Date: 2024-04-28 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00020189
US Politics
Senior Biden Nominations
POLITICS ... Biden’s Cabinet and Senior Advisers ... President Biden’s nominees are slowly making their way through Senate confirmation.
Peter Burgess
Biden’s Cabinet and Senior Advisers ... President Biden’s nominees are slowly making their way through Senate confirmation.
President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. announced his nominations and appointments for national security positions in Wilmington, Del.Credit...Anna Moneymaker for The New York Times
WASHINGTON — President Biden has chosen a team of cabinet members and senior advisers who bring government experience and expertise in their fields to confront four fronts of challenges: getting control of Covid-19, systemic racism, the economy and climate change.
Victories for Democrats in twin runoff races in Georgia in Early January handed Mr. Biden’s party control of the Senate, and with it, the power to choose from a larger menu of potential executive department heads, with minimal need to win Republican approval. But even with a Democratic majority in the Senate, Mr. Biden has turned to a predominately established and moderate circle of advisers — one that is ethnically diverse, yet for the most part ideologically uniform.
Mr. Biden has now filled out his cabinet. Here are his picks:
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ATTORNEY GENERAL
Merrick B. Garland Image Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times Almost five years after his nomination to the Supreme Court was blocked by Senate Republicans in March 2016, Judge Merrick B. Garland has returned to the political stage as Mr. Biden’s pick to be the country’s chief law enforcement officer and oversee the Justice Department. Judge Garland has extensive experience working for the department he has been selected to lead, having served under three former presidents — Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. He also approaches the role with considerable knowledge of the judicial system informed by his work as a former clerk for Justice William J. Brennan Jr. on the Supreme Court and now on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, where he was chief judge from 2013 to 2020. In choosing Judge Garland, Mr. Biden appears keen on restoring the Justice Department’s independence, particularly after the departments’ lawyers and former attorneys general repeatedly became ensnared in politicized investigations under Mr. Trump. Several prominent Republicans including Senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky have expressed support for Judge Garland’s nomination, bolstering Mr. Biden’s hopes that his reputation and background leave him uniquely qualified to steer the department away from partisan politics. Read more: Judge Garland brings a steady hand to a department overcome by partisan rancor.
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SECRETARY OF STATE Antony J. Blinken Image Credit...Anna Moneymaker for The New York Times In tapping Antony Blinken to serve as secretary of state, Mr. Biden appears determined to rebuild relationships with foreign leaders and international organizations that have atrophied under the isolationist policies that defined President Trump’s “America First” agenda. If confirmed, Mr. Blinken will take charge of a State Department that has shrunk in size and stature under Mr. Trump, as staff reductions and resignations have thinned its ranks. Mr. Blinken, 58, is well versed in the mechanisms of diplomacy. He worked for the department under two previous administrations, including as deputy secretary of state under President Barack Obama. In Mr. Blinken, Mr. Biden hopes to install a measured and well-credentialed negotiator who can represent the United States internationally as well as restore a sense of purpose within the State Department. Read more: The first tasks awaiting Antony Blinken.
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TREASURY SECRETARY Janet L. Yellen Image Credit...Lexey Swall for The New York Times Looking for a trusted economist to lead the country’s economy out of a pandemic-driven downturn, Mr. Biden has selected Janet Yellen, the former chair of the Federal Reserve. If confirmed, Ms. Yellen would be the first woman to lead the Treasury in its 231-year history. During her stint as Fed chair from 2014 to 2018, Ms. Yellen oversaw a record-long economic expansion that would go on to drive unemployment down to its lowest rate in 50 years and that helped produce a thriving economy that was upended by the coronavirus pandemic. In selecting Ms. Yellen, Mr. Biden appeared to have opted for a safe and proven name. She is a candidate who is expected to survive the confirmation process with some ease, unlike other economists proposed by the Democratic Party’s progressive wing who may have been less acceptable to Republicans in the Senate. Read more: The former Fed chair is poised to lead the Treasury Department.
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SECRETARY OF DEFENSE Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III Image Credit...Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Retired Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, the former commander of the American military effort in Iraq, was confirmed by the Senate during Mr. Biden’s first days in office. General Austin, 67, was for years a formidable figure at the Pentagon and the only African-American to have headed U.S. Central Command, but he is less known for his political instincts and has shown little interest in the public-facing parts of the job. He made history as the first African-American to lead the Defense Department. The retired general was approved overwhelmingly, after Congress granted him a waiver from a law restricting those who are retired from military service fewer than seven years from leading the Pentagon. Read more: General Austin is confirmed by the Senate.
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SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR Deb Haaland Image Credit...Michael Brochstein/ZUMA Wire, via Alamy In emphasizing his intent to redirect the country’s course on environmental policy, Mr. Biden has picked Representative Deb Haaland, Democrat of New Mexico, to oversee the Interior Department. If confirmed by the Senate, Ms. Haaland would be the first Native American appointed to a cabinet secretary position, a barrier she would break after she and Sharice Davids of Kansas became the first two Native American women elected to Congress in 2018. Ms. Haaland’s heritage as a 35th-generation New Mexican and a member of the Laguna Pueblo makes her nomination especially meaningful given the agency’s role in providing services to 1.9 million Indigenous people and helping maintain the government’s relationship with 574 federally recognized tribes. Both the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Bureau of Indian Education operate within the department. However, Ms. Haaland will also be tasked with overseeing elements of a sweeping and ambitious environmental agenda alongside several of Mr. Biden’s top climate aides such as Gina McCarthy and John Kerry. As a candidate, Mr. Biden promised to “transition away from the oil industry,” a move he has said will involve banning new oil and gas permits on the public lands and waters that Ms. Haaland would oversee. She would also be at the forefront of Mr. Biden’s efforts to ramp up protection of vast tracts of the 500 million acres of federal land that the Trump administration has opened up to mining, logging and construction. Ms. Haaland serves on the House Natural Resources Committee, which oversees the Interior Department. That experience could help inform her vision for the department. Read more: A historic choice would place a Native American in charge of the agency that aids Indigenous communities.
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SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE Tom Vilsack Image Credit...Andrew Harnik/Associated Press Tom Vilsack, who was the secretary of agriculture for eight years under Mr. Obama, was tapped to lead the department again. The selection indicates that Mr. Biden resisted calls from prominent Black leaders to shift the agency’s focus away from farming and toward hunger, including in urban areas. Mr. Vilsack, 69, who is white, was a traditional choice — he is a former governor of Iowa, an important rural farming state. In the end, Mr. Biden had to choose between two of his central campaign themes: that he owes a special debt to African-American voters, and that he wants to be a president for all Americans, including those who did not vote for him. He chose the latter. Read more: Mr. Vilsack is the seventh cabinet member Mr. Biden has chosen.
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SPECIAL PRESIDENTIAL ENVOY FOR CLIMATE John F. Kerry Image Credit...Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York Times Emphasizing his intent to make addressing the global threat posed by climate change a pillar of his policy agenda, Mr. Biden selected John Kerry, the former secretary of state, to take up a newly created cabinet-level position as his “climate czar.” Mr. Kerry’s job will also include a seat on the National Security Council. It will be the first time that an adviser wholly dedicated to the issue of climate change will join the forum, placing him among other top advisers in the national security and foreign policy arena. Mr. Kerry’s approach to the role is likely to be heavily informed by his experience working with other countries on agreements to set meaningful benchmarks on carbon emissions and encourage sustainable growth. While secretary of state under Mr. Obama, Mr. Kerry was a chief negotiator for the United States on the Paris Agreement on climate change, which Mr. Biden has said he will recommit to on Day 1 of his administration. Mr. Kerry does not need Senate confirmation for this post. Read more: A cabinet-level voice on climate change.
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SECRETARY OF COMMERCE Gina Raimondo Image Credit...Kayana Szymczak for The New York Times Mr. Biden has selected Gina Raimondo, the governor of Rhode Island, to run the Commerce Department, a role atop what is often described informally as the country’s data agency. ON POLITICS WITH LISA LERER: A guiding hand through the political news cycle, telling you what you really need to know. Sign Up Before being elected governor in 2015, Ms. Raimondo served as general treasurer of Rhode Island and founded a joint venture firm that helped finance a number of start-ups. She is viewed by many as a traditional choice for the post, in which she will oversee relations with businesses as well as technology regulation, weather monitoring and economic data collection. If confirmed, Ms. Raimondo could also turn almost immediately to completing work on the country’s census data, which Trump administration officials have warned will not be finished until after Mr. Biden’s inauguration. While Ms. Raimondo has been hailed for her business acumen, some progressive groups have resisted her nomination, advocating instead candidates who might be more inclined to pursue goals such as decreasing gerrymandering through census changes and regulating prescription drug costs. Read more: Ms. Raimondo’s moderate credentials are another disappointment for progressives.
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SECRETARY OF LABOR Martin J. Walsh Image Credit...Pool photo by Pat Greenhouse Facing a backsliding economy in which millions of workers have suffered from anemic pandemic relief and persistent unemployment, Mr. Biden has selected the mayor of Boston, Martin Walsh, to help alleviate the plight facing workers as head of the Labor Department. Mr. Walsh has been mayor since 2013, ascending to the office with strong support from organized labor. Mr. Walsh himself has been a union member since early adulthood, rising through the ranks to serve as president of Laborers Local 223 in South Boston, and previously led Boston’s Building and Construction Trades Council from 2011 to 2013. He was a state representative in Massachusetts for 17 years. If confirmed by the Senate, Mr. Walsh would be expected to focus on policies promoting higher wages and protections for workers, as well as revitalizing the country’s manufacturing sector, as Mr. Biden promised throughout his campaign. Mr. Walsh would also oversee the resuscitation of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which has been criticized for poor workplace oversight during the pandemic when meatpacking plants experienced virus outbreaks. Read more: Mr. Walsh comes to the job with longstanding connections to the labor movement.
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SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES Xavier Becerra Image Credit...Jeff Chiu/Associated Press Xavier Becerra, Mr. Biden’s surprise pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, is an outspoken advocate of improved health care access and has led legal efforts on health care as the attorney general of California. Mr. Becerra is a Democratic former congressman. He would be the first Latino to serve as health secretary. If confirmed, he will face a daunting task in tackling the coronavirus pandemic which has taken a particularly devastating toll on people of color. As attorney general, Mr. Becerra has filed more than a dozen lawsuits about health care alone, including one in which California led 20 states and the District of Columbia in a campaign to protect the Affordable Care Act from being dismantled by his Republican counterparts.
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The New Washington › Live Updates Updated Jan. 25, 2021, 7:13 p.m. ETJan. 25, 2021 Jan. 25, 2021 For the second time in just over a year, the House delivered the Senate an impeachment charge against Trump. A National Guard soldier is under investigation for making a crude gesture outside Speaker Pelosi’s office. The Senate confirms Janet Yellen as the Treasury secretary. He is also expected to bring to the forefront the unequal effect that environmental damage has had on the health of Americans in vulnerable communities. In his first days in office, Mr. Biden issued a flurry of executive orders related to the pandemic. Read more: Some medical experts are unhappy with Mr. Becerra’s selection.
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NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER Jake Sullivan Image Credit...Jose Luis Magana/Associated Press Mr. Biden’ picked Jake Sullivan to advise him on matters of national security. Mr. Sullivan has been hailed in Washington as a gifted legal mind, one who has a long history of working with the president-elect. He does not need to be confirmed by the Senate for this position. Mr. Sullivan’s list of accomplishments is extensive. A Rhodes scholar and graduate of Yale Law School, Mr. Sullivan has built a lengthy résumé including a clerkship for Justice Stephen G. Breyer and work as chief counsel to Senator Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, whom he worked for as the department’s head of policy planning, has described him as a “once-in-a-generation talent.” Mr. Sullivan has also worked closely with other members of Mr. Biden’s planned cabinet, succeeding Mr. Blinken as Mr. Biden’s national security adviser in 2013, when he was vice president. Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Blinken maintain a close friendship and a shared philosophy about the United States’ role in the world that is expected to shape Mr. Biden’s approach in international affairs. Read more: Mr. Biden picks a close confidant to head national security.
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U.N. AMBASSADOR Linda Thomas-Greenfield Image Credit...Anna Moneymaker for The New York Times When Mr. Biden introduced some of his nominees, they seemed intent on fully repudiating the former administration’s “America First” isolationism. “Diplomacy is back,” said Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Mr. Biden’s choice to represent the United States as the ambassador to the United Nations. Mr. Biden plans to restore the post to cabinet-level status after Mr. Trump downgraded it, giving Ms. Thomas-Greenfield a seat on his National Security Council. Ms. Thomas-Greenfield has more than 35 years of experience in the Foreign Service, having worked as the U.S. ambassador to Liberia and having served in posts in Switzerland, Pakistan, Kenya, Gambia, Nigeria and Jamaica. Ms. Thomas-Greenfield has worked in the private sector as well. She was a senior vice president at the Albright Stonebridge Group, the consulting firm founded by former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright, overseeing the firm’s Africa practice. Read more: Feeling spurned by the Trump administration, the U.N. sees redemption in Mr. Biden and his team.
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U.S. TRADE REPRESENTATIVE Katherine Tai Image Credit...Hilary Swift for The New York Times Mr. Biden has turned to Katherine Tai to be the country’s trade representative, a role that took on greater importance under the previous administration, which used the post to impose substantial tariffs against foreign countries and negotiate a series of trade deals, both small and large. Ms. Tai has served as the chief trade lawyer in the House and has extensive experience with China. She also played a key role in hammering out the new North American Free Trade Agreement. In this cabinet-level role that carries the rank of ambassador, Ms. Tai will be responsible for rebuilding trade relationships and helping to decide whether to continue collecting tariffs on Chinese goods. If she is confirmed by the Senate, Ms. Tai, who is Asian-American, would be the first woman of color to be the U.S. trade representative. Read more: Ms. Tai’s tasks would most likely include fighting climate change and encouraging domestic investment.
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DIRECTOR OF THE WHITE HOUSE DOMESTIC POLICY COUNCIL Susan Rice Image Credit...Stephen Crowley/The New York Times Mr. Biden has chosen Susan Rice, a former national security adviser to Mr. Obama, to be the director of his Domestic Policy Council. In this role, Ms. Rice will oversee a large part of the president’s agenda, including the administration’s response to the pandemic. The position does not require Senate confirmation. At one point, Ms. Rice was on Mr. Biden’s short list to be vice president. She has been a favorite target of Republicans, who criticized her role in responding to the 2012 terrorist attack on the American mission in Benghazi, Libya. The attack left four Americans dead and prompted months of Republican-led congressional hearings. Ms. Rice brings years of experience to the job, having served as an assistant secretary of state and ambassador to the United Nations. She is widely known for coordinating Mr. Obama’s foreign policy portfolio. She was a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times for three years; her last column was published on Dec. 1. Read more: Ms. Rice, a lifelong national security professional, is being placed in a top domestic policy job.
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SECRETARY OF VETERANS AFFAIRS Denis McDonough Image Credit...Zach Gibson/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Mr. Biden has selected Denis McDonough to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs, the agency that runs the largest health care system in the country and has a history of career-ending scandals. During the Obama administration, Mr. McDonough served as the president’s deputy national security adviser and later his chief of staff, roles in which he worked closely with Mr. Biden. Mr. McDonough has worked on behalf of military families and made frequent trips to meet with members of the military, experience that helped persuade Mr. Biden to nominate him. He has also worked with Robert A. McDonald, the former veterans affairs secretary, on improving care for veterans after devastating reports of long waits to see doctors. Read more: The selection of Mr. McDonough came as a surprise.
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DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE Avril D. Haines Image Credit...Anna Moneymaker for The New York Times Avril Haines was the first member of Mr. Biden’s cabinet to win Senate confirmation and she is the first woman to serve in the top intelligence role. She has strong ties to the intelligence community after serving in both the Obama and George W. Bush administrations. A trained physicist, Ms. Haines also helped oversee a number of covert programs at the National Security Council beginning in 2010 and then as the deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency from 2013 to 2015. They included the controversial targeted killing program involving precision drone strikes, some of which killed civilians. Read more: The Senate confirmed Avril Haines as intelligence director, Biden’s first and only Cabinet official to be approved on Day 1.
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SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY Alejandro N. Mayorkas Image Credit...Anna Moneymaker for The New York Times After four years of immigration policy narrowly tailored to President Donald J. Trump’s personal whims, Mr. Biden has tapped Alejandro Mayorkas, a lawyer and former deputy homeland security secretary, to reorient the Department of Homeland Security. Mr. Mayorkas will most likely be expected to roll back the Trump administration’s more punitive immigration policies in his new role. If confirmed, he would approach that task as the first immigrant to hold the position, as well as the first Latino. Mr. Mayorkas faces the challenge of rebuilding an agency that suffered from unfilled vacancies and a chain of interim leaders in recent years. It has also been embroiled in scandal over, among other issues, the Trump administration’s family separation policy. Read more: The steep challenges ahead for Alejandro Mayorkas.
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SECRETARY OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT Marcia L. Fudge Image Credit...Anna Moneymaker for The New York Times Mr. Biden selected Representative Marcia L. Fudge, Democrat of Ohio, to serve as the secretary of housing and urban development. The decision has the potential to disappoint allies of Ms. Fudge, 68, including members of the Congressional Black Caucus, of which she was a chairwoman. Allies of Ms. Fudge had urged the president-elect to put her at the Agriculture Department, where she had hoped to shift the agency’s focus away from farming and toward hunger, including in urban areas. But after news of her selection leaked out, Ms. Fudge told reporters: “If I can help this president in any way possible, I am more than happy to do it. It’s a great honor and a privilege to be a part of something so good.”
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Ms. Fudge has been in the House since 2008. In 2018, she mulled a challenge to Speaker Nancy Pelosi before dropping the idea and endorsing her. Now, Ms. Fudge will leave Congress to lead the nation’s sprawling housing agency instead. Read more: Ms. Fudge had openly campaigned to become Mr. Biden’s agriculture secretary.
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DIRECTOR OF THE OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET Neera Tanden Image Credit...Kriston Jae Bethel for The New York Times Neera Tanden, a divisive and partisan figure within the Democratic Party, is Mr. Biden’s choice to head the White House budget office. Ms. Tanden was an adviser to Hillary Clinton during her 2016 presidential campaign and, in the years since, she has been among the most outspoken critics of Mr. Trump. Her history could also ignite an intraparty fight as well as a battle during her confirmation hearings. If confirmed, Ms. Tanden, who was also an adviser to the Department of Health and Human Services during the Obama administration, will be in the center of fiscal fights with Congress. But the selection of Ms. Tanden, who is Indian-American, alongside other economic officials including his Treasury secretary, signals Mr. Biden’s focus on efforts to increase worker earnings and reduce racial and gender discrimination in the economy. Ms. Tanden has said that labor unions “are a powerful vehicle to move workers into the middle class and keep them there.” Read more: The choice of Ms. Tanden prompted fierce and pre-emptive Republican pushback.
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SECRETARY OF ENERGY Jennifer M. Granholm Image Credit...Sipa, via Associated Press Mr. Biden has tapped Jennifer Granholm, a former governor of Michigan, to be the next secretary of energy. A longtime champion of renewable energy development, Ms. Granholm, 61, is widely credited with steering Michigan through the 2008 recession and working with the Obama administration on the subsequent bailout of the automobile industry, which included clean energy investments. Though Ms. Granholm is not necessarily steeped in the core mission of the department — ensuring the safety of the country’s nuclear arsenal — her selection was seen as a nod to environmental groups. She is expected to lead with a vision for driving a clean-energy transformation. After her second term as governor ended in 2011, Ms. Granholm became an advocate for renewable energy development, including giving a TED Talk on how investing in alternative energy resources can bolster state economies, something Mr. Biden has focused on in his coronavirus recovery plan. Read more: Several people close to the transition said advisers had struggled over the pick to lead the Energy Department.
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SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION Pete Buttigieg Image Credit...Pool photo by Kevin Lamarque Hoping to cut through years of gridlock that have stalled bipartisan efforts to overhaul and repair the country’s infrastructure and transportation systems, Mr. Biden selected Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Ind., to lead the Transportation Department. The selection was immediately hailed as a major breakthrough by L.G.B.T. advocacy groups. Mr. Buttigieg, if confirmed by the Senate, would become the first openly gay person to be confirmed as a cabinet secretary. Taking advantage of the slimmest possible majority in the Senate, Mr. Biden may make an early priority of pushing through a major infrastructure bill that would create desperately needed jobs in an economy ravaged by the pandemic. How much Mr. Buttigieg may be able to guide those plans is less certain. Throughout his bid for the presidency in 2020, Mr. Buttigieg drew criticism for his relatively limited political credentials, running as a small-town mayor while losing some support over his handling of police brutality and other issues during his tenure. Mr. Biden selected him over other prospective candidates with more direct experience overseeing major urban transportation networks and public transit agencies. However, in his time as mayor, Mr. Buttigieg notched noted wins on transportation policy, bringing to fruition an ambitious $25 million project aimed at revitalizing the downtown area of South Bend with thoughtfully placed traffic corridors, bike lanes and parking improvements. The plan helped to significantly reshape the city’s core, leading to more than $100 million in private investment and a thriving downtown center. Read more: The Transportation Department under Mr. Biden is expected to play a newly climate-centric role.
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WHITE HOUSE CLIMATE COORDINATOR Gina McCarthy Image Credit...Sarah Blesener for The New York Times Gina McCarthy, the former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency under Mr. Obama, is Mr. Biden’s senior White House adviser on climate change. Ms. McCarthy is known as the architect of some of Mr. Obama’s most far-reaching regulations to limit greenhouse gas emissions, including the Clean Power Plan, which set the first national limits on carbon emissions from power plants. As the senior White House adviser on climate change, Ms. McCarthy will coordinate domestic climate policy and help make good on Mr. Biden’s campaign promise of putting the United States on track to reach carbon neutrality before 2050. Advocates for stronger action to fight climate change have lauded the choice. They have said Ms. McCarthy’s selection signals that the administration is prepared to bypass Congress and use executive authority to begin reducing greenhouse gases after the Trump administration’s efforts to repeal and weaken much of Ms. McCarthy’s work as the E.P.A. administrator. Since January, Ms. McCarthy has served as the president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group. Read more: In the Biden administration, Ms. McCarthy’s role as climate adviser may have significantly more influence than before.
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ADMINISTRATOR OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY Michael S. Regan Image Credit...Chuck Liddy/The News & Observer, via Associated Press Mr. Biden picked Michael Regan, the secretary of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, to lead the Environmental Protection Agency. A longtime air-quality specialist at the E.P.A. in both the Clinton and the George W. Bush administrations, Mr. Regan later worked for the Environmental Defense Fund, a nonprofit advocacy group. In 2017, Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, tapped Mr. Regan to lead North Carolina’s environmental agency. There he replaced Donald R. van der Vaart, a Trump administration ally who has questioned the established science of climate change. Mr. van der Vaart also fought Obama-era rules limiting greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and championed a pro-business agenda of deregulation. Supporters of Mr. Regan said he improved low morale and emphasized the role of science at the department. Several called it an obvious parallel to what he would be expected to do at the E.P.A., where Andrew Wheeler, Mr. Trump’s administrator and a former coal lobbyist, has discouraged the agency from working on climate change and independent auditors have identified a “culture at the top” of political interference in science. The selection of Mr. Regan is in many ways a conventional choice. Democratic presidents have a history of elevating E.P.A. leaders from state environmental agencies. Ms. McCarthy and Lisa Jackson, who both ran the agency under Mr. Obama, had been the heads of state environmental agencies. Mr. Regan, who would be the first Black man to lead the agency if confirmed, is expected to bring a strong focus on racial equity. Read more: Mr. Regan will be on the front lines of the effort to undo one of Mr. Trump’s most sprawling transformations of the federal government.
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SECRETARY OF EDUCATION Miguel A. Cardona Image Credit...Amr Alfiky/The New York Times Mr. Biden has nominated Dr. Miguel A. Cardona, Connecticut’s education commissioner, to serve as his education secretary. Dr. Cardona, who would be the first Latino to become secretary of education, has been Connecticut’s first Latino commissioner of education since 2019, after two decades of experience as a public school educator, including in an elementary school classroom. If confirmed, Dr. Cardona would lead a department responsible for bringing elementary, secondary and higher education systems back from the disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic, which has widened the achievement gap between affluent students and poorer pupils. In interviews, Dr. Cardona has emphasized his parents’ Puerto Rican roots and his upbringing in Connecticut’s public housing and education systems as experiences that have anchored his career. “It’s not lost on me, the significance of being the grandson of a tobacco farmer who came here for a better life, who despite having a second-grade education was able to raise his family and create that upward mobility cycle,” he said in a profile in The Connecticut Mirror in 2019. Read more: Dr. Cardona has emerged as an urgent voice pressing to reopen schools safely during the pandemic. Aishvarya Kavi and Eileen Sullivan contributed reporting. Site Index Site Information Navigation © 2021 The New York Times Company NYTCoContact UsWork with usAdvertiseT Brand StudioYour Ad ChoicesPrivacy PolicyTerms of ServiceTerms of SaleSite MapHelpSubscriptions Editors’ Picks A Couple Tested Their $375,000 Budget in Harlem and the Bronx. Which Option Would You Choose? Traveling With a Purpose: For Some, It’s a 2021 Resolution N.F.L. Playoff Predictions: Our Picks in the Conference Championships Continue reading the main story