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WILMINGTON, Delaware: US President-elect Joe Biden appointed Susan Rice, a former national security adviser with significant foreign policy experience, for a national policy brief on Thursday (December 10), emphasizing the managerial experience in his new administration.
A flurry of high-level appointments underscored the former US Vice President’s commitment to a diverse administration while rewarding loyalists and veterans like him during President Barack Obama’s eight years in office.
The selection of Biden de Rice, 56, as his top domestic policy adviser and head of his National Policy Council came as a surprise given her extensive experience in foreign affairs. In addition to her role as Obama’s national security adviser, she was previously his ambassador to the United Nations. A black woman, she had been a candidate to be Biden’s running mate.
A source familiar with Biden’s thinking said the president-elect does not see foreign policy and national policy as separate arenas, and believes that experience in one is relevant to the other.
Because he will take office on January 20, Biden felt that Rice’s experience operating in federal government agencies would allow him to implement his political agenda, including plans to rebuild an economy ravaged by the coronavirus, the source said.
Rice had long been regarded as Biden’s secretary of state, but she likely would have faced fierce opposition from Republicans in Congress for her role in a controversy over the deadly 2012 attack on the US mission in Benghazi, Libya.
The White House domestic policy post does not require confirmation from the US Senate. Biden eventually chose longtime adviser Antony Blinken to head the State Department.
For other positions, Biden selected former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack to serve a second term as secretary of agriculture, Obama White House aide Denis McDonough as secretary of Veterans Affairs, US Representative Marcia Fudge to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and US Trade Representative Katherine Tai, her transition team said in a statement.
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Biden plans to present his latest appointee list Friday in Delaware.
Transitional spokesman Sean Savett said in a statement that the selections were “forward-thinking, crisis-tested and seasoned” and “ready to quickly use the levers of government to make significant differences in the lives of Americans and help govern. since the first day”.
McDonough, 51, was Obama’s long-time national security aide prior to his tenure as chief of staff during Obama’s second term, where he worked closely with Biden.
But he has never served in the military, and his selection caught some veteran advocates by surprise.
Joe Chenelly, chief executive of American Veterans, which has more than 250,000 members and is known as AMVETS, said people from Biden’s office reached out to him Thursday to say McDonough understands how VA operates.
“They keep using the term ‘pull the government levers,'” Chenelly said, saying she was hopeful McDonough could improve coordination between the VA and the rest of the administration.
Vilsack, 69, served as USDA secretary under Obama for eight years and as governor of Iowa from 1999 to 2007. Establishment Democrats see him as a wise choice, in large part because of his moderate politics and relationships with the large-scale farmers.
His confirmation in Congress is expected to face headwinds from progressive Democrats. Critics argue that Vilsack is comfortable with corporate agribusiness and major lobbyists like the American Farm Bureau Federation and the US Dairy Export Council, where he is currently CEO. He had been a strong supporter of Biden’s presidential candidacy.
Fudge, 68, is a Cleveland congresswoman who has served in the US House of Representatives since 2008. If confirmed, she would be the second black woman to lead HUD, which focuses on federal policy on the matter. of housing. She is a close ally of Representative James Clyburn, whose endorsement of Biden in February served as a turning point in his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Tai, 45, a Chinese-American who serves as chief business attorney on the House Ways and Means Committee, played a key role in negotiating stricter labor provisions with the Trump administration in the new trade agreement between the United States, Mexico and Canada (USMCA). She would be the first woman of color to act as a business representative.
