WASHINGTON: President-elect of the United States Joe biden has appointed more than 20 Indian-Americans as members, including three as team leaders, to his agency’s review teams (ART) that are responsible for evaluating the operations of the key federal agencies in the current administration to ensure a smooth transfer of power.
Biden’s transition team said this is one of the most diverse agency review teams in the history of the presidential transition.
Of the hundreds of ART members, more than half are women, and approximately 40% represent historically underrepresented communities in the federal government, including people of color, people who identify as LGBTQ +, and people with disabilities.
Agency Review Teams are responsible for understanding each agency’s operations, ensuring a smooth transfer of power, and preparing for President-Elect Biden and Vice-President-Elect Kamala Harris and their Cabinet to go live on day one.
At least three Americans of Indian origin have been named as team leaders for various ARTs.
Arun Majumdar from the prestigious Stanford University is the team leader for the Department of Energy ART. Rahul Gupta is the team leader for the Office of National Drug Control Policy. Kiran Ahuja has been appointed team leader of the Office of Personnel Management. Puneet Talwar has been appointed to the ART Department of State. Pav Singh has been appointed a member of two ARTs for the National Security Council and the Office of Science and Technology.
Similarly, Arun Venkatraman has been appointed to two ARTs from the Department of Commerce and the USTR.
Other prominent Indian-Americans appointed to ART are Pravina Raghavan, Atman Trivedi for the Department of Commerce, and Shital Shah for the Department of Education; R Ramesh and Rama Zakaria from the Department of Energy; Subhasri Ramanathan for the Department of Homeland Security; Raj De for the Department of Justice; Y Seema nanda and Raj Nayak for the Department of Labor.
Reena Aggarwal and Satyam Khanna have been appointed to the Federal Reserve, banking and securities regulators ART; Bhavya Lal for NASA; Dilpreet Sidhu for the National Security Council, Divya Kumaraiah for the Office of Management and Budget; Kumar Chandran for the Department of Agriculture; and Aneesh Chopra to the US Postal Service, most of whom are volunteers.
These teams are comprised of highly experienced and talented professionals with extensive experience in crucial policy areas throughout the federal government.
“Our nation is grappling with a pandemic, an economic crisis, urgent calls for racial justice, and the existential threat of climate change. We must be prepared for a smooth transfer of knowledge to the incoming administration to protect our interests at home and abroad. The agency’s review process will help lay the foundation for addressing these challenges on Day One, ”said Senator Ted Kaufman, Transition Co-Chair Biden-Harris.
“The work of the agency’s review teams is critical to protecting national security, addressing the current public health crisis, and demonstrating that the United States remains the beacon of democracy for the world,” he said.
The transition team announced the agency’s review teams, even as the administration of outgoing President Donald Trump has yet to formally recognize Biden as president-elect.
Formal acknowledgment from the General Services Administration is needed to allow transition staff access to federal workers and much of the information they will need.
Trump, a Republican, has refused to concede the close November 3 presidential race to Democrat Biden and is staging legal fights in several key states on the battlefield alleging voter irregularities or widespread election fraud, listed as one. of the most divisive and bitter. in recent American history.
President Trump has made repeated and unsubstantiated claims that the Democratic Party has tried to steal the election.
Once the GSA Administrator verifies the election results, ART members will work directly with federal agency staff to ensure that the incoming Biden-Harris administration can effectively achieve the policy goals of the President and the elected vice president.
ART will be carried out by meeting with former agency officials and experts who closely follow federal agencies, and with officials from think tanks, labor groups, trade associations, and other NGOs.
Many of ART’s members have had long careers in federal agencies and will now help prepare for the incoming Biden-Harris administration, transition said.
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