[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 109 (Wednesday, June 23, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S4726]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  CONFIRMATION OF KIRAN ARJANDAS AHUJA

  Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. President, I rise to support the nomination of 
Kiran Ahuja to serve as the Director of the Office of Personnel 
Management. Mrs. Ahuja is highly qualified and has a deep commitment to 
public service that will serve her well as the Director of OMB. I am 
confident that she has the skills to rebuild the civil service and 
restore protections for civil servants that were rolled back by the 
Trump administration.
  Mrs. Ahuja spent her childhood travelling across the South with her 
parents as they worked to provide desperately needed mental health 
services to underserved communities. After graduating from Spelman 
College and the University of Georgia School of Law, Mrs. Ahuja began 
her career in public service as a civil rights attorney at the 
Department of Justice. She went on to lead the White House Initiative 
for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and then serve as the Chief 
of Staff for OPM as it responded to a data breach that exposed the 
personal information of millions of Federal employees and contractors.
  Kiran Ahuja will be tasked with leading OPM as it faces a new set of 
challenges. After 4 years of attacks by the Trump administration on the 
protections at the core of our merit-based civil service system, OPM 
needs a leader who understands that Federal workers serve our country, 
not the individual or political party currently occupying the White 
House.
  OPM is an independent Federal agency tasked with a vital mission: 
ensuring that the Federal workforce delivers top-notch service to the 
American people. The next OPM Director must recognize, as President 
Biden and Mrs. Ahuja do, that union organizing and collective 
bargaining are in the public interest and that these rights are vital 
safeguards to protect the merit system principles of the civil service. 
The next OPM Director must also work to attract new talent to Federal 
agencies that have lost valuable expertise and modernize OPM's outdated 
information technology systems. I am confident that Mrs. Ahuja has the 
skills and knowledge to meet these challenges and to carry out the 
agency's mission.

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