With his inauguration scheduled for Jan. 20, President-elect Joe Biden and his transition team are filling the administration’s senior staff and Cabinet positions. Here is an updated look at who has been nominated and/or appointed thus far to serve in the soon-to-be 46th president’s administration:
CIA director: William Burns
A former ambassador to Russia and Jordan, Burns, 64, had a 33-year career at the State Department under Republican and Democratic presidents. He rose through the ranks of the diplomatic corps to become deputy secretary of state before retiring in 2014 to run the Carnegie Endowment of International Peace.
Amid tumult in the State Department after President Donald Trump took office in 2017, Burns held his tongue until last year, when he began writing highly critical pieces of the Trump administration’s policies in Foreign Affairs and other publications. Burns has been a staunch advocate of rebuilding and restructuring the foreign service, positions Biden has aligned himself with.
“Bill Burns is an exemplary diplomat with decades of experience on the world stage keeping our people and our country safe and secure,” Biden said in a statement Monday. “He shares my profound belief that intelligence must be apolitical and that the dedicated intelligence professionals serving our nation deserve our gratitude and respect. Ambassador Burns will bring the knowledge, judgment, and perspective we need to prevent and confront threats before they can reach our shores. The American people will sleep soundly with him as our next CIA director.”
Burns was said to have been a candidate to be Biden’s secretary of state. Biden chose Antony Blinken instead.
If confirmed by the Senate, Burns would succeed Gina Haspel. As the first female CIA director, Haspel guided the agency under Trump, who has frequently disparaged the assessments of U.S. spy agencies, especially about Russia’s interference in the 2016 election to help his campaign.
Secretary of commerce: Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo
Raimondo, a former venture capitalist, is in her second term as governor and previously served as state treasurer. Her name had been floated for Biden’s health secretary, though she said last month she would be staying in Rhode Island and continuing to focus on the coronavirus pandemic. Raimondo will help set trade policy and looking to promote U.S. opportunities for growth domestically and overseas.
Secretary of labor: Boston Mayor Marty Walsh
Walsh, 53, is a former union worker who has served as the Democratic mayor of Boston since 2014. When he took the oath of office for his second term as Boston’s chief executive in 2018, Biden presided over the inauguration. Before that, Walsh served as a state representative for more than a decade.
Secretary of Health and Human Services: Xavier Becerra
Becerra is the current California attorney general.
Attorney general: Merrick Garland
Garland’s appointment was announced at the same time as former Homeland Security adviser Lisa Monaco as deputy attorney general and former Justice Department civil rights chief Vanita Gupta as associate attorney general.
Garland was selected over other finalists including Alabama Sen. Doug Jones and former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates.
If confirmed, Garland would confront immediate challenges, including an ongoing criminal tax investigation into Biden’s son, Hunter, as well as calls from many Democrats to pursue inquiries into President Donald Trump after he leaves office. A special counsel investigation into the origins of the Russia probe also remains open, forcing a new attorney general to decide how to handle it and what to make public.
U.S. Department of Treasury: Janet Yellen
Yellen has collected more than $7 million in speaking fees during the last two years from major financial firms and tech giants including Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Google, according to disclosure forms filed as part of her nomination.
Yellen’s was among three financial disclosures turned in by Biden transition officials that were made public on Thursday by the Office of Government Ethics. In a separate filing, Yellen listed firms and banks in which she had received speaking fees and said she intended to “seek written authorization” from ethics officials to “participate personally and substantially” in matters involving them.
Yellen was the Federal Reserve chair from 2014 to 2018. Her term was not renewed by President Donald Trump. She took in the speaking fees in 2019 and 2020.
Her selection by Biden to lead the Treasury Department has been cheered by progressive Democrats, who support Yellen’s work as a labor economist who has long prioritized combating economic inequality. Since her nomination was announced, Yellen has pledged to work to fight systemic racism and climate change.
Secretary of state: Antony John Blinken
Blinken served as deputy national security adviser from 2013 to 2015 and deputy secretary of state from 2015 to 2017 under President Barack Obama.
National intelligence director: Avril Danica Haines
A lawyer and former government official, Haines served as the White House deputy national security adviser in the Obama administration. She previously served as deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency, the first woman to hold this position.
Department of Education: Miguel Cardona
Cardona is the education commissioner for Connecticut and a former public school teacher, to serve as education secretary.
Cardona was appointed to the top education post in Connecticut just months before the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in March. When schools moved to remote learning, he hurried to deliver more than 100,000 laptops to students across the state. Since then, however, he has increasingly pressed schools to reopen, saying it’s harmful to keep students at home.
If confirmed, his first task will be to expand that effort across the nation. Biden has pledged to have a majority of U.S. schools reopened by the end of his first 100 days in office. Biden is promising new federal guidelines on school-opening decisions, and a “large-scale” Education Department effort to identify and share the best ways to teach during a pandemic.
Department of Interior: U.S. Rep. Deb Haaland
Haaland has represented New Mexico’s First Congressional District, which includes includes most of Albuquerque, since 2019. She is a former chairwoman of the Democratic Party of New Mexico and will be the first Native American to head the Interior Department.
Haaland’s nomination further shrinks the Democratic House majority, which will already be one of the smallest in recent history once Biden takes office Jan. 20. The seat, however, has been held by Democrats since 2009.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: Michael S. Regan
Regan is a North Carolina regulator who made a name pursuing cleanups of industrial toxins and helping low-income and minority communities hit hardest by pollution. Biden’s selection of Regan, who leads his state’s environmental agency, was confirmed by anonymous sources quoted by The Associated Press.
Regan became environmental chief in North Carolina in 2017. North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, who hired Regan then, told The Associated Press that Regan was “a consensus builder and a fierce protector of the environment.”
In North Carolina, Regan led the negotiations that resulted in the cleanup of the Cape Fear River, which has been dangerously contaminated by PFAS industrial compounds from a chemical plant. He negotiated what North Carolina says was the largest cleanup agreement for toxic coal ash, with Duke Energy.
Department of Energy: Former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm
Department of Transportation: Former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg.
Buttigieg earlier was rumored to be under consideration to become the U.S. ambassador to China. Buttigieg was a former rival of Biden’s during the historically crowded 2020 Democratic presidential field.
Biden has compared the 38-year-old Buttigieg to his late son, Beau.
“To me, it’s the highest compliment I can give any man or woman. And, like Beau, he has a backbone like a ramrod,” Biden said during the March event, as Buttigieg stood behind him, bowing his head. “I promise you, over your lifetime, you’re going to end up seeing a hell of a lot more of Pete than you are of me.”
The Transportation Department helps oversee the nation’s highway system, planes, trains and mass transit and is poised to play a key role early in the incoming administration. Biden has pledged to spend billions making major infrastructure improvements and on retrofitting initiatives that can help the U.S. battle climate change. He also wants to immediately mandate mask-wearing on airplanes and public transportation systems to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
Department of Homeland Security: Alejandro Mayorkas
Mayorkas was the subject of a 2015 Office of Inspector General report that criticized his handling of three politically connected applications to a program that grants U.S. visas to foreigners who make job-creating investments in the United States. Mayorkas has disputed the findings, and he never faced any sanctions, but Republican senators are bringing it up ahead of what could be a tight confirmation vote.
Mayorkas would be the first Latino and first immigrant to run DHS, the third-largest Cabinet agency. DHS became closely identified with President Donald Trump’s political agenda, as it imposed new measures to combat illegal immigration. Under Biden, the Cuban-born Mayorkas is expected to direct a major reset of the agency’s priorities
Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council: Susan Rice
Rice will have broad sway over the Biden administration’s approach to immigration, health care and racial inequality and elevating the prominence of the position in the West Wing. The move marks a surprising shift for Rice, a longtime Democratic foreign policy expert who served as Obama’s national security adviser and U.N. ambassador. She worked closely with Biden when he was vice president in those roles and was on his short list to become his running mate during the 2020 campaign.
Secretary of Veterans’ Affairs: Denis McDonough
McDonough, who was Obama’s White House chief of staff, will be secretary of the sprawling agency that has presented organizational challenges for both parties over the years. But he never served in the armed forces, a fact noted by a leading veterans organization.
Secretary of defense: Ret. Army Gen. Lloyd Austin
Biden said he is asking Congress for a waiver to allow for Austin’s confirmation because the moment calls for it. On Wednesday, Biden said he “would not be asking for this exemption if I did not believe this moment in our history didn’t call for it. It does call for it.”
If confirmed by the Senate, Austin would be the first Black leader of the Pentagon. Congress intended civilian control of the military when it created the position of secretary of defense in 1947 and prohibited a recently retired military officer from holding the position. Austin retired in 2016.
“Given the immense and urgent threats and challenges our nation faces, he should be confirmed swiftly,” Biden wrote in The Atlantic. It was his first public confirmation that Austin was his pick for Pentagon chief, although word had leaked out Monday, prompting criticism and skepticism from some in Congress. Most speculation centered on Michele Flournoy, an experienced Washington hand and Biden supporter. She would have been the first woman to run the Pentagon. Flournoy issued a statement Tuesday congratulating Austin and calling him a man of deep integrity.
Housing and Urban Development: U.S. Rep. Marcia Fudge
Fudge, a former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, was just elected to a seventh term representing a majority Black district that includes parts of Cleveland and Akron. Biden has viewed Fudge as a leading voice for working families and a longtime champion of affordable housing, infrastructure and other priorities. Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms had been rumored as a potential candidate to run HUD.
Secretary of agriculture: Former Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack
Vilsack spent eight years as head of the U.S. Department of Agriculture during the Obama administration and served two terms as Iowa governor. Vilsack was selected in part because of the heightened hunger crisis facing the nation and the need to ensure someone was ready to run the department on day one, according to those briefed on the decision.
Jones, who is white, has had a longstanding personal relationship with Biden dating to Biden’s first presidential campaign in 1988. The former U.S. attorney prosecuted members of the Ku Klux Klan who were responsible for a 1963 church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, and later served as the U.S. attorney there from 1997 until 2001.
Garland is an experienced judge with a reputation for moderation who held senior positions at the Justice Department decades ago, including as a supervisor of the prosecution of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
Director of the Office of Management and Budget: Neera Tanden
Tanden helped draft the Affordable Care Act legislation as an adviser to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.
Administrator of the Small Business Administration: Isabel Guzman
Guzman is currently the director of California’s Office of the Small Business Advocate.
Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors: Cecilia Rouse
Rouse was on the Council of Economic Advisors during Obama’s first term and was on the National Economic Council during the Clinton administration.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations: Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors: Cecilia Rouse
Rouse was on the Council of Economic Advisors during Obama’s first term and was on the National Economic Council during the Clinton administration.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations: Linda Thomas-Greenfield
Thomas-Greenfield was ambassador to Liberia during Obama’s first term. During Obama’s second term she was assistant secretary for the Bureau of African Affairs. Thomas-Greenfield has also held foreign service positions in Switzerland, Pakistan, Kenya, Gambia, Nigeria and Jamaica.
U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate: John Kerry
Kerry was secretary of state during Obama’s second term. He was a senator representing Massachusetts from 1985 to 2013.
National health care team, including Health and Human Services, Surgeon General, coronavirus task force, CDC
Harvard infectious disease expert Dr. Rochelle Walensky has been picked to head the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And he announced a new advisory role for Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert.
Businessman Jeff Zients was named as Biden’s White House coronavirus coordinator. And former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, a co-chair of Biden’s coronavirus task force, is expected to return in a new role akin to the top medical adviser.
U.S. Trade Representative
On Dec. 10, The Associated Press quoted two anonymous sources that said Biden will nominate Katherine Tai, currently the chief trade counsel for the House Ways and Means Committee. The role is a Cabinet position, and the Senate will vote on whether to confirm Tai for the position.
Fluent in Mandarin Chinese, Tai earlier oversaw China trade enforcement for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, setting U.S. strategy in trade disputes with China. Biden’s trade representative will inherit a trade war with China, put on pause by an interim trade pact in January that left many of the hardest issues unresolved and U.S. taxes remaining on $360 billion in Chinese imports.
Communications team
Biden has named an all-female senior communications team at his White House, led by campaign communications director Kate Bedingfield.
Bedingfield will serve as Biden’s White House communications director, and Jen Psaki, a longtime Democratic spokeswoman, will be his press secretary. Psaki has already been working with Biden’s team, serving as one of the main spokespeople for the transition. Bedingfield and Psaki are veterans of the Obama administration.
Karine Jean Pierre, who was Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’ chief of staff, will serve as a principal deputy press secretary for the president-elect. Pili Tobar, who was communications director for coalitions on Biden’s campaign, will be his deputy White House communications director.
Chief of staff
Arguably the most importation position in the White House second to the president, Biden’s longtime adviser Ron Klain will serve as chief of staff. An aide with decades of experience, Klain will lead a White House likely to be consumed by the response to the coronavirus pandemic, and he’ll face the challenge of working with a divided Congress that could include a Republican-led Senate.
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