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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Biden Cabinet & Officials

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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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Biden Cabinet & Officials

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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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Secretary of the Treasury – Biden 2021

Posted on January 19, 2021 by mekorganic

Janet Yellen: Nominee Currently: Steve Mnuchin

The Biden administration is expected to prioritize a massive stimulus package to shore up the economy’s shaky recovery. Biden also campaigned on tax increases for businesses and some of the wealthiest Americans — issues that the next secretary will have to pursue.

Janet Yellen

Former chair of the Federal Reserve

Yellen has served as chair of the Federal Reserve, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and as a top economic adviser to President Bill Clinton. She was the first female chair of the Fed, serving from 2014 to 2018. Her term as chair was marked by lowering unemployment, record highs in the stock market and low inflation. Despite this, she was the first Fed chair not to be reappointed after serving a first full term. If approved, she would be the first female Treasury secretary.

Source: Washington Post Reported by Jeff Stein and Kate Rabinowitz.

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Janet Yellen – Wikipedia

2021-01-19 Janet Yellen says Biden must ‘act big’ with coronavirus relief package

2021-01-19 Five key takeaways from Janet Yellen’s Treasury confirmation hearing Janet Yellen’s journey to become the first female Treasury secretary in U.S. history moved smoothly through a critical Senate hearing Tuesday, with a vote on her confirmation likely to happen before the end of the week.

Yellen characterized President-elect Joe Biden being in favor of some tax increases on wealthy Americans and corporations to fund an ambitious domestic agenda that includes pulling the country through the coronavirus pandemic and, eventually, avoiding the “race to the bottom” among global economies when it comes to corporate taxes.

Yellen said there will come a time to talk about debt and deficits, but not until the economy has recovered from the pandemic. The U.S. is currently carrying a $27.7 trillion debt load after ending fiscal 2020 with a more than $3.1 trillion budget deficit. “The Treasury secretary has to be a voice for fiscal sanity.

Yellen said the new administration will remain focused on getting China to change its ways, though Biden likely will eschew the type of unilateral techniques that Trump employed, preferring instead to “work with our allies” in the effort.

Yellen said the incoming regime wants a stable currency whose price should be determined by market forces. “The United States does not seek a weaker currency to gain competitive advantage, and we should oppose attempts by other countries to do so,” she said. “The intentional targeting of exchange rates to gain commercial advantage is unacceptable.”

Likely the first item on Yellen’s to-do list will be guiding the administration through another round of spending aimed at those impacted by the pandemic.

Biden last week proposed a $1.9 trillion plan that likely will get pared down but still will launch the third major fiscal volley at helping the U.S. through until the health-care system can get vaccines widely enough distributed to achieve herd immunity.

2021-01-18 AS FED CHAIR, JANET YELLEN DISCOUNTED ECONOMIC DESPERATION. THE PANDEMIC WILL LIKELY FORCE A DIFFERENT APPROACH. Her recent statements, however, suggest that the pandemic, along with the run of wage growth and unemployment decline after 2017 many economists thought wasn’t possible, has altered her thinking, and she now believes in aggressive action by the Fed and Treasury to continue to lift up the economy. In October, Yellen said, “While the pandemic is still seriously affecting the economy, we need to continue extraordinary fiscal support. … We need support for the economy from both monetary and fiscal policy.” Which direction she chooses — austerity or stimulus, deficits or employment — will have enormous import for this deeply divided country.

2021-01-10 Why Yellen’s Wall Street windfall is getting a pass – POLITICO The former Fed chair’s past comments help explain why many Democrats are confident she won’t be beholden to financial interests.

Yellen, whose financial disclosures show that she earned a total of $7 million in fees over the past two years, voiced worry about insufficient oversight of large firms that serve as hubs of lending or investment. She says regulators should particularly consider reining in hedge funds and other firms that have escaped heightened scrutiny since the 2008 credit crisis, including in the landmark Dodd-Frank law, which largely focused on big banks.

In June 2020, she argued that Congress had left gaping holes in supervising the activities of “shadow banks” — a term that refers to everything from asset managers and insurers to private equity firms. Those gaps meant that the Federal Reserve had to step in at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic to prevent debt markets from breaking down as panicky investors in mutual funds and other firms pulled money out.

“There really are problems here in the powers created by Dodd-Frank, and we’ve seen it all blow up except for the Fed intervention that saved us from a financial crisis,” she said at an event hosted by the Brookings Institution, where she is a distinguished fellow. “I personally think we need a new Dodd-Frank.”

2021-01-06Janet Yellen’s Cash Haul of $7 Million Is Just the Tip of the Iceberg; She Failed to Report Her Wall Street Speaking Fees from JPMorgan and Others in 2018

2021-01-04 Janet Yellen made millions giving speeches to Wall Street banks she’ll soon regulate

2020-12-23 Why Janet Yellen makes so much sense as Treasury secretary

2020-12-11 A Letter From 9 Million U.S. Expats to Janet Yellen There are simple tweaks you could make that would cost the U.S. nothing in lost revenue, save you a packet in enforcement expense and make our lives easier. The options are laid out in an essay I commend to everyone on your staff: “A Simple Regulatory Fix for Citizenship Taxation,” by John Richardson, Karen Alpert and Laura Snyder.

This change would align American taxation of individuals with the systems of all other developed countries. It would free us expats to live, earn, save and invest as other people do. And whenever any of us move back to the U.S., we’re yours again. Never would it have cost so little to help so many with such negligible fuss. Please consider it.

2020-12-02 Biden’s economic team set to prepare ambitious recovery plan, challenging Republicans’ renewed debt worries

2020-12-02 ‘Centrist’ Janet Yellen supports a $2 trillion carbon tax

2015-09-14 Meet Janet Yellen: The most powerful woman in the world Yet few Americans have actually heard of her — about 70% of the U.S. population doesn’t know who Yellen is, according to a NBC/WSJ poll from March.

As leader of America’s central bank, the Federal Reserve, Yellen has immense influence over global financial markets and the U.S. economy. Trillions of dollars can be lost or gained based on how investors interpret each word that comes out of Yellen’s mouth. But volatile financial markets are the last thing Yellen wants. In fact, she often speaks in a monotone voice about Fed policy, attempting to avoid words or intonation that might rattle investors.

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Secretary of Transportation – Biden 2021

Posted on January 19, 2021 by mekorganic

Pete Buttigieg: Nominee Currently: Elaine Chao

The Trump administration issued a set of weaker carbon dioxide emissions standards for cars and SUVs and took a largely hands off approach to dealing with new technologies like automated vehicles. The fight against climate change will shape the Biden administration’s transportation policies. It is expected to stiffen emissions standards once again, and promote the adoption of electric vehicles.

A grand bargain in Congress on infrastructure spending eluded the Trump administration, and reaching a spending deal to repair road and bridges and expand access to transit is expected to be another major focus for the new administration.

NAMED

Pete Buttigieg

Former South Bend, Ind. mayor, presidential candidate

Buttigieg is a former intelligence officer for the Navy Reserve who served in Afghanistan. He was a Rhodes scholar and McKinsey and Co. consultant, and the first openly gay major party candidate to win delegates in a bid for the White House before dropping out in March and endorsing Biden. Buttigieg would be the first openly gay confirmed Cabinet member.

Source: Washington Post Reported by Ian Duncan and Michael Laris.

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Pete Buttigieg – Wikipedia

Pete Buttigieg – Home | Facebook

Pete Buttigieg Alternative Media Articles (during 2020 Primaries)

2021-01-21 Pete Buttigieg defends pipeline cancellation during confirmation hearing

In the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee hearing, Cruz challenged Buttigieg to comment on Biden’s decision. Cruz said the move will cost thousands of union-paying jobs and was “altogether out of step with what the people want.”

Buttigieg countered by saying jobs will be created in the clean environment sector and the administration cannot ignore the negative environmental impact the pipeline would foster. “We can [create jobs] while recognizing the fact that when the books are written about our careers, one of the main things we will be judged on is whether we did enough to stop the destruction of life and property due to climate change. If you can I can make common cause in our support of labor then I think that’s great.”

2020-12-17 FOB (Biden, not Bill) Pete Buttigieg Gets the DOT If confirmed, to be the first openly gay man to head a Cabinet department. Biden has adopted a Friends of Biden approach to his Cabinet, basing a range of appointments on his personal rapport with nominees and on pacifying noisy constituencies, whatever those nominees’ pertinent qualifications might be.

There’s Obama West Wing civilian Denis McDonough at Veterans Affairs, foreign-policy guru Susan Rice helming theWhite House Domestic Policy Council, and House Agriculture Chair Marcia Fudge shunted off to Housing and Urban Development instead of Agriculture.

During the Clinton years, FOBs (Friends of Bill)—both longtime associates and new members of his circle—were everywhere in Washington, their entrées into the corridors of power smoothed by their proximity to the president. Biden has similarly reeled in both longtime advisers and new faces like Buttigieg’s which have obtained an almost familial level of trust.

The pick of Buttigieg for DOT is one more FOB appointment—and a problematic one. Instead of choosing someone who can hit the ground running to cleanse a department that’s become a grifter’s paradise under Trump, and grapple with a sector of the economy that’s in unprecedented free fall, Biden has tapped a man with no federal-agency experience or history of significant work with transportation.

As the Action Center on Race and the Economy, a national advocacy group working on racial justice and Wall Street accountability issues noted, “If his past positions and policies are any indication, we should expect a race blind, pro-corporate Secretary of Transportation who is cozy with big tech and big business and, at best, clueless on issues of racial equity, labor and environmentalism.

2020-12-16 Pete Buttigieg doesn’t deserve to be Transportation Secretary (right wing) Pete Buttigieg may not deserve to be transportation secretary, but the qualities that progressives hate could make him a great one.

Buttigieg will have two huge challenges to cut his teeth on. First, transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the country, and any plan to reduce the country’s carbon footprint runs right through the DOT. Second, Secretary Pete will have to clean up the fallout from the pandemic, which will be very, very messy for both airlines and transit agencies. On top of that, he’ll dole out tens of billions of dollars every year; supervise the nation’s airports, waterways, highways, and railroads; and manage the arrival of autonomous vehicle technology.

He seems to have a fundamental grasp of the ways America underwrites driving at the expense of both the human and natural environment, a theory he has outlined a few times, including in a CityLab interview in November 2019:

2020-12-16 Biden says Buttigieg will play key role in rebuilding country after pandemic

2020-12-15 Why does Pete Buttigieg want to be transportation secretary?

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Secretary of State – Biden 2021

Posted on January 19, 2021 by mekorganic

Antony Blinken: Nominee Currently: Mike Pompeo

In the Trump administration, scores of veteran diplomats left after their loyalty to Trump was questioned and career employees were replaced by political appointees.

Under Biden, the State Department is expected to be at the forefront of reversing some key Trump-era policies and restoring the centrality of diplomacy in foreign policy and battered U.S. credibility. Priorities include rebuilding strained alliances with Europe, returning to a more balanced approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, corralling global efforts to combat climate change and possibly changing course with Iran if the U.S. reenters the nuclear treaty Trump abandoned. They also are expected to maintain pressure on China over human rights and trade issues.

Antony Blinken

Former deputy secretary of state and longtime Biden foreign policy aide

Blinken is a longtime Biden confident with decades of experience in Congress. During the Obama administration, Blinken served as deputy national security adviser from 2013 to 2015 and the deputy secretary of state from 2015 to 2017. Since the start of Biden’s presidential campaign, Blinken has been on leave as managing director of the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, to serve as Biden’s foreign policy adviser.

Source: Washington Post Reported by John Hudson and Carol Morello.

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Antony Blinken – Wikipedia

2021-01-20 Joe Biden’s Top Diplomat Vows Firmness On China, Iran Anthony Blinken distanced himself from the outgoing president’s needling of allies and denunciations of multilateralism but said that Trump “was right in taking a tougher approach to China.”

2021-01-19 Antony Blinken Must Explain Anonymous China Donations to Penn Biden Center The National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) is calling upon the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to demand Tony Blinken, Joe Biden’s pick to be Secretary of State, explain anonymous Chinese funding of the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement that Joe Biden established in 2018 with the University of Pennsylvania, where Blinken was Managing Director and other Biden aides from the Obama Administration operated as the government-in-waiting.

NLPC filed a major complaint with the Department of Education earlier last year demanding that the University of Pennsylvania and its Penn Biden Center disclose the identity of $22 million in anonymous Chinese donations since 2017, including a single eye-popping donation of $14.5 million given on May 29, 2018, shortly after the opening of the Biden Center in Washington, DC. Altogether, China gave $67 million in two years to the University of Pennsylvania.

NLPC also filed a major complaint with the Department of Justice on November 1, 2020, alleging that Hunter Biden and the Biden Center should register as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) because of their Chinese financial arrangements.

2021-01-19 ‘The world’s on fire’ and other takeaways from Biden’s secretary of state nominee confirmation hearing

2021-01-19 WATCH: Antony Blinken, secretary of state nominee, testifies at confirmation hearing

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?

2020-11-24 Biden’s pick for foreign policy head affirms a push to get allies on board with U.S. policy on China

2020-11-23 5 things to know about Antony Blinken, Biden’s nominee for secretary of state

2020-11-23 9 things to know about Antony Blinken, the next US secretary of state

2020-11-22 Biden picks Antony Blinken as secretary of state, emphasizing experience and the foreign policy establishment

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Secretary of Labor – Biden 2021

Posted on January 19, 2021 by mekorganic

Marty Walsh: Nominee Currently: Eugene Scalia

Under Trump, the Department of Labor has taken a largely employer- and industry-friendly approach that has frustrated worker advocates, labor unions and Democrats, and drawn particularly vocal outcry during the pandemic.The DOL passed rules that exempted large numbers of workers from the paid sick leave requirements in the Families FirstCoronavirus Response Act, and issued strict guidelines for unemployment insurance payouts to gig and self-employed workers that many saw as restrictive.

Its workplace safety division, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, has declined to institute ironclad safety standards for the coronavirus, issuing only recommendations for employers instead of an enforceable set of rules.Before the pandemic, the Department took moves to restrict the ability of workers told hold joint employers accountable for wage and hour violations, and reduced the number of workers who were eligible for mandatory overtime payments.

Marty Walsh

Boston mayor

Walsh, who got his union card in 1988 when he joined Laborers Local 223, has a long history in organized labor, most recently as the head of Boston Building Trades before he became mayor. He also served as a state representative for 16 years.

Source: Washington Post Reported by Eli Rosenberg.

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Marty Walsh – Wikipedia

Home – Marty Walsh

Martin J. Walsh | Boston.gov

2021-01-12 Marty Walsh: ‘I’m not going to Washington alone. I’m bringing Boston with me.’

2021-01-08 Biden Formally Introduces ‘Tough As Nails’ Marty Walsh As Labor Secretary Nominee “He sees how union workers have been holding this country together during this crisis, health care workers keeping our hospitals safe, clean and effective and efficient,” said Biden. “This is one of the most important departments to me; I trust Mayor Walsh.” If confirmed, Walsh would be the first union member to be Secretary of Labor in nearly 50 years.

2021-01-07 What Biden’s Nomination Of Boston Mayor Marty Walsh To Be Secretary of Labor

2020-11-11 Multiple national union leaders are backing Marty Walsh to be Joe Biden’s labor secretary

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2021-01-05 Biden and Labor, Revisited I understood Walsh’s support from AFL-CIO President Rich Trumka, but that I found his support from AFSCME President Lee Saunders and AFT President Randi Weingarten—progressive leaders of powerful progressive unions—to be somewhat inexplicable.  “He’s been at the forefront when it comes to promoting people of color, making sure people of color have a fair shake,” Saunders told me. “I can’t speak more highly of him.”

Which is to say, Walsh occupies a very special and important niche in the Democrats’ ecosystem. Unlike the overwhelming majority of today’s leading Democrats, he is of the white working class, championing its workers’ interests while also working to align its perspectives with the needs and goals of today’s more multiracial and less predominantly male working class. It’s easy to see why Biden should want at least one prominent member of his administration to credibly play that role. Subsequently, it’s easy to see why he would want Walsh at Labor.

2020-12-24 Mysteries of the Labor Secretary Pick By various accounts, President-elect Biden is still agonizing over his choice for secretary of labor. Politico reports that all else being equal, he’d like to pick his old comrade, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh. But there’s substantial pressure on him to choose California Labor Secretary Julie Su or former Ambassador to South Africa and Open Society Foundations President Patrick Gaspard instead.

Walsh seems to be the clear choice of the labor movement’s old guard. Before he became Hizzoner of Beantown, he headed the city’s building and construction trades union council, where he aggressively promoted the inclusion of women and minorities in the ranks of these largely white working-class toilers. 

In recent years, though, the white male working class constitutes a shrinking percentage of the workforce and the labor movement, as industries with diverse unionized workforces like teachers, housekeepers, nurses, and janitors gain prominence. Then again, the building trades unions, still largely led by white males, have punched above their weight in the AFL-CIO, not least because two of the nation’s largest unions, the National Education Association (NEA) and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), aren’t Federation members.

2020-12-24 Will California’s Julie Su Be Biden’s Labor Secretary? President-elect Joe Biden campaigned on the most ambitious pro-union platform since Franklin Roosevelt. Labor activists hope that he’ll also pick the most pro-worker secretary of labor since FDR selected Frances Perkins for the job.

The one leading candidate who best fits that description is California Labor Secretary Julie Su, whose candidacy is being avidly promoted by the state’s labor and immigrant rights activists. Like Perkins, Su became an acclaimed public figure as an advocate for immigrant sweatshop workers and has spent her career fighting for workers’ rights and a fair economy. And like Perkins, Su has been witness to an almost unfathomable outrage inflicted on workers.

Perkins, the nation’s first female Cabinet member, held the post from 1933 to 1945, during the Great Depression and World War II. She was the longest-serving and most influential labor secretary in the nation’s history. Perkins championed many of the New Deal’s boldest programs, including Social Security, the minimum wage, the 40-hour workweek, and the National Labor Relations Act, which gave workers the right to unionize.

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Biden Cabinet & Officials

from Creating Better World

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Attorney General, Department of Justice – Biden 2021

Posted on January 19, 2021 by mekorganic

Merrick B. Garland: Nominee Currently: William Barr

The Justice Department in the Trump administration most notably drew criticism for its leaders apparently bending to political pressure from Trump and getting involved in criminal cases involving the president’s friends. Biden’s Justice Department would probably seek to change that, restoring the department’s historic independence on criminal matters.

Biden’s Justice Department also is likely to focus more on forcing reforms at police departments through court and other actions. The Justice Department in the Trump administration had largely abandoned those efforts, positioning itself as defending the police from unfair criticism.

Merrick B. Garland

Federal appeals court judge

Garland has served as a judge on the federal appeals court in D.C. since 1997 and was elevated to chief judge in 2013. He is best known for being nominated to the Supreme Court in 2016 by President Barack Obama – but Senate Republicans refused to give him a hearing, and the high court opening was eventually filled the following year by President Trump’s choice, Neil M. Gorsuch. Garland was nominated to the appeals court by President Bill Clinton, after a stint as a senior Justice Department official in which he oversaw the prosecution of the 1995 bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City that killed 168 people.

Source: Washington Post Reported by Matt Zapotosky, Devlin Barrett, Matt Viser and Amy B Wang.

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Merrick Garland – Wikipedia

2021-01-20 Why Merrick Garland is a disheartening pick for attorney general When a government agency is as punitive, secretive and capricious as the US Department of Justice often is, trying incremental reform can feel about as satisfactory as non-alcoholic beer. That was the tack under Obama’s Attorney General Eric Holder, Jr., and it almost certainly will be under Biden’s choice, Merrick Garland.

Politically, Garland may seem a feel-good choice to fill the role; he became something of a martyr in 2016, when Mitch McConnell blocked the vote on his confirmation for a Supreme Court seat. Many Democrats will take satisfaction in thus getting one over on obstructionist Republican leaders.

Learning nothing from the successful “progressive prosecutor” movement, Biden has appointed as the nation’s “top cop” not a civil rights lawyer or public defender, but someone who appears to be an inflexible supporter of mass incarceration.

Criminal justice reform, including drug policy reform, has for decades been a lowest-rung priority for national-level Democrats. It may therefore be little surprise that Garland has been said to be at his least liberal when it comes to criminal law and procedure.

There are only eight cases where Garland sided with a criminal-case defendant over the government. Notably, he never wrote an opinion vindicating a defendant’s constitutional rights.

2021-01-10 The Justice Department is a mess. Merrick Garland can fix it.

2021-01-08 Merrick Garland move to Justice will give Biden new pick for influential DC appeals court But now, by elevating Garland to the Justice Department, Biden has a shot at putting someone on a court that often acts as a stepping stone to the Supreme Court. Chief Justice John Roberts, as well as Justices Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh, served on the D.C. circuit before ascending to the Supreme Court. So did the late Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

2021-01-05 Biden plans to nominate Merrick Garland as his attorney general

2018-06-29 What Happened With Merrick Garland In 2016 And Why It Matters Now To recap, Garland was nominated to fill the 2016 vacancy on the Supreme Court created by the death that February of Justice Antonin Scalia, an icon of conservative jurisprudence.

President Barack Obama quickly named Merrick Garland, then 63, to fill the seat. Garland had long been considered a prime prospect for the high court, serving as chief judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit — a frequent source of justices that is sometimes called the “little Supreme Court.”

But even before Obama had named Garland, and in fact only hours after Scalia’s death was announced, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell declared any appointment by the sitting president to be null and void. He said the next Supreme Court justice should be chosen by the next president — to be elected later that year.

McConnell was not alone. The 11 Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee signed a letter saying they had no intention of consenting to any nominee from Obama. No proceedings of any kind were held on Garland’s appointment. McConnell and others referred to the “Biden rule” nonetheless in justifying the blockade of Garland.

Democrats were outraged, of course, but were short of tools with which to respond. As the minority party — following a disastrous midterm in 2014 — they could not force a committee or a floor vote.  The court had to convene that October with only eight justices, divided often between the four appointed by Democrats and the four appointed by Republicans. Short-handed, the court deadlocked on a number of issues and declined to hear others.

With or without such justification, McConnell’s blockade was doubly effective just as a power move. First, it prevented the seating of a Democratic president’s choice.  Second, and more important, the vacancy became a powerful motivator for conservative voters in the fall. Many saw a vote for Trump as a means to keep Scalia’s seat away from the liberals and give the appointment to someone who promised to name anti-abortion justices supportive of Second Amendment gun rights.

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Biden Cabinet & Officials

from Creating Better World

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Secretary of the Interior – Biden 2021

Posted on January 19, 2021 by mekorganic

Rep. Deb Haaland: Nominee Currently: David Bernhardt

Under Trump, the Interior Department opened public lands and waters, including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, for fossil fuel extraction and logging. Biden pledges to reverse those efforts, aiming to restrict fossil fuel exploration on public lands and waters and expand conservation efforts.

Westerners have occupied the post for more than 120 years, with the single exception of Rogers Morton, who served under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.

Rep. Deb Haaland (D)

Congresswoman from New Mexico

Haaland has served as congresswomen of New Mexico’s 1st district since 2018. But picking her would be historic. Haaland, an enrolled member of the Pueblo of Laguna, would be the first Native American to run the department charged with overseeing federal and tribal lands.

Source: Washington Post Reported by Dino Grandoni, Juliet Eilperin, Kate Rabinowitz and Steven Mufson.

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Deb Haaland – Wikipedia

About | Representative Debra Haaland

2021-01-21 Deb Haaland: What to know about Biden’s Secretary of the Interior nominee Haaland would make history with appointment, but some Republicans are raising concerns. Haaland has repeatedly called for an all-out ban on fracking, rhetoric that has conservatives concerned despite Biden’s claims on the campaign trail that he does not intend to completely end the controversial method of extracting oil and gas. 

Haaland told The Guardian in a 2019 interview that she was “wholeheartedly against fracking and drilling on public lands” — a sentiment shared by Biden’s proposed plan for a “clean energy revolution.”  In 2018, she tweeted that “as a Native American woman whose ancestral homeland is under attack from the Fossil Fuel Industry: I 100% support a Green New Deal and a Congressional Climate Commission.” 

2021-01-20 The Radical Possibility of Deb Haaland at the Department of Interior Many see Laguna Pueblo Rep. Deb Haaland’s nomination to be the next secretary of the Department of the Interior as a paradigm shift where Indigenous demands for mass land return are no longer aspirational, but possible. Organizations like NDN Collective have their sights for #LandBack set on the more than 500 million acres of public lands that fall under DOI’s oversight.

More than 100 tribal leaders penned a letter to the Biden-Harris administration in December advocating for Haaland’s appointment, citing the reinstatement of Bears Ears National Monument—a move that both Biden and Haaland support—as a central issue. After taking office in January 2017, Trump swiftly slashed the acreage of the monument established under Obama, reducing it to less than 15% of its prior size to make way for oil and gas production. Haaland potentially protecting Bears Ears would be a huge victory for Indigenous nations and grassroots movements, but it could be just the start.

Interior’s support for resource extraction on public lands has created a situation where the destiny of Native nations is increasingly tied to the fate of U.S. public lands. As a result, frustrations with the DOI have been brewing—and growing—in Indian Country, at times erupting into large stand offs with the government like the #NoDAPL uprising at Standing Rock in 2016, which Haaland participated in.

Many in Indian Country have come to view the DOI’s pro-extractive stance as a policy that continues the centuries-long genocidal campaign of colonization through the sacrificing of Native lands, culture, and sovereignty for the greater public (read: white settler) good. 

2020-12-17 Biden taps Deb Haaland as first Native American interior secretary If confirmed by the Senate, Haaland would be the first Native American Cabinet secretary.”A voice like mine has never been a Cabinet secretary or at the head of the Department of Interior,” Haaland wrote in a tweet Thursday evening. “Growing up in my mother’s Pueblo household made me fierce. I’ll be fierce for all of us, our planet, and all of our protected land. I am honored and ready to serve.”

2020-12-17 With historic picks, Biden puts environmental justice front and center

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Biden Cabinet & Officials

from Creating Better World

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Secretary of Housing and Urban Development – Biden 2021

Posted on January 19, 2021 by mekorganic

Rep. Marcia L. Fudge: Nominee Currently: Ben Carson

Under the Trump administration, the agency gutted Obama-era fair lending and fair housing laws. The new secretary is expected to restore these laws and be a key player in carrying out Biden’s campaign promises to expand affordable housing, increase the availability of Section 8 vouchers and tackle racial bias in housing.

[Fudge says she will prioritize dignity as HUD secretary ]

Rep. Marcia L. Fudge (D)

Congresswoman from Ohio

Fudge has served as the congresswoman for Ohio’s 11th District since 2008 and was previously mayor of Warrensville Heights, a suburb of Cleveland.

Source: Washington Post Reported by Kate Rabinowitz.

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Marcia Fudge – Wikipedia

Congresswoman Marcia Fudge

Marcia Fudge – Ballotpedia

2020-12-15 Housing Field Reacts to Marcia Fudge HUD Nomination Fudge has little experience with housing policy or housing-related Congressional committees and has not made it an explicit top priority of her time in office. In her interview with the Plain Dealer she appeared hard-pressed to name specifics of what has happened recently at HUD, good or bad. She has, however, focused on addressing issues of poverty, hunger, civil rights, and health, and housing advocates who have worked with her in Ohio say that they believe she understands how housing stability and affordability fits into that picture.

2020-12-11 Fudge says she will prioritize dignity as HUD secretary

2020-12-09 Former Ohio State Sen. Nina Turner files paperwork to run for Marcia L. Fudge’s seat in Congress Nina Turner, a former state senator and Cleveland councilwoman who co-chaired Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign.

2020-12-08 Biden selects Marcia L. Fudge as HUD secretary and Tom Vilsack to lead Agriculture Department

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Biden Cabinet & Officials

from Creating Better World

Posted in Marcia L. Fudge, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development | Leave a comment