President Biden’s cabinet confirmation hearings have been remarkably uneventful. The Senate has confirmed Avril Hanes as Director of Central Intelligence (84-10), Lloyd Austin as Secretary of Defense (93-2), and Antony Blinken as Secretary of State (facing the most resistance, 78-22). Along with Jake Sullivan as National Security Advisor, these four individuals will comprise Biden’s core foreign policy and defense team.
Subordinate positions in both the State and Defense Departments ordinarily take months to fill and the confirmation of Wendy Sherman and Kathleen Hicks respectively as deputy Secretary of State and deputy Secretary of Defense — however one regards their likely policy advice — advance the transition to a new administration. Of course, it will take several months to fully staff their departments. Moreover, learning the political landscape, even for seasoned insiders, can take weeks or months. Bureaucracy moves slowly. Crises demand attention. This pulls focus from long-term policymaking. The lost months of a transition can cripple policy coordination in a new administration’s second and third years.
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