Shalanda Young emerges as quietly essential figure in debt deal

The day before President Biden traveled to Japan this month, he managed a breakthrough with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in the Oval Office.

The two had spent weeks trying to reach a deal to lift the debt ceiling and avert a potential financial catastrophe, but they had made little progress. Then Biden told McCarthy (R-Calif.) he was delegating two of his top aides to serve as the lead negotiators with House Republicans: Steve Ricchetti, a counselor to the president, and Shalanda Young, the director of the Office of Management and Budget.

McCarthy immediately turned around to look at Young, who was nearby, and complimented her as “well respected” and “well liked” on both sides of the aisle, according to people familiar with his comments who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a private meeting.

As McCarthy left the White House, he signaled a renewed optimism about the talks, telling reporters that he thought it was “possible to get a deal by the end of the week” even as he emphasized that no substantive issues had been resolved. “What has changed in this meeting is the president changed the scope of who’s all negotiating,” McCarthy said.

Over the next 1½ weeks, Young, Ricchetti and other White House officials spent most days shuttling between the Capitol and the White House as they brokered a deal with House Republicans that culminated in Biden and McCarthy announcing over the weekend they had reached an “agreement in principle” to raise the debt ceiling and cap federal spending — just days before the government could have defaulted for the first time ever.

The deal still needs to be approved by the House and Senate, but officials express confidence that enough Democrats and Republicans will support the legislation to send it to Biden’s desk before June 5, the date the Treasury Department has warned that the U.S. government could run out of cash.

The intensive negotiations thrust Young, 45, into the center of a fight with sweeping economic and political ramifications. To many participants she seemed to become an indispensable figure, a rare individual who was known and trusted by members of both parties and could serve as a conduit at a moment when partisan recriminations have reached a fever pitch.

Current and former colleagues note that Young has been involved in budget fights for more than a decade starting with her tenure on the House Appropriations Committee, working mostly behind the scenes and specializing in the details while developing strong relationships with Democrats and Republicans.

“Everybody in this place knows her, respects her greatly,” McCarthy told reporters this month.

Rep. Patrick T. McHenry (N.C.), who chairs the House Financial Services Committee and was a key GOP negotiator, cited Young by name in praising Biden’s representatives last week. “They’re a highly credible team, they’re a tough negotiating team; these are tough discussions that we’re having,” McHenry said. “But they’re honest. We’re honest with each other.”

Young’s relationships with Republicans, former colleagues and current aides say, proved to be critical in developing trust with GOP members of Congress and their staffs — a rare attribute at a moment when Republicans, newly in control of the House, are seeking to assert the power of their narrow majority against frustrated Democrats.

Young on Tuesday described her approach to dealing with her GOP counterparts. “The most important thing is to know what they have to have. You have to be clear about what you have to have,” she said. “I want to know their value statements and they need to know mine. And we have to find a middle ground. They shouldn’t have to compromise their values, and neither should we.”

Former colleagues describe her as serious but funny, a woman who is closely attuned to pop culture and enjoys cracking jokes and discussing the latest trends. They also say she is a talented photographer, decorating her office in the Capitol with photos of her travels and of her native Louisiana, including Mardi Gras celebrations.

More important to the just-concluded talks, however, is that lawmakers on both sides appeared to view her as someone who understood what was important to them.

“The trust that members have in her is great,” Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in an interview. “They know that she understands the values debate that this is about, not just the item on a balance sheet.”

The former House speaker also praised Young’s “encyclopedic knowledge” of the budget and the respect she commands from Republicans, attributing it to her determination not to “diminish the value of their contributions.”

Young’s command of the subject is also widely recognized.

“What was most important was she really understands the issues and knew the numbers,” said former congresswoman Nita M. Lowey (D-N.Y.), who chaired the House Appropriations Committee when Young was the panel’s staff director. “She was a delight. She was hard-working. She was smart.”

In a twist, Young almost did not end up in her current job as Biden’s top budget official.

Biden initially tapped Neera Tanden to head the OMB, with Young serving as Tanden’s deputy. But Tanden, who previously led the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning research and advocacy organization, was opposed by many Republicans and even some Democrats, and was forced to withdraw.

Top House Democrats and the Congressional Black Caucus immediately called on Biden to elevate Young, which he did eight months later after she had served as the office’s acting director. Once confirmed, she became the first Black woman to hold the top budget job.

Biden, who has a coterie of long-serving aides and has stocked the senior ranks of his administration with many of them, initially expressed some reticence to tapping Young for the job because he did not know her well, said Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.), who says he advocated for her.

Hoyer said he told Biden that Young was the best person for the job, touting her expertise and political savvy. “He has not only gotten to know her, but has become convinced that he could not have selected a better OMB director,” Hoyer said.

Part of Young’s appeal to the White House, officials say, was the bipartisan support she draws. During her confirmation hearing, Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.), the top Republican on the Budget Committee, heaped praise on Young.

“I think you are a highly qualified person for the job. Everybody that deals with you on our side has nothing but good things to say,” Graham said. “You might talk me out of voting for you, but I doubt it. Thank you.” That was the entirety of his opening statement, prompting Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the panel chairman, to dryly thank Graham for his “cogent and brief remark.”

Still, Young acknowledged that the latest round of negotiations took a toll.

“I do have a small confession to make,” she told reporters Tuesday during a White House news briefing. “I’m also out of clean clothes after these last couple of weeks.” Young, who stopped at Nordstrom Rack on Tuesday to purchase a new outfit, added, “I don’t have time to do laundry or take anything to the dry cleaner. So that’s about how my last two weeks have gone.”

She also said that she is “breathing a little easier” now that a deal had been reached, and that she had called her parents and told them they could rest a bit as well.

Young said she was hoping to spend more time now with her young daughter. Young took maternity leave in the fall of 2021 after Charlie, her first child, was born.

Young’s style, by her own account, is to be clear with lawmakers about what a proposal contains, rather than pressure them to support it. “I know a lot of members of Congress. What you don’t do is call and tell them what to do,” Young said. “You educate. You say, ‘Let me know what you need to know, what’s in this bill, how it’s written, how it’s going to be implemented. And we’re here to answer you.’”

That is the approach she said she will take in talking to liberal Democratic members of Congress who are concerned that the debt agreement cedes too much ground to Republicans.

“My job is to tell members what’s in the bill,” she said. “You get into trouble when you try to tell members what their opinion is. Every member should have whatever opinion. Our job is to say, ‘This is what’s in the bill. This is how some of the worst things Republicans wanted were mitigated.’”

Marianna Sotomayor contributed to this report.