Kiran Ahuja served as Chief of Staff to Director of US Office of Personnel Management from 2015 to 2017.
Washington:
US Vice President Kamala Harris has solid her tie-breaking vote within the bitterly divided Senate to substantiate the nomination of Indian-American Kiran Ahuja as the pinnacle of the Office of Personnel Management, a federal company that manages the nation’s greater than two million civil servants.
An American lawyer and activist, Kiran Ahuja, 49, is the primary Indian-American to serve on this prime place within the US authorities. Kamala Harris introduced to solid her vote in favour of Kiran Ahuja on Tuesday after the Senate vote on this resulted in 50-50 votes on occasion strains.
“The Senate being evenly divided, the Vice President votes in affirmative,” Kamala Harris mentioned. With this, she has to this point solid the sixth tie-breaking vote because the Vice President this 12 months.
Senator Dianne Feinstein mentioned Kiran Ahuja has greater than twenty years of expertise in public service and the philanthropic sector, together with a senior function in OPM below former president Barack Obama.
“She has a breadth of knowledge and experience that will serve her well in the role,” she mentioned.
“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.
Representing the view of the opposition Republicans, Senator James Lankford mentioned he didn’t imagine the pinnacle of HR of the federal authorities needs to be so outspoken in favour of abortion and pushing the necessity for vital race concept coaching.
“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 mentioned.
Kiran Ahuja served because the Chief of Staff to the Director of the US Office of Personnel Management from 2015 to 2017. She at present serves because the CEO of Philanthropy Northwest, a regional community of philanthropic establishments.
She started her profession as a civil rights lawyer on the US Department of Justice, litigating college desegregation instances, and submitting the division’s first scholar racial harassment case. From 2003 to 2008, Kiran Ahuja served because the founding govt director of the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum, an advocacy and membership organisation.
During the Obama-Biden Administration, she spent six years as govt director of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, main efforts to extend entry to federal providers, sources, and packages for underserved Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs).
Kiran Ahuja grew up in Savannah, Georgia, as a younger Indian immigrant within the wake of the civil rights period, and earned a bachelor’s diploma in political science from Spelman College and a regulation diploma 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,” mentioned Senator Raphael Warnock.
