He was the last of the top 15 agency heads to receive confirmation from the United States Senate. These are the positions of the Cabinet included in the presidential succession line.
That hasn’t been the case since President Ronald Reagan, who was the last president to see all his cabinet nominees confirmed.
His successor, President George HW Bush, was the last to have a cabinet nominee rejected by the Senate. His choice of defense secretary, John Tower, was defeated by 53 votes to 47 after revelations of alcohol abuse and womanizing.
President Bill Clinton’s first two selections to become attorney general, Zoe Baird and Kimba Wood, were dropped from consideration after it was learned that they had hired undocumented workers to work in their homes looking after children.
President George W. Bush withdrew Linda Chávez’s appointment to serve as Secretary of Labor when it was revealed that she had given money and provided shelter to an undocumented immigrant.
President Barack Obama removed three original choices from the cabinet. Tom Daschle withdrew a nomination to serve as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services because of unpaid taxes. And two choices by the Secretary of Commerce, Bill Richardson and Judd Gregg, withdrew – Richardson because of a paid investigation to play in which he was later acquitted and Gregg because of political differences.
President Donald Trump withdrew his choice to Labor Secretary Andrew Puzder after it became clear that he had no votes in the Senate to get confirmation. He was brought down on charges of hiring an undocumented immigrant’s nanny along with a tape of his ex-wife describing marital abuse. She later said that she had retracted these charges.
Biden, who complained that the Senate was not working fast enough to confirm his nominees, also saw his top 15 cabinet secretaries in place before the equivalent point under Obama or Trump. Both of his immediate predecessors had to wait until the end of April on their first terms for the vacancies to be filled.
Biden withdrew Tanden’s appointment to serve as director of the Office of Administration and Budget earlier this year, after it became clear that she would not have enough votes to secure confirmation. Biden designed the post-cabinet level, although OMB is not considered an autonomous agency.
Senators cited Tanden’s latest insulting tweets as a reason for not supporting her; the White House said she would have another role in the government that does not require confirmation from the Senate.
Shalanda Young, a former Democratic official on Capitol Hill, is due to be confirmed this week as deputy director of the OMB. She is one of the main candidates to be nominated for the position of director, although other people are also being considered for the position.