In a bitterly divided Senate, US Vice President Kamala Harris cast the tie-breaking vote to confirm Indian-American Kiran Ahuja as the head of the Office of Personnel Management, a federal agency that manages the country’s more than two million civil servants.
Ahuja, a lawyer and activist from the United States, is the first Indian-American to hold this position in the US government. After a 50-50 vote on party lines in the Senate, Harris announced on Tuesday that she would vote in favour of Ahuja.
“The Senate being evenly divided, the Vice President votes in affirmative,” Harris said. With this, she has so far cast the 6th tie-breaking vote as the Vice President this year.
Senator Dianne Feinstein said Ahuja has more than two decades of experience in public service and the philanthropic sector, including a senior role in OPM under former president Barack Obama.
“She has a breadth of knowledge and experience that will serve her well in the role,” she said.
“In particular I’m looking forward to working with her to resolve a critical pay disparity issue between state and federal wildland firefighters. State firefighter salaries can be as much as double that of their federal counterparts, making it difficult to hire and retain skilled federal wildland firefighters,” she added.
Senator James Lankford, representing the opposition Republicans, said the federal government’s head of human resources should not be so outspokenly pro-abortion and pushing the need for critical race theory training.
“OPM has been plagued with paperwork backlogs, survivor benefit delays, cyber-security issues, and more. The leader of OPM should focus on addressing those issues, not divisive social justice policies and abortion,” he said.
Ahuja grew up in Savannah, Georgia, as a young Indian immigrant in the wake of the civil rights era, and earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Spelman College and a law degree from the University of Georgia.
“Throughout her career, Kiran Ahuja has built a tremendous record of championing federal personnel matters & remains a strong advocate for women of color,” said Senator Raphael Warnock.
