Key role for black policy leaders on Biden’s transition team

BLACK POLICY leaders will play a pivotal role in President-elect Joe Biden’s transition, marking one of the most diverse agency-review teams in history.

Of the 500-plus team members announced this week, more than half are women, and black men and women are leading more than one-quarter of the teams.

The diversity is significant because the teams will be responsible for evaluating the operations of federal agencies that have a broad impact on Americans’ lives. And it is especially important because Biden will take office at a time when the United States is confronting a historic pandemic, joblessness, and police brutality – crises that have disparately affected black Americans.

“The agency-review process will help lay the foundation for meeting these challenges on day one,” said Tony Allen, a transition advisory board member and president of historically Black Delaware State University. “We are building a team to reflect America, and these black leaders are dedicated experts in their fields.”

The teams announced by Biden this week will lay much of the groundwork so that the thousands of new staffers and appointees starting work in January will have a road map and guidelines for how to continue the federal government’s work without pause. The teams face hurdles because President Donald Trump has yet to publicly acknowledge Biden’s victory, and his administration has prevented a formal start to the transition.

The makeup of the teams is a sign that Biden is focused on rewarding Black voters for their support in the election. Black voters powered Biden and his running mate, California Senator Kamala Harris, to victory in critical states such as Michigan and Pennsylvania.