White House Chief of Staff – Biden 2021

Posted on January 19, 2021 by mekorganic

Ronald A. Klain Currently: Mark Meadows

The chief of staff is often considered the president’s gatekeeper, shaping his schedule and presidential access. They serve as a close adviser and also oversee White House staffing. This position does not require Senate confirmation.

Ronald A. Klain

Biden’s vice presidential chief of staff from 2009 to 2011

Klain was appointed by then-President Barack Obama to serve as the White House’s “Ebola czar” to coordinate the administration’s response to that epidemic and most recently was a senior adviser to the Biden campaign. He was also chief of staff to Vice President Al Gore.

Source: Washington Post Reported by Kate Rabinowitz.

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Ron Klain – Wikipedia

2021-01-17 Biden chief of staff doesn’t rule out stopping intelligence briefings for Trump

2021-0117 Incoming Biden Chief of Staff Ron Klain: We’re ‘Inheriting a Huge Mess’ on Covid Vaccine Rollout Klain reiterated what Biden has said about 100 million vaccines in his first 100 days. He added that “the virus is going to get worse before it gets better” and said the U.S. may mark 500,000 deaths by February. “We’re inheriting a huge mess here, Jake,” Klain answered. “But we have a plan to fix it.” He said they want to “speed up the delivery of the vaccine” like using the Defense Production Act. Klain added that “we believe there will be adequate supply to give people their second shots.”

2021-01-15 New Government with Ronald A. Klain – The Washington Post

2020-12-09 Ron Klain – Career, Family & Facts – Biography

2020-11-11 Biden’s choice of Ron Klain to run White House signals rejection of Trump-era chaos

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Biden Cabinet & Officials

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United Nations Ambassador

Posted on January 19, 2021 by mekorganic

Linda Thomas-Greenfield: Nominee Currently: Kelly Craft

Under Trump, the U.N. ambassador was removed from the president’s Cabinet, as part of a larger retreat from diplomacy and the world stage. Biden will reinstate the ambassador to the Cabinet as his administration aims to reverse Trump’s “America First” foreign policy.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield

Former top U.S. diplomat to Africa and career Foreign Service officer

Thomas-Greenfield served as the top U.S. diplomat to Africa under President Obama, an assistant secretary job that capped her 35-year career in the Foreign Service. Known as “LTG” among State Department rank-and-file, Thomas-Greenfield retired in 2017 after Trump took power and joined the Albright Stonebridge advisory firm as a senior counselor where she worked with her mentor former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

Source: Washington Post Reported by John Hudson.

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Linda Thomas-Greenfield – Wikipedia

Linda Thomas-Greenfield – Ballotpedia

Thomas-Greenfield, Linda – U.S. Department of State

2020-11-26 Linda Thomas-Greenfield’s Husband & Kids: 5 Fast Facts Thomas-Greenfield Met Her Husband, Also a Foreign Service Officer, While Studying in Liberia. Her Daughter, Lindsay Jamila Greenfield, Works in the Foreign Service & Was Stationed in Bolivia. Lafayette Masteen Greenfield II Is a Partner at a Law Firm in Washington, D.C. Thomas-Greenfield Has a Daughter-In-Law & at Least One Grandchild. Thomas-Greenfield & Her Husband Own Property in Virginia & North Carolina.

2020-11-24 Biden taps longtime diplomat jettisoned under Trump as US ambassador to the UN Attending Louisiana State University in the early 1970s, she encountered a “hostile environment” where she faced harassment and racism.She was forced out at the outset of the Trump administration after a decades-long career at the State Department.Now Thomas-Greenfield is poised to take on one of her country’s most senior diplomatic jobs as President-elect Joe Biden’s pick to be US ambassador to the United Nations.

2020-11-23 Biden’s choice for UN envoy signals return to US engagement

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Biden Cabinet & Officials

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U.S. Trade Representative – Biden 2021

Posted on January 19, 2021 by mekorganic

Katherine Tai: Nominee Currently: Robert Lighthizer

Normally a low-profile outpost, the position of chief trade negotiator became one of the Trump administration’s most consequential jobs. Ambassador Robert E. Lighthizer, an experienced trade attorney, was the intellectual muscle behind the president’s “America First” sentiments, driving a protectionist revolution in U.S. policy.With USTR’s help, Trump imposed tariffs on solar panels, washing machines, steel and aluminum along with much of what Americans import from China. Lighthizer, a fierce critic of the World Trade Organization, hammered out new agreements with South Korea, Mexico and Canada, and China. But he failed to achieve Trump’s goal of narrowing the U.S. trade deficit and left many U.S. allies irritated by his uncompromising stance.

Biden has said he plans no early reversal of the Trump tariffs, though that could come later. He also plans investments in infrastructure, education and manufacturing before seeking new trade deals. And he has proposed a $400 billion “Buy America” initiative, which could require renegotiating some existing accords.

Katherine Tai

Chief trade counsel, House Ways & Means Committee

Along with substantial experience on Capitol Hill, Tai spent seven years as a USTR attorney specializing in enforcing trade agreements with China. She is well-regarded by both the corporate and progressive wings of the party and is backed by prominent lawmakers, including Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio. A group of 10 female House Democrats led by Reps. Suzanne Bonamici and Judy Chu wrote Biden backing Tai as “uniquely qualified” for the job.

Source: Washington Post Reported by Amy B Wang and David J. Lynch.

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Katherine Tai – Wikipedia

2021-01-18 Who is nominated trade czar Katherine Tai?

2021-01-12 Biden Trade Policy to Center on Workers, USTR Nominee Says

2021-01-12 Who is Katherine Tai? President-elect Joe Biden has nominated Katherine Tai, the chief trade counsel for the U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means, as U.S Trade Representative. In her new role, Tai will be responsible for the development and coordination of U.S. international trade, commodity, and direct investment policy. She will oversee trade negotiations with other countries. As U.S. Trade Representative, Tai will act as the president’s principal trade advisor, negotiator, and spokesperson on all issues related to international trade. She will be a member of the president’s cabinet.

2020-12-16 Katherine Tai Appointed as U.S. Trade Rep.: “I Am Very Proud to Be an Advocate For American Workers” As chief trade counsel, Tai currently serves as the House Ways and Means Committee’s chief lawyer. She previously held the titles of Associate General Counsel and Chief Counsel for China Trade Enforcement in the USTR’s Office of the General Counsel.

She was the first of her family to be born in America, and went on to attend Yale University and Harvard Law School. However, she also worked in Guangzhou, China teaching English in the late 90s, eventually becoming a Yale-China Fellow. Tai is deeply experienced in matters of U.S.-China trade relations, having litigated such disputes for the U.S. at the World Trade Organization (WTO).

2020-12-10 Biden picks longtime China critic Katherine Tai as top U.S. trade official Katherine Tai, a trade lawyer with a history of taking on China, as his incoming administration’s pick for the United States’ top trade representative. If confirmed by the Senate, Tai would inherit a critical, Cabinet-level position tasked with enforcing America’s import rules and brokering trading terms with China and other nations.

Tai, who is Asian-American, would also be the first woman of color to serve as the USTR. She is fluent in Mandarin. In choosing Tai, the senior trade lawyer on the House Ways and Means Committee, the Biden team likely signals an intent to return to a more multilateral trade approach to advance U.S. trade interests and confront growing economic competition from China.

2020-12-09 Biden selects Katherine Tai as U.S. trade representative

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Small Business Administration Head

Posted on January 19, 2021 by mekorganic

Isabel Guzman: Nominee Currently: Jovita Carranza

The agency, which supports small-business owners and entrepreneurs, has been under fire recently for its management of a loan program intended to help small businesses weather the pandemic.

Isabel Guzman

Director of California’s Office of the Small Business Advocate

Guzman served as senior adviser and chief of staff in the federal agency during the Obama administration. She has run her own small businesses and previously worked at a commercial bank.

Source: Washington Post

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Isabel Guzman – Ballotpedia

2021-01-20 Coalition urges Senate to confirm Guzman for SBA administrator The ADA and more than 80 other organizations are asking the Senate to confirm Isabel Guzman as administrator for the Small Business Administration.

In a Jan. 15 letter to the Senate Committee on Small Business & Entrepreneurship, the groups — led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce — praised lawmakers for supporting the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act and Economic Aid to Hard-Hit Small Businesses, Nonprofits, and Venues Act. They urged committee members to “expeditiously schedule a confirmation hearing” so that Ms. Guzman and the agency can continue helping businesses suffering from the pandemic.

“Unfortunately, the pandemic continues to wreak havoc on entrepreneurs, their employees and their communities,” the groups wrote, adding that 62% of small businesses “fear the worst is yet to come.”

2021-01-12 LAVA Congratulates Isabel Guzman for Nomination to Biden Cabinet In this inaugural installment of VC/DC Alert!, LAVA and LAVA Gov congratulate Isabel Guzman, a long time member of LA’s venture/startup ecosystem, for her selection by the Biden-Harris administration to head the Small Business Association (SBA).

2021-01-08 Biden Picks California Official Isabel Guzman to Head SBA Guzman served as a deputy chief of staff and senior adviser to the administrator at the SBA during the Obama administration, and has run her own small businesses.https://products.gobankingrates.com/r/d9360ea31bf06ea8b9d0ef49288e28fb

Since April 2019, she’s been director of California’s Office of the Small Business Advocate, part of that state’s Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development.

2021-01-07 Governor Gavin Newsom Statement on President-Elect Biden’s Appointment of Isabel Guzman as Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration “Isabel Guzman embodies the story of the California and American Dream. As the daughter of a small business owner, Isabel was raised witnessing the power and opportunity of American entrepreneurism. With Isabel’s appointment, President-Elect Biden has chosen a true champion for small businesses to be our country’s next SBA Administrator.

“For almost two years, she has worked tirelessly as part of my Administration to ensure California’s small businesses have a seat at the table. Her leadership has been fundamental in guiding this state through the ongoing economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

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Biden Cabinet & Officials

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Presidential Science Adviser

Posted on January 19, 2021 by mekorganic

Eric Lander: Nominee

Biden has elevated the presidential science adviser, who councils the president on a broad range of scientific and technological topics, to be a member of the Cabinet. The adviser leads the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Eric Lander

MIT and Harvard University Professor

Lander, a mathematician and geneticist, co-chaired the President’s Council of Advisers on Science and Technology under Obama and helped map the human genome. His background in life sciences is unusual for heads of OSTP, who have typically been physicists, able to advise the president on issues related to nuclear weapons and related technologies. His nomination suggests the importance of biology expertise in the midst of covid-19 pandemic.

Source: Washington Post Reported by Kate Rabinowitz and Sarah Kaplan.

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Eric Lander – Wikipedia

Eric S. Lander | Broad Institute

2021-01-21 Eric Lander Is Not the Ideal Choice for Presidential Science Adviser Despite a long list of supremely qualified people who could inspire a whole new generation of scientists, the glass ceiling in American science remains intact.

While we can celebrate the Biden-Harris administration’s commitment to science, we must recognize that Lander has a reputation among some scientists for being controversial, and colleagues have criticized him for his “ego without end.” We cannot forget that in 2016, Lander wrote a widely criticized history of the revolutionary technology CRISPR, dubbed the “Heroes of CRISPR,” that erased the contributions of two women colleagues. This conspicuous exclusion is emblematic of the forces in science that hold back women and scientists of color from attaining the level of prominence he enjoys.

These are hardly contributions that could be omitted by mistake. In 2020, those scientists, Emmanuelle Charpentier of the Max Planck Unit for the Science of Pathogens and Jennifer Doudna of the University of California, Berkeley, won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work, solidifying their place in history.

2021-01-15 Biden will elevate White House science office to Cabinet-level – WP

2020-12-15 Biden elevates White House science post to Cabinet level – CNN

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Director of National Intelligence – Biden 2021

Posted on January 19, 2021 by mekorganic

Avril Haines: Nominee Currently: John Ratcliffe

The director of national intelligence serves as the president’s primary intelligence adviser and leader of the U.S. intelligence community. The DNI historically hasn’t been a political role, but under Trump, it has been held twice by loyalists who used their authority to advance Trump’s claims that he was the target of a conspiracy by intelligence officials. Under Biden, the DNI is expected to revert to the norm and act as a manager and setter of priorities for the agency.

Avril Haines

Former deputy national security adviser

Haines served as deputy national security adviser during President Obama’s second term and before that as the first female deputy director of the CIA. She also was deputy counsel for national security affairs in the White House Counsel’s Office in the Obama administration. She would be the first woman to head the intelligence community.

Source: Washington Post Reported by Shane Harris and Ellen Nakashima.

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Avril Haines – Wikipedia

2021-01-21 Senate confirms Avril Haines as director of national intelligence, the first Biden Cabinet nominee confirmed Haines’ confirmation as the first woman to lead the US intelligence community, which was approved in the Senate by 84 to 10, continues a recent Senate precedent of confirming Cabinet nominees the day a new president is sworn in, though Biden is getting fewer nominees approved quickly than his predecessors. The Senate confirmed two of former President Donald Trump’s on his first day, and even more for former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush.Biden may struggle to get additional nominees confirmed quickly, as those confirmations could be stalled until Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer cut a deal on a resolution outlining how they’ll share power in the Senate, GOP and Democratic senators said Wednesday.

2021-01-20 CIA Whistleblower: Biden Intel Pick Avril Haines Approved Obama Drone Strike Kill List, Hid Torture She was President Obama’s top lawyer on the National Security Council from 2010 to 2013 and CIA deputy director from 2013 to 2015, where she authorized using drone strikes to carry out targeted extrajudicial assassinations. “We know that in almost all cases that she said it was legal to put these names on the kill list, and people were subsequently killed by drone, including American citizens,” says CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou, who exposed the Bush-era torture program and was the only official jailed in connection to it. He also discusses Haines’s handling of CIA agents who illegally hacked the computers of the Senate Intelligence Committee to thwart its investigation into the CIA’s detention and interrogation program that used torture methods like waterboarding.

2021-01-20 DNI nominee Avril Haines pledges to submit unclassified report on killing of Jamal Khashoggi “Ms. Haines, if you are confirmed, you have an opportunity to immediately turn a page on the excessive secrecy and lawlessness of the outgoing administration,” Mr. Wyden said at the hearing. “Congress passed a law requiring the DNI to submit to Congress an unclassified report on who was responsible for the brutal murder of Saudi journalist and U.S. resident Jamal Khashoggi. If you are confirmed, will you submit to Congress the unclassified report required by the law?”“Yes senator, absolutely, I will follow the law,” Ms. Haines responded.

Khashoggi, a columnist for The Washington Post, vanished upon entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018, and it was soon determined he was killed inside. He was 59.

2021-01-19 ‘Tough as nails’: Lawmakers to grill Avril Haines, Biden’s nominee for director of national intelligence

2021-01-19 Biden Pick For Intel Chief: ‘Biggest Challenge Is Building Trust And Confidence’

2020-11-23 Biden to nominate Avril Haines as next director of national intelligence; she would be the first woman to hold the position If confirmed, Haines, nominated to be Biden’s director of national intelligence, will confront not only the menace of North Korea’s nuclear arsenal, the threat of Russian disinformation, and the aftermath of a sweeping cyberattack on U.S. government agencies. She will also face an energized domestic network of white supremacists, conspiracy theorists and far-right militia members who experts fear are planning more violence against government officials.

While DNI’s main focus is on foreign threats and intelligence, the office does have some purview over domestic terrorism, mostly via its oversight of the FBI and a supporting role for the National Counterterrorism Center, which is charged with integrating domestic and foreign threats and sharing assessments across the government.

White supremacists and other like-minded extremists conducted 67% of terrorist plots and attacks in the United States in 2020, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. It also noted anarchist, anti-fascist, and other like-minded attacks and plots comprised 20% of U.S. terrorist incidents in 2020, an increase from 8% in 2019. 

2013-06-26 Avril Haines, The Least Likely Spy the top lawyer for the National Security Council. On this morning, she was laboring over the “playbook,” President Obama’s massively complex and bureaucratically contentious effort to reform the administration’s lethal drone program. But the truth is, it was only a slight departure from Haines’s typically relentless work routine. Since becoming the National Security Council’s legal adviser in 2011, she had been working on a wide array of highly complicated and legally sensitive issues—generally until 1 or 2 in the morning, sometimes later—that go to the core of U.S. security interests. Among them were the legal requirements governing U.S. intervention in Syria and the range of highly classified options for thwarting Iran’s nuclear program. All the while, Haines was sometimes summoned in the middle of the night to weigh in on whether a suspected terrorist could be lawfully incinerated by a drone strike.

Earlier this month, Obama selected Haines to be deputy director of the CIA, where she will serve under the new CIA director, John Brennan.

But in another respect, it was a surprising choice. Ask around about Haines, and colleagues will often describe some character traits not usually associated with the CIA—or, for that matter, with rapid ascent inside the Beltway: a sweet personality, humility bordering on shyness, a deep empathy for others. “She may quite literally be the nicest person any of us have ever met,” says Deputy National Security Adviser Benjamin Rhodes, who has worked closely with Haines.

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Office of Management and Budget Director – Biden 2021

Posted on January 19, 2021 by mekorganic

Neera Tanden: Nominee Currently: Russ Vought

The White House budget office acts as the nerve center of the government, an elite career workforce that prepares and helps administer the annual spending plan and helps set fiscal and personnel policy for federal agencies.

Neera Tanden

President, Center for American Progress

Tanden, president of the left-leaning Center for American Progress, was a key player in passing the Affordable Care Act. Her outspoken critiques of Republicans on Twitter have drawn outcry from some in the GOP. She would be the first woman of color to oversee the OMB. She would be the first woman of color to oversee OMB.

Source: Washington Post Reported by Lisa Rein and Jeff Stein.

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Neera Tanden – Wikipedia

2021-01-12 Biden OMB nominee Neera Tanden received $731G over 2 years from liberal nonprofit Neera Tanden, Biden’s nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), disclosed earning $731,528 from the Center for American Progress (CAP) for the last two years, along with thousands in investments and speaking fees, according to the documents. That amounts to about $365,000 a year.

A longtime Democratic operative, Tanden worked on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s two presidential campaigns. Under former President Obama, she also helped draft the Affordable Care Act legislation as an adviser to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. She previously described CAP’s mission as becoming the “central hub of the Trump resistance.”

2020-12-28 Neera Tanden and Antony Blinken Personify the ‘Moderate’ Rot at the Top of the Democratic Party What’s so moderate about being on the take from rich beneficiaries of corporate America while opposing proposals that would curb their profits in order to reduce income inequality and advance social justice?

For OMB director, Biden selected corporate centrist Neera Tanden, whose Center for American Progress thrives on the largesse of wealthy donors representing powerful corporate interests. Tanden has been a notably scornful foe of the Democratic Party’s progressive wing; former Sanders speechwriter David Sirota calls her “the single biggest, most aggressive Bernie Sanders critic in the United States.” Who better to oversee the budget of the U.S. government?

For Secretary of State, Biden chose his longtime top foreign-policy adviser, whose frequent support for U.S. warfare included pushing for the disastrous 2011 military intervention in Libya. Antony Blinken is a revolving-door pro who has combined his record of war boosterism with entrepreneurial zeal to personally profit from influence-peddling for weapons sales to the Pentagon. Who better to oversee diplomacy for the U.S. government?

2020-12-02 Who Is Neera Tanden, Biden’s Most Controversial Cabinet Pick? Neera Tanden is CEO of the left-leaning Center for American Progress. She served in the Clinton administration, was a key player in Hillary Clinton’s 2008 campaign, and went on to serve in the Obama administration, helping craft the Affordable Care Act. But it isn’t her resume that’s generating the heat – it’s the fight she’s waged on Twitter and elsewhere. Texas Senator John Cornyn, a Republican, noted Tanden has deleted a lot of tweets recently that were critical of the very Senate Republicans who may decide her fate.

Radioactive. And it’s not just Republicans. She has also tangled with Bernie Sanders supporters who see her as too centrist, though in recent days, other progressive senators have come to Tanden’s defense. 

2020-12-01 Biden’s pick to lead White House budget office emerges as lightning rod for GOP Neera Tanden, who served in the Clinton and Obama administrations, would face Senate confirmation early next year

2020-12-01 Neera Tanden deletes over a thousand tweets amid Biden OMB nomination

2020-11-30 Is this Joe Biden pick already doomed? Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton referred to Tanden as a “partisan hack.”“Neera Tanden, who has an endless stream of disparaging comments about the Republican Senators’ whose votes she’ll need, stands zero chance of being confirmed,” tweeted Drew Brandewie, communications director for Texas Sen. John Cornyn.Josh Holmes, former chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), described the Tanden pick as a “sacrifice to the confirmation gods.”“Neera Tanden is a big-government, big-spending radical liberal who’s a terrible choice for OMB Director,” Sen. Rick Scott (R-Florida) tweeted. “It’s just more proof that @JoeBiden and the Democrats will continue to move further and further to the Left.”

2019-04-16 Neera Tanden: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know Neera Tanden is the president of the Center for American Progress, an influential left-leaning think tank. The Center for American Progress has been in the public eye recently, ever since its website, ThinkProgress, suggested that Bernie Sanders was a hypocrite for attacking the wealthy. The site pointed out that Sanders himself is a wealthy man. On Saturday, Bernie Sanders fired back at the Center for American Progress. In a letter obtained by the New York Times, Sanders accused the think tank of working to “smear” him and other Democratic 2020 candidates. A New York Times article argues that the “bad blood” between Neera Tanden and the Bernie Sanders campaign goes back over a decade.

Sanders Said the Center for American Progress Has Also ‘Smeared’ Elizabeth Warren & Cory Booker. Sanders Said Neera Tanden ‘Belittles Progressive Ideas’ & Said the Center for American Progress May Be Influenced by Corporate Money. Tanden Worked on Hillary Clinton’s First Presidential Campaign & Worked for the Bill Clinton White House. Tanden Is a Child of Immigrants & Her Family Was on Welfare for Years of Her Childhood. Tanden & Her Husband Have Two Children.

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Environmental Protection Agency Administrator

Posted on January 19, 2021 by mekorganic

Michael S. Regan: Nominee Currently: Andrew Wheeler

Biden is planning for a complete reversal of recent federal environmental policy after the Trump administration undertook a dramatic rollback in environmental protections. Over 100 environmental safeguards were removed across the past four years. Biden plans to impose stricter environmental standards on industry, a job that would be overseen by his next EPA administrator.

Michael S. Regan

Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality

In his current position, Regan oversees a state agency tasked with protecting North Carolina’s environment and natural resources. He previously worked with the EPA’s air quality and energy programs during the Clinton and Bush administrations. He has also served as the Associate Vice President of U.S. Climate and Energy and the Southeast Regional Director of the Environmental Defense Fund.

Reported by Dino Grandoni, Juliet Eilperin, Kate Rabinowitz and Steven Mufson.

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Michael S. Regan – Wikipedia

Michael Regan – Ballotpedia

2020-12-22 Why Michael Regan is a Transformational Pick to Head the EPA He will also be an integral part of the first-ever Climate Team, made up of some heavy hitters, including Representative Deb Haaland as the first Native American Secretary of Interior, former Governor Jennifer Granholm as the second woman Secretary of Energy, Brenda Mallory as the Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality, former EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy as the National Climate Advisor, and Ali Zaidi as the Deputy National Climate Advisor.

Beyond the Climate Team, Biden is assembling experts across the administration: from former Secretary of State John Kerry as climate envoy to the announcement the first climate official who will sit on the National Security Council.

Michael Regan is well-suited to lead EPA in tackling tough environmental problems. His resume is impressive, but I make that statement based on my own history with him. I worked with Michael at Environmental Defense Fund for eight years and consider him a friend. His prior work at EPA and his current position as Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality have been rightly highlighted as providing his qualifications for EPA Administrator.

Beyond those qualifications, however, my time working with him showed me what a clear goal of inclusion and equity can do for helping to achieve climate goals, especially done with determination, intellect and empathy. Michael has all of those qualities in abundance.

2020-12-19 Michael Regan: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know Regan Is a Top Environmental Protection Official in North Carolina. Regan Grew Up With Asthma, Which Helped Inform His Views on Pollution. Regan Is Known for a Multibillion-Dollar Coal Ash Settlement With Duke Energy. Regan’s Appointment Would Make Him the First Black Man to Lead the EPA. Regan Lives in Raleigh With His Wife & Son & Founded an Environmental Solutions Firm.

2020-12-18 Who is Michael Regan, the potential next head of the EPA? In a cabinet full of firsts, Michael Regan will be nominated as the second Black head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the Biden administration, The Hill reported Thursday, albeit still the first Black man in the position. 

If you aren’t familiar with his name, don’t worry. The secretary of North Carolina’s Department of Environmental Quality isn’t the most well known of Biden’s Cabinet picks. But he is arguably well-qualified, having started his career at the EPA during the Clinton administration and spent eight years at the Environmental Defense Fund before becoming the state’s top environmental regulator. 

2020-12-17 Biden picks top North Carolina environmental official to run EPA

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Council of Economic Advisers Chair – Biden 2021

Posted on January 19, 2021 by mekorganic

Cecilia Rouse: Nominee Currently: Tyler Beck Goodspeed (acting)

Under Trump, the chair of the three-member Council of Economic Advisers was removed from the president’s Cabinet. Biden will reinstate the position, filled by the president’s chief economist, to the Cabinet.

Cecilia Rouse

Princeton labor economist

A Princeton University labor economist, Rouse has spoken about the need for an urgent government response to the pandemic. She was a member of the Council of Economic Advisers under Obama and would be the first woman of color to chair the council.

Source: Washington Post Reported by Jeff Stein and Kevin Uhrmacher.

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Cecilia Rouse – Wikipedia

Cecilia Rouse | Princeton University Admission

2021-01-19 Meet the economist charged with keeping Biden’s promises to women and people of color

2021-01-19 Who is Cecilia Rouse – Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers: Biography, Career and Life

2020-12-01 Biden’s New Top Economist Has a Longtime Focus on Workers 

2020-11-29 Cecilia Rouse Will Be The First Black Person To Chair The Council of Economic Advisers

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Secretary of Veterans Affairs – Biden 2021

Posted on January 19, 2021 by mekorganic

Denis McDonough: Nominee Currently: Robert Wilkie

Veterans were a crucial constituency for Trump, who expanded their options to receive private health care outside the VA system. Biden, while not pledging to halt private care, has said he would work to build up the government-run system by filling thousands of vacancies for doctors, nurses and other medical staff.

Denis McDonough

Former White House Chief of Staff

McDonough was Obama’s chief of staff during his second term, but he previously served as deputy national security adviser and as chief of staff to the National Security Council.

Source: Washington Post Reported by Lisa Rein.

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Denis McDonough – Wikipedia

2021-01-19 Who is Denis McDonough – Secretary of Veterans Affairs: Biography, Personal Life and Career Biden is continuing to stockpile his incoming administration with prominent members of Obama’s team, and McDonough is the latest choice, according to a person familiar with the selection. This person was not authorized to discuss the nomination before the formal announcement and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The Biden transition team made the announcement official in an email Thursday morning. A member of the transition team, speaking anonymously, said Biden chose McDonough because he’s a “crisis-tested public servant” with “the empathy, the character, the integrity and ethics, and the relentless work ethic the position demands.

2021-01-13 To VA Secretary Nominee Denis McDonough: Here’s How We Fix the Broken VA There are three things the next secretary must do.

First, be wary of the deeply entrenched and bureaucratic “advice” you will hear from your leaders. In my humble opinion, the main problem plaguing the VA is that its leaders have failed to imagine new solutions to old problems, primarily because they lack the ability to ask the right questions. Heck, they might not even realize there are problems. 

Second, it is time for fewer pills and more community. The VA’s answer to the veteran mental health crisis and suicide epidemic is more pills. Wrong. The answer is more community. It is time for the VA to unite with local communities, including creating and leading in-person and virtual events for veterans worldwide. Depression, anxiety and mental health issues are often underlying symptoms of loneliness and isolation, not necessarily the cause.

Third, it is time for the VA to create a free basic education and training course for all things VA benefits. It must be simple and easy to understand for all veterans. While I am not the brightest bulb on the porch, I am not stupid, either. But it still took me seven years of seemingly endless battles and multiple rounds of denials after leaving the military to finally get the VA benefits I deserved for my honorable service. And I consider myself lucky.

2021-01-11 An open letter to VA Secretary-designate McDonough Looking ahead to the next four years and where the VA can go during the Biden administration, I would like to offer six ideas for not just improving the status quo, but taking the VA to the next level and creating a full continuum system to support our nation’s veterans. In Virginia we have led the way in many aspects of support for transitioning service members (TSM), veterans, National Guard, and family members.

First, women veterans. It is no secret that many were hoping for a woman to lead DoD or VA. Women have served honorably since the Revolutionary War. Secretary-designate McDonough should reach out early and often to women veterans, and work to ensure each state has created staff positions dedicated to supporting women veterans.

Second, the VA should partner with functional medicine doctors, “biohackers,” leading university health researchers and Silicon Valley tech entrepreneurs on cutting-edge health, nutrition and scientific advancements and integrate those practices, technologies and nutritional strategies into VA care.

Third, the VA should continue and expand efforts to integrate health care and records systems with DoD. The two agencies not sharing this valuable information or working collaboratively across military hospitals and VAMCs and CBOCs costs the taxpayer billions of dollars and creates frustration, confusion and chaos for transitioning service members and veterans.

Fourth, dovetailing with the above recommendations, is to work with DoD to improve nutrition, training and resiliency practices for active-duty service members. The healthier our military is while serving — physically, mentally, emotionally — the longer they will be able to serve, and the less need there will be for VA services once they separate and become veterans. 

Fifth, continue to focus on suicide prevention, bolstering efforts of nonprofits and the states. Virginia built cutting-edge continuum of care systems to support veterans in need of rehabilitative and behavioral health services by partnering with local agencies, nonprofits, VSOs and universities to create a whole-community approach to supporting and serving our veterans.

And lastly, focus on strategic planning and analyzing veterans’ programs in the states, within VSOs and other nonprofits and let the “cream rise to the top.” Federal-state partnerships and public-private partnerships should be encouraged. The job of assisting the transition from active-duty to veteran status and the lifelong support of veterans is too big for any one agency, state or group.

2021-12-22 My pledge to our nation’s veterans As I look forward to my own new leadership role serving veterans, President-elect Biden has made it clear what he wants me to do: “fight like hell for our veterans.” I’m ready to take on that fight. As secretary, I will work to rebuild trust and restore VA as the premier agency for ensuring our veterans overall well-being.

Our nation’s veterans know how badly this is needed. Long wars have taken their toll on our veterans and their families, and the physical and mental health care services available to veterans have not always kept up. Moreover, the dedicated men and women who work tirelessly to serve the department have been impeded by mismanagement, staff shortfalls, leadership gaps, and IT systems failures.

2020-12-18 Will Biden’s Surprise VA Pick Halt the Slide Toward Privatization? Biden nominated Denis McDonough, a 51-year-old alumnus of the Obama White House who never served in the military and lacks any background in health care administration (a relevant qualification, because the VA operates the largest public hospital system in the country). After working as a Capitol Hill staffer and Center for American Progress senior fellow, McDonough first joined the Obama administration as a national-security adviser and then became the president’s second-term chief of staff. In the latter role, McDonough is credited with being “deeply involved” in the White House decision to sack Eric Shinseki and replace him with McDonald in 2014. This shake-up occurred after a few VA hospital managers in Phoenix falsified data about how long veterans were waiting for appointments, triggering a major political uproar. According to a White House colleague at the time, McDonough became “obsessed” with health care wait times, and helped solve the problem by using his Capitol Hill contacts to expand outsourcing of veterans’ care via the Veterans Choice program, recently hailed as one of Obama’s “most substantial second-term legislative achievements.”

Nevertheless, McDonough drew mixed reviews from veterans advocates, who favored the Choice program six years ago, but now may be a bit miffed about their organizational exclusion from Biden’s VA transition team. “We were expecting a veteran, maybe a post-9/11 veteran. Maybe a woman veteran. Or maybe a veteran who knows the VA exceptionally well,” said Joe Chenelly, executive director of AMVETS. “It’s a shockingly out-of-touch pick,” Paul Rieckhoff, founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, told Politico. “They could have selected someone who’s been a patient there or has any direct experience with that community.”

McDonough was once hailed, by a now retired Republican member, as “a breath of fresh air” when he served as Obama’s chief of staff. Assuming his nomination sails through the Senate, the new VA secretary’s top priority should be getting something undone—namely, the partial privatization of the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). That process began with the Choice Act in 2014, legislation that had a sunset provision and was not intended by then–Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chair Bernie Sanders to become a permanent solution to expanding access to outside providers. As Sanders and others argued, veterans would be better served by Congress investing more in the VHA’s own coordinated system of direct and specialized care for nine million patients. 

2020-12-10 Some veterans groups disappointed Biden’s pick for VA chief never served in uniform

2020-12-10 Biden nominates Denis McDonough to lead VA, turning to another longtime Obama adviser

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Biden Cabinet & Officials

from Creating Better World

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