Washington: Over 20 Indian-Americans have been included in the Agency Review Teams (ARTs) by the Biden-Harris Transition. These Indian-Americans will be part of the teams which are responsible for evaluating the operations of the federal agencies so that the incoming Biden-Harris administration is prepared to lead the US.
The teams possess a diversity of perspectives critical to addressing America’s most urgent and complex challenges and three Indian-Americans have been chosen to lead such teams.
Arun Majumdar has been chosen to lead the Department of Energy. The Department of Energy team will also review the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Kiran Ahuja will lead the Office of Personnel Management. The Office of Personnel Management team will also review the Office of Government Ethics, the Office of Special Counsel, the Administrative Conference of the United States, the Merit Systems Protection Board, and the Federal Thrift Retirement Investment Board.
Rahul Gupta has been made the team leader of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
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The other Indian-Americans who have been chosen are — Arun Venkataraman (Department of Commerce and Office of the United States Trade Representative), Pravina Raghavan, Atman Trivedi for Department of Commerce, Shital Shah (Department of Education), R Ramesh and Rama Zakaria for the Department of Energy, Subhasri Ramanathan (Department of Homeland Security), Raj De (Department of Justice), Seema Nanda and Raj Nayak for Department of Labour, Reena Aggarwal and Satyam Khanna have been named to the Federal Reserve, Banking and Securities Regulators ARTs, Bhavya Lal for NASA, Dilpreet Sidhu (National Security Council), Divya Kumaraiah (Office of Management and Budget), Kumar Chandran (Department of Agriculture) and Aneesh Chopra (US Postal Service).
“Of the hundreds of ART members to be announced, more than half are women, and approximately 40 per cent represent communities historically underrepresented in the federal government, including people of color, people who identify as LGBTQ+, and people with disabilities. The President-elect and Vice President-elect are committed to building an administration that looks like America,” said the Biden-Harris Presidential Transition.
“Our nation is grappling with a pandemic, an economic crisis, urgent calls for racial justice, and the existential threat of climate change. We must be prepared for a seamless transfer of knowledge to the incoming administration to protect our interests at home and abroad. The agency review process will help lay the foundation for meeting these challenges on Day One,” said Senator Ted Kaufman, Co-Chair, Biden-Harris Transition.