US President Joe Biden’s Cabinet is nearly complete with the confirmation of Labour Secretary Marty Walsh. But the work of building his administration is just beginning, as Biden has hundreds of key presidential appointments to make to fill out the federal government.
The process of building out a government, according to Paul Light, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, is nasty, brutish, and not at all short. Biden has about 1,250 federal positions that require Senate confirmation, ranging from the head of the obscure Railroad Retirement Board to more urgent department positions such as assistant and deputy secretaries.
Of the 790 being tracked by the Partnership for Public Service, a nonpartisan good-government group, 23 appointees have been confirmed by the Senate, 39 are being considered by the Senate, and 466 positions have no named nominee.
According to Max Stier, president and CEO of the partnership, filling out those key posts will likely take the better part of the year and those vacancies have real-world consequences. Many agencies, he said, have various sections that have leadership that really runs that specific component. Aside from Walsh, who was confirmed Monday by a 68-29 vote, there are a few finishing touches for his Cabinet-level appointees.
The Senate is yet to confirm Eric Lander as Biden’s top science adviser, and the White House still has not named anyone to head his Budget office, after Neera Tanden withdrew her nomination amid controversy. The White House is facing pressure from lawmakers on Capitol Hill to name Shalanda Young, the current nominee for deputy budget director, to the top role.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has set up confirmation votes this week for Young, along with Vivek Murthy for surgeon general and Rachel Leland Levine for assistant secretary of Health and Human Services, among others, before the Senate adjourns for recess until mid-April. Beneath the Cabinet heads that have been confirmed are numerous sub-departments that remain leaderless.
Many have only acting heads in place even as the administration faces a number of pressing situations in addition to the coronavirus pandemic. Recent crimes against Asian Americans have sparked fresh debate over the nation’s gun laws, but Biden has reportedly yet to nominate anyone to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. And the wave of migrants at the border is underscoring major challenges in enforcing immigration and asylum laws.