Biden sends nominations to Senate for key State posts

President Biden this week sent two nominations to the Senate for top posts with the State Department, filling out key roles overseeing the agency.

The president on Wednesday nominated Jose Fernandez for under secretary of State for economic growth, energy and the environment. The post is considered the top economic adviser to the secretary of State and oversees America’s diplomatic outreach on trade, agriculture, the ocean, the environment and technology.

Fernandez, who is a partner at the New York law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, also served as assistant secretary of State for economic, energy and business affairs during the Obama administration. 

The president also on Monday nominated Ambassador Bonnie Jenkins to be under secretary for arms control and international security. 

Jenkins is a nonresident senior fellow with the Brookings Institution in the Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology as well as an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and the Georgetown University Law Center.

In 2017 she established the Women of Color Advancing Peace, Security and Conflict Transformation.  

During the Obama administration she was confirmed by the Senate to serve as coordinator for threat reduction programs in the Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation.

The latest nominations help fill out top roles in the State Department. 

Other individuals Biden has nominated for top spots but have yet to be confirmed include Wendy Sherman as deputy secretary of state, the No. 2 post behind the secretary of State. 

Sherman is a veteran diplomat and was the lead negotiator for the U.S. to the 2015 talks with Iran and world powers that resulted in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the nuclear deal meant to restrict Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. 

Biden has stated his intention to return to the deal since former President Trump withdrew in 2018. 

The president also nominated his long-time foreign policy adviser Brian McKeon to be deputy secretary of State for management and resources, the No. 3 top spot in the State Department. 

Sherman and McKeon sat for a joint confirmation hearing with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on March 3 but have yet to be scheduled for a vote on their nominations in the Senate. 

Samantha Power, nominated to be administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, is expected to sit for her confirmation hearing on March 23. She was nominated on February 4. 

Power served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations during the Obama administration. 

The president nominated on February 13 Victoria Nuland to serve as under secretary of State for political affairs. Nuland served during the Obama administration as assistant secretary, Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs.