Shaping ED After DeVos: The Challenges Biden Could Face in Assembling the Department – NASFAA
President-elect Joe Biden has begun to staff up in preparation for the presidential transfer of power, recently unveiling his agency review team for the Department of Education (ED) that could heavily influence his assembly of the agency. But getting the department in order following current Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ tenure could be a daunting task depending on the Senate’s makeup.
The Senate confirmation process of a president’s cabinet nominees is typically non-controversial, especially for education secretaries. Former secretaries Arne Duncan and Margaret Spellings — nominated by former presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush respectively — were confirmed by voice votes and John B. King, Jr. — another Obama appointee — received a bipartisan vote of 49-40 under a Republican-controlled chamber.
Yet DeVos’ high-profile hearing and bitterly divided confirmation process led to a 51-50 confirmation vote, which was only broken by Vice President Mike Pence’s vote, the first time in history a vice president was required to break a tie vote on a cabinet position.
“Once you reset norms, they tend to stay reset,” said Frederick Hess, director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). “It used to be that confirming the secretary of education was pretty breezy, even if it was one party confirming another. This was low stakes.”
Hess said that following DeVos it could be difficult to get back to a non-controversial and succinct nomination and confirmation process.