Biden Cabinet Takes Shape

With only one day to go until inauguration, the Biden-Harris cabinet is ready to go. On Jan 7 and 11, the new U.S. administration had announced a last lot of candidates for cabinet and cabinet-level positions. Blocked Obama Supreme Court pick Merrick Garland, a federal judge, is slated to become attorney general. The pick of a party outsider has been read as attempt to strengthen the independence of the Justice Department. Also on Jan 7, Biden announced Rhode Island governor Gina Raimondo as secretary of commerce and Boston mayor Marty Walsh as secretary of labor. On Jan 11, Biden announced that diplomat and former deputy secretary of state William Burns would be his pick for CIA director.

The last announcement before Christmas had been Biden calling on Connecticut education commissioner Miguel Cardona to be his secretary of education. Before that, Biden had picked former rival Pete Buttigieg as secretary of transportation and former EPA administrator Gina McCarthy for the newly created position of Domestic Climate Chief, while announcing former Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm as secretary of energy, native American Rep. Deb Haaland (D-NM) as secretary of the interior and Michael Regan as EPA administrator.

With the last bout of nominations in 2020, Biden named three women, one Latino and one African-American to cabinet-level positions while also aiming to have the first openly gay person and the first Native American as cabinet secretaries.

Biden has openly said that he wants to create a cabinet that resembles the United States population, but at least as far as departments leads go, only five of 15 nominees are women.