Senate confirms Michael Regan to lead EPA

The Senate voted on Wednesday to confirm President Joe Biden's pick to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, making the state regulator the first Black man to be administrator of the agency.

Michael Regan, 44, was confirmed with a bipartisan vote of 66-34, with sixteen Republicans joining all Democrats in voting to confirm him.

The North Carolinian will lead the agency in an administration that has promised to aggressively fight against climate change and environmental injustice.

He worked at the EPA from 2001-08 in the Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards. He joined the Environmental Defense Fund in 2008 and left in 2015 to found M. Regan and Associates, a consulting firm on environmental issues. In 2017, he became cabinet secretary for North Carolina’s Department of Environmental Quality.

Though Regan is not a widely known political figure, he brings his past experience leading North Carolina's environmental agency. His background includes working to hold a business blamed for the toxic PFAS pollution accountable, and his work improving regulation of his state's giant hog farms and releasing a plan to cut climate-damaging fossil fuel pollution from power plants by 70 percent within a decade.

[SOURCE: USA TODAY]

Biden to nominate Linda Thomas-Greenfield to serve as United Nations Ambassador

Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, a 35-year veteran of the U.S. Foreign Service who has served on four continents, will be nominated to serve as United Nations Ambassador and elevated the role to his Cabinet.

Retired Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, a career diplomat, is returning to public service after retiring from a 35-year career with the U.S. Foreign Service in 2017. From 2013 to 2017 she served as the Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of African Affairs, where she led the bureau focused on the development and management of U.S. policy toward sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to this appointment, she served as Director General of the Foreign Service and Director of Human Resources (2012-2013), leading a team in charge of the State Department’s 70,000-strong workforce.

Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield’s distinguished Foreign Service career includes an ambassadorship to Liberia (2008-2012), and postings in Switzerland (at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations), Pakistan, Kenya, The Gambia, Nigeria, and Jamaica. In Washington, she served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of African Affairs (2006-2008), and as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (2004-2006).

Since 2017, Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield has led the Africa Practice at Albright Stonebridge Group, a strategic commercial diplomacy firm chaired by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. She was also the inaugural Distinguished Resident Fellow in African Studies at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy from fall 2017 to spring 2019. She joined ISD in spring 2017 as a Senior State Department Fellow. Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield earned a B.A. from Louisiana State University and a M.A. from the University of Wisconsin, where she worked towards a PhD. She received an honorary Doctor of Law degree from the University of Wisconsin in May 2018.

Karine Jean-Pierre and Symone Sanders in running to be Biden Administration Press Secretary

Two of the frontrunners for press secretary in the Biden administration are reportedly black women. If either is selected, they would be the first black woman to occupy the White House press podium, one of the most visible jobs in the administration.

Two former campaign advisers, Karine Jean-Pierre and Symone Sanders, are reportedly among the top choices. Both have experience working with the leaders of the administration, as well as in the media.

Ms Jean-Pierre was chief of staff to vice-president elect Kamala Harris, a political analyst for NBC and MSNBC, and a former communications official at MoveOn.org and the American Civil Liberties Union.

Before joining the Biden campaign, Ms Sanders previously served as press secretary for the 2016 Bernie Sanders presidential campaign, and was a CNN contributor.

[SOURCE: INDEPENDENT]