Biden picks Rhode Island governor for Commerce, Boston mayor for Labor: sources

By Andrea Shalal and David Lawder

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President-elect Joe Biden will nominate Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo as his Commerce Department secretary and old union loyal and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh as Labor secretary, his transition crew mentioned late on Thursday.

The two Democrats will head sprawling agencies that can form Biden’s agenda on native weather swap, expertise, funding, the minimal wage and other crew principles and insurance policies.

In conjunction with other top officers, they’ll “usher in a original wave of employee energy, aid struggling runt companies get larger and re-initiating, and put American citizens aid to work by developing millions of correct-paying union jobs,” the transition crew mentioned.

Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will dispute the nominations in Wilmington on Friday.

They additionally will nominate Isabel Guzman, a California deliver economic pattern loyal and runt trade advocate, to lead the Small Enterprise Administration (SBA), and Don Graves, a old KeyBank government and economic adviser to Biden when he used to be vp, as deputy commerce secretary.

The SBA has performed a key position in distributing hundreds of billions of greenbacks in coronavirus serve to runt companies over the last year.

As Rhode Island’s first lady governor, Raimondo has pushed for a $15-an-hour minimal wage in her deliver, nonetheless told the Providence Journal in a most up to date interview that she used to be reluctant to preserve shut taxes on astronomical earners to quilt a deliver budget deficit.

Raimondo, 49, additionally mentioned in the interview https://www.providencejournal.com/story/recordsdata/politics/2020/12/15/where-raimondo-stands-taxes-nursing-home-staffing-marijuana/6549015002 she would push for deliver-operated stores to promote marijuana.

A Harvard- and Yale-professional licensed legit with a background in endeavor capital, Raimondo has launched winning crew practising applications in Rhode Island, which a supply accustomed to her different mentioned used to be in step with Biden’s plans to preserve shut education and employee practising for 21st-century abilities.

Christine Bliss, president of the Coalition of Companies and products Industries, welcomed Biden’s series of a woman for the principle economic position, along with Raimondo’s expertise as a governor and her trade acumen would serve her neatly.

The Commerce Department is the loyal face of American trade overseas nonetheless additionally runs such key federal departments as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the U.S. Patent and Trademark Situation of job, and the U.S. Census Bureau.

The department has additionally performed a principal position in Republican President Donald Trump’s “The united states First” trade agenda, imposing nationwide security tariffs on steel and aluminum and banning a lot of Chinese companies from acquiring U.S. expertise, along with telecommunications instruments large Huawei.

UNION FAVORITE

Walsh, 53, now serving a 2nd four-year term as mayor of Boston, has interesting with rebuilding the center class while advocating for personnel in his pickle of initiating, a supply accustomed to his different mentioned, along with that Walsh backed each and each a $15 minimal wage and paid family high-tail away.

Walsh, who served from 1997 to 2014 in the Massachusetts Residence of Representatives, used to be elected Boston mayor in 2013. He’s a past president of the Laborers’ Union Local 223, which he joined at 21, and later headed the Boston Metropolitan District Constructing Trades Council.

Union leaders applauded his different.

“Walsh knows that collective bargaining is principal to constructing aid larger by combating inequality, beating COVID-19 and lengthening opportunities for immigrants, women and of us of color,” AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka mentioned in an announcement.

“He’ll glean the ear of the White Residence, the Cupboard and Congress as we work to extend union density and create a stronger, fairer The united states.”

Marc Perrone, president of the United Meals and Industrial Workers Union, the finest U.S. interior most sector union, gave Walsh and Biden each and each correct marks for standing with UFCW grocery personnel in the course of a strike in Boston in 2019.

“With Marty Walsh serving as Labor Secretary, American personnel will know they glean got a champion who will withhold companies responsible and fortify the categorical-paying union jobs our nation needs,” he mentioned.

Guzman for the time being heads California’s Situation of job of the Small Enterprise Recommend and helped coordinate the deliver’s economic restoration response amid the COVID-19 disaster.

A old senior SBA loyal through the Obama administration and runt trade entrepreneur, Guzman realized about entrepreneurship while working in her father’s chain of veterinary hospitals.

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