White House officials, in announcing the interim leadership, said that “almost all” are career civil servants, and many have spent years in agencies that they will now be temporarily leading.
TSA administrator David Pekoske, for example, will be the interim secretary for Homeland Security, while Alejandro Mayorkas awaits confirmation. Putting Pekoske in charge means that Biden will have a Senate-confirmed leader at DHS who has a deep understanding of the department’s work. And David Cohen, who will be acting director of the CIA, was deputy director of the agency under Obama and will return to that role under Biden.
The White House has not officially announced the active leadership of a number of cabinet agencies, including the departments of Agriculture, Interior, Commerce, Transport, Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development.
At the Department of Education, senior career officer Phil Rosenfelt will become the acting secretary, a White House official confirmed. And at the Environmental Protection Agency, career worker Charlotte Bertrand will become an interim administrator, according to an internal agency email seen by POLITICO.
And Kevin Shea will serve as acting head of the Department of Agriculture while Tom Vilsack awaits confirmation from the Senate. Shea most recently served as administrator of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, a position he has held since 2013.
Here are the heads of the interim agency, White House officials announced on Wednesday:
– Central Intelligence Agency, David Cohen
– Department of Defense, David Norquist
– Department of Energy, David Huizenga
– Department of Health and Human Services, Norris Cochran
– Department of Homeland Security, David Pekoske
– Department of Justice, Monty Wilkinson
– Department of Labor, Al Stewart
– State Department, Dan Smith
– Treasury Department, Andy Baukol
– Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Lora Shiao
– Office of Management and Budget, Rob Fairweather
– Office of the US Trade Representative, Maria Pagan
– Small Business Administration, Tami Perriello
– General Services Administration, Katy Kale
– National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Steve Jurczyk
– National Endowment for the Arts, Ann Eilers
– National Endowment for the Humanities, Adam Wolfson
– Office of National Drug Control Policy, Regina LaBelle
– Office of Personnel Management, Kathy McGettigan
– Social Security Administration, Andrew Saul
– United States Agency for International Development, Gloria Steele
– US International Development Finance Corporation, Dev Jagadesan
– US Mission to the United Nations, Rich Mills
Michael Stratford, Stephanie Beasley, Liz Crampton and Alex Guillén contributed to this report.