Alaska's Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski will meet on Monday with Neera Tanden, the nominee to head the White House Office of Management and Budget, as part of the Biden administration's attempt to save her bid for the senior policy role, CNN reported citing an unidentified source.
Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia already has declared his opposition to Tanden, mainly due to her numerous vitriolic social media posts, endangering the nomination if all 50 Republican senators remained united against it.
Murkowski's support would be essential to create a 50-50 split and allow Vice President Kamala Harris to cast the tie-breaking vote in favor. The 63-year-old Murkowski, a three-term senator who is facing reelection in 2022, has not announced if she would vote in favor of Tanden.
Other moderate Republicans, Sens. Mitt Romney of Utah, Susan Collins of Maine, Rob Portman of Ohio and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania already have declared their opposition.
Additionally, self-described democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., also have not said whether they will support Tanden.
A pair of committee votes on Tandem's nomination were postponed this week.
Manchin cited Tanden's "overtly partisan statements" as having ''a toxic and detrimental impact" between Congress and the OMB as his reason for opposing her nomination.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.