The first of President-elect Joe Biden's Cabinet nominees were vetted by the Senate as confirmation hearings on Capitol Hill took place the day before Biden's inauguration.

What You Need To Know

  • Five Biden Cabinet nominees will be vetted by U.S. Senate committees on Tuesday

  • Biden's nominees for State, Treasury, Defense, Homeland Security, and the Director of National Intelligence will testify before Senate committees

  • A number of these nominees represent historic firsts for America

  • Janet Yellen, who would be the first woman to run the Treasury, stressed urgent action to combat the economic crisis facing the U.S.

The day before Biden is set to be sworn in as the 46th President of the United States, Senate panels vetted some of his key nominees ahead of a very busy session that will see control of the chamber change hands to Democrats on Jan. 20, as well as the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump.

The following Cabinet nominees had hearings Tuesday:

  • Treasury Secretary-nominee Janet Yellen
  • Department of Homeland Security Secretary-nominee Alejandro Mayorkas
  • Director of National Intelligence-nominee Avril Haines
  • Secretary of State-nominee Antony Blinken
  • Secretary of Defense-nominee Ret. Gen. Lloyd Austin

This group features some potential notable firsts – Austin would be the first Black leader of the Pentagon, Mayorkas would be the first Latino to run Homeland Security, Haines would be the first woman to serve as DNI, and Yellen would be the first woman to lead the Treasury.

In a letter released Tuesday, all 8 former living Treasury Secretaries urged the Senate to confirm Yellen swiftly.

"Unprecedented economic conditions have created immense hardship and threaten to further undermine our security and prosperity," they wrote. "With millions of Americans out of work, long-term unemployment rising, and activity stalled in large sectors of the economy, daunting challenges will face the incoming Administration. Addressing these pressing issues will require thoughtful engagement by the Department of the Treasury. Any gap in its leadership would risk setting back recovery efforts."

"It is hard to imagine a better prepared nominee to meet this great moment of need than Dr. Yellen," they concluded. "We urge the Senate Committee on Finance to move expeditiously to report her nomination to the full Senate to allow a highly qualified public servant to take up her urgent responsibilities.

Yellen agreed with the sense of urgency: "Without further action, we risk a longer, more painful recession now — and long-term scarring of the economy later."

"Eighteen million unemployment insurance claims are being paid every week. Food bank shelves are going empty. The damage has been sweeping and as the president-elect said last Thursday, our response must be too," she added.

Biden last week unveiled a $1.9 trillion rescue and relief plan, which Democrats have praised, but Republicans have expressed concern over the cost due to the soaring federal defecit.

“More must be done,” Yellen told the committee. “Without further action, we risk a longer, more painful recession now — and long-term scarring of the economy later.”

Republicans questioned elements of the Biden proposal such as providing an additional $1,400 stimulus check to individuals earning less than $75,000. They also objected to the inclusion of such long-term Democratic goals as boosting the minimum wage to $15 per hour.

Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) said that the push for a higher minimum wage comes at a time when thousands of small businesses like restaurants have gone out of business, and that it would lead to more job losses.

Yellen said, however, that the increase in the minimum wage would help millions of frontline American workers who are risking their lives to keep their communities functioning and often working two jobs to put food on the table. “They are struggling to get by and raising the minimum wage would help these workers,” she said.

“Right now, with interest rates at historic lows, the smartest thing we can do is act big,” she added, acknowledging the state of the federal deficit. “In the long run, I believe the benefits will far outweigh the costs, especially if we care about helping people who have been struggling for a very long time.”

Biden's pick to lead the intelligence community, Avril Haines, pledged to keep politics out of the intelligence community, a departure from the Trump era of leaning on intelligence officials: “To be effective, the DNI must never shy away from speaking truth to power — even, especially, when doing so may be inconvenient or difficult."

Haines, a former CIA deputy director and former deputy national security adviser in the Obama administration, would be the first woman to serve as director of national intelligence, or DNI — a role created after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

She was given a mostly positive reception by committee Republicans and Democrats, suggesting likely confirmation by the full Senate. Sen. Mark Rubio (R-FL), the committee chairman, seemed to allude to Haines’ confirmation as a sure thing, rattling off her eclectic career experiences and hobbies, and then joking, “I’m not sure what you’re going to do with the rest of your life and this new position.”

Her testimony kicked off a series of confirmation hearings for Biden’s picks to lead the State Department, the Pentagon, and the departments of Homeland Security and Treasury. While most of those nominees are unlikely to be confirmed by the time Biden takes the oath of office at noon Wednesday, some could be in place within days.

In the opening hour of her hearing, questions focused on China as a potential adversary, Iran and prospects for containing its nuclear program, and an issue that has taken on added urgency in the weeks since Haines was nominated, namely, domestic extremist violence. Her answers were received with little sign of opposition from panel members.

Haines said domestic extremism was mainly a matter for the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, but that the intelligence community, which is comprised of 18 intelligence agencies, including the CIA, has a support role in assessing the threat coming from domestic extremists. She said she expects that intelligence agencies would be involved in those discussions, particularly if there are connections between Americans and foreign-based extremist groups. She said she understand that such connections to international groups do exist, although she mentioned none by name.

She also pledged a public report on the Qanon threat.

Alejandro Mayorkas, Biden’s nominee for secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, faced questions from Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH), about an Office of Inspector General report that criticized his management of an investor visa program that he oversaw as head of the immigration services committee under President Barack Obama. The IG said that he created a perception of bias by overturning decisions on behalf of three investment projects backed by prominent Democrats.

Mayorkas strongly defended his actions, saying he intervened in many decisions at the agency on behalf of Republican and Democrats in Congress when he felt that the action was legitimate and necessary to solve problems such as those with the investor program.

"I learned of problems and fixed them," Mayorkas said.

When asked by Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) at a confirmation hearing about border security and whether or not he would abolish ICE or the U.S. Border Patrol, Mayorkas said he "would not abolish them."

"We need a diverse approach to border security, that in some instances a physical barrier would be effective but in some instances more boots on the ground," Mayorkas said when asked by Sen. Scott about security at the U.S.-Mexico border. "I look forward to studying the challenges at the border."

Secretary of State-designee Antony Blinken told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday that he believes the Trump administration generally took a proper stance toward China and the Middle East. But he stressed that the Trump administration’s implementation of those policies left much to be desired and ignored critical issues such as climate change.

In a relatively non-contentious confirmation hearing, Blinken said that if confirmed, he would work with Congress to strengthen and improve the Iran nuclear deal that Trump withdrew from in 2018. He said he would try to build on Arab-Israeli normalization agreements that Trump sealed in the final months of his presidency. And he said he would advocate a continued tough line on China, while seeking to bolster the U.S. position by improving relations with allies.

Blinken also said promotion of human rights and democracy would be an integral part of the Biden administration’s approach toward international relations and pledged the U.S. would host a summit of the world’s democratically elected leaders by the end of the year.

Ret. Gen. Lloyd Austin, Biden's pick to lead the Pentagon, said that he supports overturning the ban on transgender service in the military.

"I truly believe ... that if you are fit, and you're qualified to serve and you can maintain the standards, you should be allowed to serve," Austin said.

Austin also pledged to "rid our ranks of racists and extremists and commit to a climate where everyone fit and willing to serve" can serve.

“The job of the Department of Defense is to keep America safe from our enemies," Austin said. "But we can’t do that if some of those enemies lie within our own ranks.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.