President Joe Biden has committed to a diverse administration and data revealed by the White House highlights the diversity by the numbers.
According to an official press release on Thursday, the Biden-Harris Administration put in place its Statutory Cabinet faster than any other Administration since President Ronald Reagan. Biden also shared he will nominate 233 individuals to serve in Senate-confirmed leadership roles across the Executive Branch the most of any past administration announced by the 100-day mark.
“Even as the Senate continues to confirm the President’s highly qualified nominees, the White House Office of Presidential Personnel has hired nearly 1,500 presidential appointees to serve in key agency positions that do not require Senate confirmation – double the number of appointees hired by any prior administration by the 100-day mark,” said the statement.
“And, consistent with President Biden’s commitment to leveraging the talent, creativity, and expertise of the American people to build an Administration that looks like America, more than half of all Biden appointees are women, and half identify as non-white – numbers that set a new bar for future Administrations.”
According to White House data, of the approximately 1,500 agency appointees hired thus far, 58% are women, 18% identify as Black or African American, 15% identify as Latino or Hispanic, 15% identify as Asian American or Pacific Islander, 3% identify as Middle Eastern or North African, and 2% identify as American Indian or Alaska Native.
The statistics continue to report, 14% identify as LGBTQ+, 4% are veterans, 3% identify as disabled or having a disability, 15% were the first in their families to go to college, and 32% are naturalized citizens or the children of immigrants.
theGrio reported Biden’s nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to replace Merrick Garland on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is in alignment with possibly his most important appointment promise, a woman of color to the Supreme Court if a seat becomes vacant.
According to the Washington Post, the 11 nominees are part of the largest and earliest batch of court selections by a new administration in decades. It is also one of the most diverse. Included in Biden’s nominations were three Black women for appeals court vacancies and the first Muslim American to serve on a District Court. They also have a variety of professional backgrounds ranging from former public defenders, former prosecutors, sitting judges, and attorneys at large law firms.
“This trailblazing slate of nominees draws from the very best and brightest minds of the American legal profession,” Biden said in a statement provided to The Washington Post on the nominations. “Each is deeply qualified and prepared to deliver justice faithfully under our Constitution and impartially to the American people — and together they represent the broad diversity of background, experience, and perspective that makes our nation strong.”
Among the historically diverse appointments to the Biden-Harris administration include Lloyd Austin, the first Black Secretary of Defense, Janet Yellen, the first woman to be Secretary of the Treasury, Alejandro Mayorkas, the first Latino and immigrant to serve as Secretary of Homeland Security, and Xavier Becerra, the first Latino to serve as Secretary of Health and Human Services.
The historical appointees continue to include Deb Haaland, the Secretary of the Interior, the first Native American to ever serve as a Cabinet Secretary, Pete Buttigieg the first openly LGBTQ person to serve in the Cabinet, Cecilia Rouse, the first woman of color to chair the Council of Economic Advisors and Katherine Tai, the first woman of color to serve as U.S. Trade Representative.
Avril Haines is the first woman to lead the U.S. intelligence community, Rachel Levine is the first openly transgender person to be confirmed by the Senate, and if confirmed, Robert Santos will be the first person of color to be Director of the United States Census Bureau and Stacey Dixon will be the highest-ranking Black woman in the intelligence community.
Story & Photo Credit: DeMicia Inman/thegrio