March 10, 2021: The Senate will vote on whether to confirm Marcia Fudge as secretary of housing and urban development and Merrick Garland as attorney general on Wednesday.
President Joe Biden (D) and his team have been preparing for the transition between presidential administrations since the election, including selecting senior White House staff and appointees to top government positions.
In 2020, there were 1,472 government positions subject to presidential appointment: 1,118 positions required Senate confirmation and 354 did not. The new administration is also responsible for filling thousands of other positions across the federal government, including in operations and policy. Every weekday, Ballotpedia is tracking potential Cabinet nominees, appointments, and news related to the Biden administration.
- There are no Cabinet-level committee hearings scheduled on Wednesday.
- The Senate will vote on whether to confirm Marcia Fudge as secretary of housing and urban development and Merrick Garland as attorney general on Wednesday.
- The Senate will also vote on whether to invoke cloture on the nomination of Michael Regan for administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.
News
- Biden selected Clare Martorana as his federal chief information officer on Tuesday. Martorana previously served as the chief information officer for the Office of Personnel Management.
- Biden will promote the American Rescue Plan Act beginning with a television address on Thursday. “Team Biden is planning a large and long-running sales campaign, including local media outreach and the cultivation of coalition media campaigns,” Axios reported.
- Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin approved a request to keep 2,300 National Guard members deployed at the Capitol through May 23.
Transition in Context
The following chart compares the pace of Senate confirmations for the main Cabinet members—the 15 agency heads in the presidential line of succession—following the inaugurations of Presidents Donald Trump (R) and Joe Biden (D). It does not include Cabinet-rank officials that vary by administration.
Seven weeks after their respective inaugurations, Trump had 13 of these secretaries confirmed and Biden had 10. With two confirmation votes scheduled Wednesday, Biden could have 12 by the end of the day.
