Biden fills out Cabinet faster than both Trump and Obama as Senate confirms Marty Walsh as Labor Secretary

Every confirmed Biden official has garnered at least a measure of bipartisan support

The Senate has confirmed Marty Walsh to be Joe Biden’s Labor Department secretary, rounding out the Democratic president’s Cabinet faster than both the previous administrations.

“I'm proud to say that once Mayor Walsh is confirmed tonight, the Senate will have confirmed all 15 of President Biden's Cabinet secretaries,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a victory-lap speech on Monday.

Mr Schumer noted the “extraordinary circumstances” through which the Senate worked to flesh out Mr Biden’s Cabinet — the 6 January Capitol insurrection and its national security fallout, the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump, and a 50-50 partisan split in a chamber where Vice President Kamala Harris casts tiebreaker votes.

Mr Walsh, the mayor of Boston since 2014, has ascended to the top post in the US government overseeing labour policy after spending decades cultivating relationships with unions. He dropped out of college in the 1990s to work construction, joining the Laborers’ Union Local 223 at 21 years old. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Boston College’s night school in 2009, by which time he had been a Massachusetts state representative for the previous 12 years.

Mr Walsh acknowledged at his confirmation hearing last month that the US must do better to address racial and gender disparities in the labour market, differences in opportunity that have been exacerbated by the Covid crisis.

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He blamed “systemic racism” for the disproportionate economic impact of the pandemic on minority communities and women workers.

“It’s not simply just throwing fancy words out there, but in policies, it’s actually doing the work, rolling up our sleeves,” he said.

While Mr Biden has successfully filled every post in his Cabinet, there are still a handful of open “Cabinet-level” positions: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator, United Nations ambassador, director of the Office of Management and Budget, and a few others.

Every Biden Cabinet-level official who has been confirmed has garnered at least some measure of bipartisan support.

Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra was confirmed 50-49 with Maine Senator Susan Collins the lone Republican to vote with the Democrats.

The Biden Cabinet features numerous historical appointments: Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is the first openly gay Cabinet secretary. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is the first immigrant and the first Latino to lead his department. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is the first black Pentagon chief. And Secretary Deb Haaland is the first Native American to command the Department of the Interior.

Mr Biden’s Cabinet is the most demographically diverse in US history.

Of his initial nominations, 32 per cent were white men, compared to 73 per cent of Mr Trump’s picks four years earlier.

Mr Biden picked more women for his Cabinet than his former boss, Barack Obama, and more than half of his top aides are nonwhite.