Senate Works to Confirm Biden's Treasury and National Security Nominees - Pentagon Pick Raises Concern

The Senate returned to work in Washington on Tuesday to focus on confirming some of President-elect Joe Biden's key cabinet nominees, including his national security team.

Biden's choice for secretary of the Treasury, Janet Yellen, is calling for Congress to "act big" to guard the U.S. against plunging deeper into the pandemic-induced recession. 

“Without further action, we risk a longer, more painful recession now - and long-term scarring of the economy later,” said Yellen who previously served under President Obama as chair of the Federal Reserve.

Biden's nominees for the departments of State, Defense, Homeland Security, and the Director of National Intelligence - Antony Blinken, Lloyd Austin, Alejandro Mayorkas, and Avril Haines - are all expected to win majority approval.  
  
Haines, a former CIA deputy director and former deputy national security adviser in the Obama administration, has been picked to be Director of National Intelligence. “When it comes to intelligence, there is simply no place for politics - ever,” she told the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday.

Alejandro Mayorkas, Biden’s nominee to run the Department of Homeland Security, would be the first Latino and first immigrant to lead the agency.

Is Biden's Defense Dept. Pick a Problem?

The most controversial of this round of nominees is Biden's choice to head the Pentagon - Lloyd Austin. The recently retired Army general will need not only a favorable confirmation vote in the Senate but also a waiver by both the House and the Senate because he has been out of uniform only four years.

The U.S. typically picks a civilian to run the Pentagon to protect America from excessive military influence. Lindsay P. Cohn, an expert on civil-military relations and an associate professor at the U.S. Naval War College, told the Senate last week that it's a bad idea to give Austin a waiver.
 
“Choosing a recently retired general officer and arguing that he is uniquely qualified for the current challenges furthers the narrative that military officers are better at things and more reliable or trustworthy than civil servants or other civilians,” she said. 

“This is hugely problematic at a time when one of the biggest challenges facing the country is the need to restore trust and faith in the political system. Implying that only a military officer can do this job at this time is counterproductive to that goal," Cohn said.

Austin would be the first Black secretary of Defense. He retired from the military as a four-star general in 2016.