Leila's Lines- Biden's Cabinet (Week 8)

Biden’s Cabinet:

Before we delve into who Biden has chosen for his Cabinet, it’s important to understand the various roles that compose The Cabinet. The vice present and heads of fifteen different departments (Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Justice, Labor, State, Transportation, Treasury, and Veterans Affairs) make up The Cabinet. There are also Cabinet-level positions such as White House chief of staff, Environmental Protection Agency administrator, Office of Management & Budget Director, United States Trade Representative Ambassador, Council of Economic Advisers chairman, Small Business Administration administrator, US Ambassador to the United Nations, and Director of National Intelligence.

Below I have crafted a consolidated version of elected members’ bios. This is only a small glimpse into their histories and experiences, so I urge you to continue educating yourself with a variety of sources in order to truly understand who will be leading our nation as of Inauguration Day.

Vice President: Kamala Harris

From 2011 to 2017, Harris served as California’s Attorney General. In 2016, she was elected to the U.S. Senate as a Democrat and began her first term the following year.

Secretary of State: Antony Blinken

From 2013 to 2015, Blinken served as the National Security Advisor, and from 2015 to 2017, he served as the Deputy Secretary of State.

Secretary of Treasury: Janet Yellen

Yellen is a former Federal Reserve chair and is not only the first woman to lead the Department of Treasury but also the first woman to lead the central bank and the White House Council of Economic Advisers, which are the nation’s three most powerful economic positions.

Secretary of Defense: General Lloyd Austin

Austin is a four-star, retired general who had served as the twelfth commander of the United States Central Command.

Secretary of Agriculture: Thomas Vilsack

From 1999 to 2007, Vilsack was the 40th Governor of Iowa. Beginning in 2009, he became the 30th United States Secretary of Agriculture, but his role ended in 2017.

Secretary of Health Services: Xavier Becerra

From 1993 to 2017, Becerra served as a representative of Downtown Los Angeles in Congress as he became a United States House of Representatives member. In 2017, he became the 33rd Attorney General of California.

Secretary of Housing and Urban Development: Marcia Fudge

In 2008, Fudge won the special election (uncontested), succeeding the late Stephanie Tubbs Jones as the U.S. Representative for Ohio’s 11th congressional district. She has remained in her role since.

Secretary of Veteran Affairs: Denis McDonough

McDonough was the 26th White House Chief of Staff under the Obama Administration during Obama’s second term.

Secretary of Homeland Security: Alejandro Mayorkas

Mayorkas served as the Deputy Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security under the Obama Administration and was the first Latino to do so. Before becoming DHS Deputy Secretary, he was the Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services where he led the implementation of DACA.

Chief of Staff: Ron Klain

During the Ebola outbreak in 2014, Klain was the Ebola-Response Coordinator under the Obama Administration. His experience with guiding an administration through a viral outbreak might have set him up to deal with the pandemic currently at hand.

Office of Management and Budget Director: Neera Tanden

Tanden has worked on a myriad of Democratic presidential campaigns: Michael Dukakis (1988), Bill Clinton (1992), Barack Obama (2008), and Hillary Clinton’s 2016 primary and general election campaigns. Under the Obama Administration, she helped to draft the Affordable Care Act. Furthermore, since 2003, she has been the president of the Center for American Progress.

US Trade Representative: Katherine Tai

Tai worked in the Trade Representative’s Office of General Counsel from 2007 to 2014. Beginning in 2011, she became the chief of counsel for China trade until 2014 when she became trade counsel for the House Ways and Means Committee. In 2017, she became chief trade counsel.

National Intelligence Director: Avril Haines

From 2013 to 2015, Haines served as the Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. If her position is confirmed, she will go on to oversee the seventeen agencies that compose the intelligence community. She will be the first woman to fulfill this role.

National Security Advisor: Jake Sullivan

Sullivan has previously held the role of Senior Policy Advisor to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential election campaign and has also been the Deputy Chief of Staff at the Department of State. His expertise is in foreign policy. Further, he was the senior advisor to the U.S. government for the Iran nuclear negotiations while also being a visiting professor at Yale Law School. Under the Obama Administration, he served as the Deputy Assistant to the President and National Security Advisor to Vice President Biden. He was also the Director of Policy Planning under the U.S. Department of State and was the Deputy Chief of Staff to U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton.

UN Ambassador: Linda Thomas-Greenfield

Before joining the Foreign Service in 1982, Thomas-Greenfield had taught political science at Bucknell University. She then went on to become the Deputy Assitant Secretary, Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration from 2004 to 2006. From 2008 to 2012, she was the Ambassador to Liberia, and from 2012 to 2013, she was the Director-General of the Foreign Service and Director of Human Resources. From 2013 to 2017, in the United States Department of State’s Bureau and African Affairs, Thomas-Greenfield served as the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs. In 2017, however, she was rid of her position by the Trump Administration.

Council of Economic Advisors, chair: Cecilia Rouse

From 1998 to 1999, Rouse worked in the National Economic Council under the Clinton Administration. She went on to become a member of Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers from 2009 to 2011. She has also served as an editor of the Journal of Labor Economics and as the Senior Editor of The Future of Children. Furthermore, she is the dean of the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University

Special Presidential Envoy for Climate: John Kerry

Kerry first caught the public eye when he, a Vietnam veteran, shifted his war views to become an anti-war activist. From 2013 to 2017, he served as the 68th Secretary of State. He has also been an attorney and naval officer. Now, he is taking on the responsibilities of a new Cabinet-level role.

Communications Director: Kate Bedingfield

In 20018, Bedingfield served on the Joh Edwards presidential campaign as a spokeswoman. During the same year, she was also the communications director for Jeanne Shaheen’s senate campaign. She then became the Communications Director for Vice President Joe Biden in 2015. Under the Obama Administration, she also held the roles of Director of Response and Deputy Director of Media Affairs. During Biden’s 2020 campaign, she was the Deputy Campaign Manager.

Press Secretary: Jen Psaki

From 2015 to 2017, Psaki served as a White House Communications Director. Before that, she was a spokesperson for the Department of State and served in a variety of roles relating to press and communications for the Obama White House. She has also been a CNN contributor.

Biden has claimed to build his Cabinet to reflect the diversity that shapes America. Some think he has, so far, been successful in this mission while others disagree. Do you think his Cabinet is reflective of our population?