Top Contenders for Biden’s Cabinet Draw Fire From All Sides

Aides to the president-elect mentioned on Wednesday that he meant to announce extra members of his financial crew this coming week after choosing Janet L. Yellen, a former Federal Reserve chair, to be his Treasury secretary.

Mr. Biden may decide Roger W. Ferguson Jr., an economist who was vice chair of the Federal Reserve and was below severe consideration for the Treasury job, to guide the Nationwide Financial Council or a brand new board overseeing the restoration from the recession.

Choosing Mr. Ferguson, who’s Black, to guide the council would assist Mr. Biden preserve a promise to make his administration seem like the remainder of America. Different names into account for the place are white males, together with Bruce Reed, a former chief of employees to Mr. Biden, and Austan Goolsbee, an economist who was chairman of Mr. Obama’s Council of Financial Advisers. Gene Sperling, a veteran financial adviser relationship again to the Clinton administration, is one other chance, as is Brian Deese, who was deputy director of the Nationwide Financial Council below Mr. Obama.

Mr. Reed, a famous centrist and deficit hawk, was Mr. Clinton’s home coverage director, and helped develop the welfare overhaul that Mr. Clinton signed into legislation requiring work and setting deadlines.

He has come below hearth from outstanding liberal members of Congress, together with Consultant Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, who additionally oppose his consideration to guide the Workplace of Administration and Funds, which helps the White Home decide financial priorities. However blocking Mr. Reed, who traveled with Mr. Biden for a lot of the marketing campaign, from the funds workplace submit might solely guarantee he winds up within the West Wing, the place the president-elect may make him a senior adviser.

To lead the Agriculture Department, Consultant James E. Clyburn of South Carolina, the highest-ranking Black member of Congress, is pushing for Consultant Marcia L. Fudge, an African-American Democrat from Ohio. Mr. Clyburn, an early and vital backer of Mr. Biden, has mentioned the division needs to be centered extra on starvation.

However traditionalists keen to maintain a voice from rural America within the submit are advocating Heidi Heitkamp, a former senator from North Dakota, or Tom Vilsack, the previous Iowa governor who served as agriculture secretary for Mr. Obama.