Both choices mark the completion of Biden’s announcements for those nominated for his cabinet secretary, and occur less than two weeks after the inauguration of the president-elect.
Biden praised the diversity and historic firsts in his office, and said he kept his promise to have his office look like America.
“This will be the first Cabinet ever composed equally with as many women as men in the Cabinet. This will be the first Cabinet with the majority of people of color occupying this Cabinet,” said the President-elect. He noted that his nominees would include, if confirmed, the first female secretary of the Treasury, the first African-American secretary of defense, and the first Native American cabinet secretary.
Biden also announced on Friday Isabel Guzman, director of the California Office of the Small Business Advocate, to lead the Small Business Administration and Don Graves, who was the executive director of the President of the Council on Jobs and Competitiveness at the Obama White House, as his nominee for deputy secretary of commerce.
Biden spoke about the challenges his government will face when he takes office in the midst of a pandemic and economic crisis, when so many Americans have lost their jobs and are in financial difficulty.
Biden said his government would prioritize distributing emergency economic aid to “small businesses on Main Street who are not rich and well connected, who are facing real economic difficulties, but not through their own fault.” He said he would focus on supporting blacks, Latinos, Asians, Native Americans and small businesses for women.
The president-elect emphasized that Americans and small businesses struggling in the pandemic need immediate and direct economic aid, including $ 2,000 stimulus checks.
“$ 600 is simply not enough when you have to choose between paying rent, putting food on the table, keeping the lights on,” said Biden of the stimulus checks that were recently approved by Congress.
He sympathized with Americans across the country who lost their jobs and are now forced to line up at food banks to feed their families. He stressed that the difference between white unemployment and black and Latino unemployment “remains very large”.
In the wake of the two Democratic victories in the US Senate in Georgia, the president-elect said he hoped that the fact that Democrats control the House and Senate would increase changes in the minimum wage increase.
Here are the main lines of nominees, which will require Senate confirmation:
Gina Raimondo, Secretary of Commerce
“When I announced my candidacy for governor, Rhode Island was in the middle of an eight-month streak as the state with the highest unemployment rate in the country. But for the past six years, we’ve worked hard, fought and grown our way back, reaching a record number of jobs and the lowest unemployment rate in over 30 years. ”
“I am excited to start working on a national scale to help realize the president-elect and vice-president-elect vision of helping more hardworking families in each community to write the next chapter of their own American stories.”
Marty Walsh, Secretary of Labor
“Today, we are at a crossroads in America. It is a time of great hardship. Workers are holding their country together. I saw it closely as Mayor of the city I love, Boston. Health professionals, first respondents, grocery workers, delivery drivers, postal workers, sanitation workers, janitors. Coming for us in impossible conditions. “
“Workers have long struggled against the erosion of their rights and the deep inequalities of race, gender and class. In the past four years, they have suffered aggression, attacks on their rights, their livelihoods and the unions that built the We are facing difficult times, but no one is more difficult than the American worker, and now, we now have the opportunity to put power back in the hands of workers across the country. “
Isabel Guzman, small business administrator
“I am honored to return to the SBA at a crossroads for small businesses, the dreams they embody, the people they raise and the communities they serve. Many small businesses across the country have been devastated by the pandemic and the economic crisis. A disproportionate impact has fallen, as it often does, on our businesses belonging to people of color. “
“Small businesses have had to adapt quickly to survive and seek relief as they face closings, declining revenues, reduced cash flow and increased debt. I know you believe with all your heart, Mr. President-elect and Ms. Vice-President that our small businesses are essential to our collective success as a nation. ”
Don Graves, Deputy Secretary of Commerce
“I spent my career – in government, in the private sector and in non-profit organizations – finding ways to ensure that economic opportunities are inclusive and broad-based. And as it is for all of us in our own ways, it is personal. I come from a long line of small business owners, including one who owned and operated the only African-owned hotel from the mid to late 1800s, just four blocks from where the Department of Commerce is today. “
“But for many people in this country, the chance to start and grow a business, to take their idea to the market and sell it to the whole world remains elusive all these years later. But we also know that the government, its resources and its experience and capable public officials can help level the playing field and empower people, communities and our economy to reach their full potential.
Walsh is a veteran trade unionist and has ascended the leadership of the Boston Building and Construction Trade Council, a group representing blacksmiths and electricians unions, among others. Walsh has served as mayor of Boston since 2013, and it was rumored that it would be a potential job choice in 2016 if Hillary Clinton had won the presidency. Walsh’s choice is a victory for AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka, who brought together his federation of 56 unions to support Boston’s mayor shortly after Biden won the election.
Guzman is the director of the California Office of the Small Business Advocate, a government office that works to support and develop small businesses in the most populous state in the United States. Prior to assuming the state post, Guzman was deputy chief of staff and senior advisor to the United States Small Business Administration, the office she will now lead.
Graves served at the Obama White House as executive director of the President’s Jobs and Competitiveness Council and as assistant deputy secretary for small business, community development and housing policy in the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Graves was previously a partner at Graves, Horton, Askew & Johns, LLC. He was the former director of public policy for the business roundtable and was previously a policy advisor to the Department of Home Finance in the US Department of the Treasury.
Biden on Thursday criticized the police for his different treatment of the pro-Trump crowd and Black Lives Matter protesters during demonstrations last year. The day before, he said the riots in the United States Capitol represented an “unprecedented attack” on United States democracy and asked Trump to immediately go on national television and “demand an end to this siege”.
CNN’s Greg Krieg and Dan Merica contributed to this report.