A day before President elect Joe Biden takes office, there are a flurry of cabinet nominee confirmation hearings to rush through ensuring that critical positions are filled during the transition. There are five nominees being vetted by lawmakers: Lloyd J. Austin III as Defense secretary, Antony J. Blinken for State secretary, Janet Yellen to head the Treasury Department, Alejandro N. Mayorkas for homeland security secretary, and Avril D. Haines for the position of National Intelligence Director. Responding to questions about raising the federal minimum wage, Treasury Nominee Janet Yellen said this. Ms .Yellen pushed lawmakers to be aggressive about stimulating the failing U.S. economy during her hearing. National Intelligence nominee Avril Haines, during her opening remarks stressed the importance of keeping intelligence gathering and dissemination free of politics and also took an aggressive posture on China. The antiwar group Codepink has denounced Haines as a “torture-apologist & drone-lover.” 

Alejandro Mayorkas, as homeland security nominee also addressed lawmakers. As the son of Cuban immigrants, Mayorkas was Deputy Secretary of homeland security under President Obama and expressed his horror at the Capitol riot during his opening statement on Tuesday. Biden’s team announced an ambitious plan to overhaul the nation’s immigration system in a proposal that he plans to send to Congress on Wednesday, his very first day in office. The proposed bill includes border enforcement but also an expansion of the U.S.’s refugee programs that were heavily curtailed under the current administration. And, most importantly, it includes an 8-year path to citizenship for the nation’s roughly 11 million undocumented immigrants. 

Mr. Biden has also made history with his pick for Secretary of Health and Human Services. Rachel Levine, who is currently Pennsylvania’s Health Secretary, would be the nation’s first transgender person to lead HHS if she is confirmed. In a statement released Tuesday Mr. Biden said, “Dr. Rachel Levine will bring the steady leadership and essential expertise we need to get people through this pandemic — no matter their ZIP code, race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability — and meet the public health needs of our country in this critical moment and beyond.” In another decision warmly welcomed by progressives, news broke that Biden was planning to end the Keystone XL pipeline project upon taking office as well. A Gallup poll published Tuesday found that nearly 70% of Americans approve of the way Mr. Biden is handling his transition to the Presidency—not as high as Barack Obama but higher than Donald Trump. 

As federal troops provide security for Wednesday’s inaug...