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The Inauguration of the 46th President

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Homeland Security: Alejandro Mayorkas and his family came to the United States in 1960 as refugees from Cuba. CAROLYN KASTER/AP Treasury: Janet Yellen was the first woman to head the Federal Reserve, doing so from 2014 to 2018. BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES Defense: Lloyd Austin headed U.S. Central Command before retiring as a four-star Army general in 2016. CHIP SOMODEVILLA/GETTY IMAGES

Diverse slate assembled for Cabinet

Preliminary roster of top officials in the Biden administration include a number of nominees who would be making history

Bart Jansen, William Cummings and Savannah Behrmann

USA TODAY

President-elect Joe Biden campaigned with a pledge to have a government as diverse as America. After 36 years in the Senate and eight years as vice president, Biden now has an opportunity to tap a broad range of government officials and policy experts to lead federal departments.

His selections so far reflect that commitment.

Alejandro Mayorkas, a Cuban American, would be the first Latino head of the Department of Homeland Security. Janet Yellen would be the first woman to serve as Treasury secretary. Avril Haines would be the first female director of national intelligence. Pete Buttigieg, his pick for Transportation, would be the first openly gay Cabinet Secretary to be confirmed by the Senate. Deb Haaland at the Interior Department would be the first Native American in the Cabinet. And Merrick Garland, who was denied a Senate hearing by Republicans in 2016 when he was nominated for the Supreme Court, will get one this year to be attorney general.

Here is a look at who Biden has picked for Cabinet and senior White House staff jobs. Cabinet nominees must be confirmed by the Senate.

State: Antony Blinken

Antony Blinken, 58, held top-level national security and State Department positions during the Obama administration — including as national security adviser to Biden when he was vice president. He worked side-by-side with Biden on foreign policy issues as a Senate staffer and administration official for nearly two decades.

Biden has called Blinken a “superstar” and once said he could do “any job.” By choosing Blinken for one of the most coveted jobs in the Cabinet, Biden is aiming to install an alter-ego at the helm of the State Department and signaling that he will make foreign policy a priority of his presidency.

Defense: Lloyd Austin

Retired Army general Lloyd Austin, 67, would be the first Black secretary of Defense. He was the Army’s vice chief of staff and also led U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in such places as Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. Austin prefers to work behind the scenes, building by consensus and leading by example.

The military has struggled to diversify its senior military ranks. Austin is one of a relatively few Black Army officers to have held senior commands in combat units, which is the principal route to the

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highest commands in the military.

Austin retired from duty in 2016. Federal law requires a seven-year wait after military retirement before someone can take over as Defense secretary, but Congress can provide a waiver. That happened with Jim Mattis, a former Marine general. Mattis, who had also headed Central Command, retired in 2013 and was confirmed as Defense secretary in 2017.

Treasury: Janet Yellen

Janet Yellen, 74, was the first woman to lead the Federal Reserve and would be the first woman to head the Treasury Department.

Yellen became chair of the Federal Reserve System in 2014 during the Obama administration, after serving more than three years as vice governor. She previously served as head of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Bill Clinton.

Justice: Merrick Garland

Merrick Garland, 68, has been an federal appeals court judge since 1997 and chief judge of the D.C. Circuit since 2013. In 2016, President Barack Obama nominated him for an opening on the Supreme Court, but Senate Republicans refused to hold a hearing on the nomination. The GOP argument was that it wouldn’t be appropriate to confirm a justice in a presidential election year. Four years later, however, they held a hearing on, and approved, a Trump nominee to the high court in a presidential election year.

Homeland Security: Alejandro Mayorkas

Alejandro Mayorkas, 61, is a Cuban American lawyer who ran U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services before becoming deputy secretary of Homeland Security during the Obama administration. If confirmed, Mayorkas would be the first Latino to run the department since it was established in 2003.

Mayorkas, who arrived in the U.S. with his parents as refugees in 1960, would also be the first immigrant to head the department, which is in charge of immigration enforcement and has been at the center of controversy over Trump administration immigration policies.

Interior: Deb Haaland

Deb Haaland, 59, would be the first Native American not only to be Interior secretary, but also to hold any Cabinet position.

The Department of the Interior includes the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Haaland is an enrolled citizen of the Pueblo of Laguna Native American tribe and serves on the House Natural Resources Committee. She was one of the first two Native American women elected to Congress.

Prior to being elected to the U.S. House in 2018, Haaland served as chairwoman of the Democratic Party of New Mexico. Before that, she ran for lieutenant governor of the state in 2014.

Energy: Jennifer Granholm

Jennifer Granholm, 61, was attorney general of Michigan from 1999 to 2003 and governor from 2003 to 2011. She was the first woman to serve as Michigan’s governor. She made clean energy development a hallmark of her administration.

Since leaving office, Granholm has been involved in several initiatives focused on transforming the nation’s energy industry from one focused on fossil fuels to one expanding renewable sources, such as wind and solar.

Transportation: Pete Buttigieg

Former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg is the choice for Transportation secretary.

Buttigieg, 38, who competed against Biden for the Democratic nomination before dropping out and endorsing him, would be the first openly gay Cabinet secretary confirmed by the Senate.

Buttigieg was the nation’s youngest mayor of a city South Bend’s size or larger when he took office in 2012 at age 29. He envisioned his hometown as a “beta city,” the perfect size to use his data-driven background with the consulting firm McKinsey to test big ideas. That included the “smart sewers” that saved South Bend an estimated hundreds of millions of dollars and became a template for a product now sold to cities all over the world.

Health and Human Services: Xavier Becerra

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, 62, is Biden’s pick for Health and Human Services, a critical appointment amid a global pandemic that has killed more than 350,000 in the U.S. alone.

If confirmed by the Senate, Becerra would be the first Latino to head the Department of Health and Human Services, a $1-trillion-plus agency with 80,000 employees and a portfolio that includes drugs and vaccines, leading-edge medical research and health insurance programs covering more than 130 million Americans.

Agriculture: Tom Vilsack

Tom Vilsack, 70, served as President Barack Obama’s secretary of Agriculture for eight years and will be nominated to reclaim the role under Biden. The former Iowa governor is a longtime Biden ally and an experienced hand on rural issues, though his nomination has disgruntled some Black lawmakers who expected a Black nominee.

Vilsack’s agenda will naturally focus on rural areas, which have seen their economies especially hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

Education: Miguel Cardona

Miguel Cardona, 45, is Connecticut’s commissioner of education, with oversight of the state’s public schools. He became the top education offi-

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Transportation: Pete Buttigieg won the most votes in the 2020 Iowa caucuses but dropped out of the race a month later. ROBERT SCHEER/INDYSTAR Energy: Jennifer Granholm made clean energy a hallmark of her administration when she was Michigan’s governor. 2010 PHOTO BY AL GOLDIS/AP White House chief of staff: Ron Klain was Biden’s chief of staff as vice president and will serve him again as president. JACQUELYN MARTIN/AP

The Inauguration of the 46th President

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Climate change envoy: John Kerry has been a senator, secretary of State and presidential candidate. MARK MAKELA GETTY IMAGES

Cabinet

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cial in Connecticut in 2019 after being an assistant superintendent in the school district in Meriden, which serves nearly 9,000 students. It’s the district Cardona grew up and went to school in, and also where he started his career in education as an elementary school teacher.

Housing and Urban Development: Marcia Fudge

Marcia Fudge, 68, has represented Ohio’s 11th Congressional District, which stretches from Cleveland to Akron, since 2008. If confirmed, she would be the fifth African American secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

HUD will play a critical role in the administration’s economic recovery plans, as the country faces an acute rent and mortgage crisis amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Veterans Affairs: Denis McDonough

Denis McDonough, 51, was White House chief of staff in President Barack Obama’s second term and was previously deputy national security adviser, a position he held at the time of the 2011 commando raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

He would be the second non-veteran to head the Department of Veterans Affairs, after Trump appointee David Shulkin.

EPA: Michael Regan

Michael Regan, 45, would be the first Black administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. A former air quality specialist with EPA, he has been serving as head of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality.

Budget director: Neera Tanden would be the first woman to head the office that lays out spending plans. CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES Housing and Urban Development: Marcia Fudge has represented an Ohio district in Congress since 2008. SUSAN WALSH/AP

Biden’s EPA administrator will likely be tasked with rebuilding the agency and reasserting its authority after years of regulatory rollbacks under the Trump administration.

White House chief of staff: Ron Klain

Ron Klain, 59, was a senior adviser to the Biden campaign. He served as chief of staff to Biden for two years when he was vice president and earlier did the same for Vice President Al Gore. He headed the White House response to the Ebola epidemic in Africa during the Obama administration.

A close confidant of Biden, Klain had long been rumored for the post even before the election.

UN ambassador: Linda Thomas-Greenfield

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, 68, was the top U.S. diplomat overseeing African affairs in the Obama administration. Her nomination would elevate a Black woman and career foreign service official to the high-profile position. She would bring a markedly different tone and presence to the international body, which the Trump administration has derided and denigrated.

Director of National Intelligence: Avril Haines

Avril Haines, 51, a former deputy CIA director and deputy national security adviser, would be the first woman to lead the U.S. intelligence community as the director of national intelligence.

Haines has worked directly with Biden before, serving as deputy chief counsel to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 2007 to 2008 when Biden was the committee’s chairman.

National security adviser: Jake Sullivan

Jake Sullivan, 44, was national security adviser to Vice President Biden and would reprise the role for... President Biden. Sullivan also served as deputy assistant to President Barack Obama and director of the policy planning staff at the State Department under Hillary Clinton.

Sullivan was a lead negotiator during the opening of talks that led to an agreement for Iran to halt its nuclear weapons development. The Trump administration later pulled out of the agreement, and Biden hopes to revive it.

White House press secretary: Jen Psaki

Jen Psaki, 42, will head a White House communications team made up of all women. Psaki wore many hats in the Obama administration, including White House communications director and State Department spokesperson, and has overseen the confirmation team for Biden’s transition.

As press secretary, Psaki will become one of the most public faces of the Biden administration.

Chief medical adviser: Anthony Fauci

Anthony Fauci, 80, has been director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984 and, as such, has been the most prominent public health official during the COVID-19 pandemic. He has endured sometimes withering criticism from Trump administration officials and allies for his push for a robust response. He has advised every president since Ronald Reagan.

Biden also asked Fauci to serve on his COVID-19 task force. When asked on NBC’s “Today“ show whether he had told Biden that he would serve as his chief medical adviser, Fauci said, “Oh, absolutely. I said yes right on the spot.”

Climate change envoy: John Kerry

John Kerry, 77, played a key role in crafting the Paris Climate Accord as secretary of State and signed the eventual agreement.

Before serving as secretary of State, Kerry was a

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five-term senator from Massachusetts and was the Democratic nominee for president in 2004.

The Paris accord was another international agreement that the Obama administration signed, that the Trump administration pulled the U.S. out of and that Biden hopes to rejoin.

Budget director: Neera Tanden

Neera Tanden, 50, would be the first woman and first person of South Asian descent to head the Office of Management and Budget, which not only maps the president’s spending blueprint but also serves as a key gatekeeper by reviewing government regulations for their financial impact.

Some progressive Democrats objected to Tanden’s nomination as did numerous Republican senators who objected to her history of combative tweets.

Surgeon general: Vivek Murthy

Vivek Murthy, 43, served as surgeon general during the last three years of the Obama administration and would return to the role under Biden. As surgeon general from 2014 to 2017, Murthy helped lead the U.S. response to the Zika and Ebola outbreaks and he worked to address the opioid crisis. Murthy also helped bring attention to the health consequences of stress and loneliness, an issue that gained prominence in 2020 as local governments impose restrictions in order to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

CDC director: Rochelle Walensky

Rochelle Walensky, head of the infectious diseases division at Massachusetts General Hospital and a Harvard Medical School professor, is Biden’s choice as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Walensky is best known for her work on the national and international response to HIV/AIDS.

U.S. trade representative: Katherine Tai

Katherine Tai has been tapped to be the nation’s top negotiator on trade. Tai is chief trade counsel for the House Ways and Means Committee, where she was integral in the Trump administration’s negotiation of the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement, winning several concessions for congressional Democrats.

Tai would be the first Asian American and the first woman of color in the role. Tai previously directed China trade enforcement for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and is expected to be integral in crafting trade policy toward China.

White House Domestic Policy Council: Susan Rice

Susan Rice, 56, is a seasoned diplomat with extensive foreign policy and national security experience and was considered a top contender to be secretary of State. She doesn’t have formal domestic policy experience.

Rice served as ambassador to the United Nations and then White House national security adviser in the Obama administration.

Key positions not yet filled

As of press time, Biden hadn’t yet announced selections for these Cabinet-level posts, although a number of contenders have emerged for each: h Commerce secretary. h Labor secretary. h Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Other White House staffers

Biden and Harris have named a number of other staffers to serve in the incoming administration: h Dana Remus, White House counsel. h Cedric Richmond, senior adviser and director of the White House Office of Public Engagement. h Kate Bedingfield, White House communications director. h Steve Ricchetti, counselor to the president. h Jen O’Malley Dillon, deputy chief of staff. h Louisa Terrell, director of White House Office of Legislative Affairs. h Reema Dodin, deputy director of the Office of Legislative Affairs. h Shuwanza Goff, deputy director of the Office of Legislative Affairs. h Cathy Russell, director of the White House Office of Presidential Personnel. h Pili Tobar, deputy White House communications director. h Mike Donilon, senior adviser to the president. h Karine Jean-Pierre, principal deputy press secretary. h Julie Rodriguez, director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. h Hartina Flournoy, chief of staff to the vice president. h Ashley Etienne, communications director to the vice president.

Other senior administration officials

Health team: h Marcella Nunez-Smith, COVID-19 equity task force chairwoman. h Jeff Zients, COVID-19 response coordinator. h Natalie Quillian, deputy COVID-19 response coordinator.

Economics team: h Cecilia Rouse, chair of the Council of Economic Advisers. h Wally Adeyemo, deputy secretary of the Treasury. h Brian Deese, director of the National Economic Council.

Contributing: Maureen Groppe, Kevin Johnson, Deirdre Shesgreen, Savannah Behrmann, Rebecca Morin and Tom Vanden Brook, Jeanine Santucci

Agriculture: Tom Vilsack headed the USDA for eight years under Obama and has been tapped to return to the job under Biden. JUSTIN HAYWORTH/AP U.S. trade representative: Katherine Tai is expected to be integral in crafting American trade policy toward China. SUSAN WALSH/AP Domestic Policy Council: Susan Rice had been seen as a leading candidate for secretary of State. CHIP SOMODEVILLA/GETTY IMAGES