Biden names Susan Rice for top domestic policy post

WILMINGTON (Delaware) • US President-elect Joe Biden has tapped Ms Susan Rice, a former national security adviser with significant foreign policy expertise, for a domestic policy brief, putting an emphasis on managerial experience in his new administration.

A flurry of senior appointments underscored the former vice-president's commitment to a diverse administration while rewarding longtime loyalists and veterans like himself who served during former president Barack Obama's eight years in office.

Mr Biden's selection of Ms Rice, 56, as his top domestic policy adviser and director of his Domestic Policy Council on Thursday came as a surprise given her extensive background in foreign affairs.

Besides her role as Mr Obama's national security adviser, she earlier served as his ambassador to the United Nations. A black woman, she had been a contender to be Mr Biden's running mate.

A source familiar with Mr Biden's thinking said the President-elect does not view foreign policy and domestic policy as separate realms, and believes experience in one is relevant to the other.

Due to take office on Jan 20, Mr Biden felt Ms Rice's experience operating across federal government agencies would enable her to implement his policy agenda, including plans to rebuild an economy hit by the coronavirus, the source said.

Ms Rice was under consideration for Mr Biden's secretary of state, but would likely have faced fierce opposition from Republicans in Congress for her role in a controversy over the deadly 2012 attack on the US mission in Benghazi, Libya.

The domestic policy post does not require US Senate confirmation. Mr Biden ultimately chose longtime adviser Antony Blinken to head the State Department.

For other positions, Mr Biden selected former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack to serve a second tenure as agriculture secretary, Obama White House aide Denis McDonough as secretary of veteran affairs, US Representative Marcia Fudge to head the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and Ms Katherine Tai as US trade representative, his transition team said in a statement.

Transition spokesman Sean Savett said the picks were "forward-thinking, crisis-tested and experienced" individuals "ready to quickly use the levers of government to make meaningful differences in the lives of Americans and help govern on day one".

Mr McDonough, 51, was a longtime national security aide to Mr Obama prior to his stint as chief of staff during Mr Obama's second term, where he worked closely with Mr Biden. But he has never served in the armed forces, and his selection caught some advocates for veterans off guard.

Mr Vilsack, 69, served as US Department of Agriculture secretary under Mr Obama for eight years and as Iowa governor from 1999 to 2007. He is seen by establishment Democrats as a sound choice, largely because of his moderate politics and relationships with large-scale farmers.

Ms Fudge, 68, is a congresswoman from Cleveland who has served in the US House of Representatives since 2008. If confirmed, she would be the second black woman to lead HUD, which focuses on federal policy surrounding housing.

Ms Tai, 45, a Chinese American who is the chief trade lawyer on the House Ways and Means Committee, played a key role in negotiating stronger labour provisions with the Trump administration in the new US-Mexico-Canada trade deal. She would be the first woman of colour to serve as trade representative.

REUTERS