The Senate started a jam-packed session of hearings on Tuesday to consider President-elect Joe Biden’s nominees for his cabinet, but the process has been badly delayed, likely making him the first president in decades to take office without his national security team in place on Day 1. Hearings for five nominees — Lloyd Austin to be secretary of defence; Antony Blinken to be secretary of state; Janet Yellen to be treasury secretary; Alejandro Mayorkas to be secretary of homeland security; and Avril Haines to be director of national intelligence — are scheduled for Tuesday. But it will be difficult for them to get floor votes by Wednesday, after Biden is sworn in.
Anticipating the delays, the Biden administration has indicated it will place acting secretaries at the head of most agencies, including an appointee of Trump at the Pentagon.
Blinken in his prepared testimony to the Senate Committee on foreign relations said the Biden administration will engage the world “as it is” and not “as it was”. “We’ll engage the world not as it was, but as it is. A world of rising nationalism, receding democracy, growing rivalry with China, Russia, and other authoritarian states, mounting threats to a stable and open international system, and a technological revolution that is reshaping every aspect of our lives, especially in cyberspace,” he said.
On his first day in office, Biden is said to propose a legislation to give millions of undocumented immigrants a chance to become citizens in as little as 8 years. Under the proposal that he will send to Congress, recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals will be allowed to apply for permanent legal residency immediately, transition officials said.