WASHINGTON — For more than a year, the Food and Drug Administration lacked a permanent head when the agency was central in the battle against COVID-19. Once President Joe Biden nominated Dr. Robert Califf to head the agency, it took the Senate three months to confirm him.
The political battles over Califf’s nomination highlight the difficulties that Biden faces in filling key positions throughout his administration.
The vacancies in high-ranking positions across the executive branch could put a drag on Biden’s ability to fight the pandemic, implement the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law and boost the economy with inflation levels at a 40-year high.
“Without leadership and experts, we’ve seen departments increasingly stressed,” said Maya MacGuineas, president of the bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. “There is a struggle to get appropriations done, there is talk about defaulting on the debt ceiling,” she said, adding that unfilled jobs affect the government’s fiscal position and the president’s overall agenda.
The White House blames gridlock from Republicans in a sharply divided Senate, but it also has not submitted nominations for many of the open positions.
The White House says the Biden administration has nominated 569 people, of whom 302 have been confirmed and 247 are waiting to go through the confirmation process. That’s out of 1,200 civilian positions requiring Senate confirmation.
In Biden’s first year, the Senate confirmed 41% of his nominations, according to the Partnership for Public Service. In comparison, 75% of George W. Bush’s nominees were confirmed in his first year, compared with 69% for Barack Obama and 57% for Donald Trump.
