor/IBNS)