WASHINGTON — If she wins in November, Vice President Kamala Harris may face a hostile, Republican-controlled Senate in no mood to confirm the senior Cabinet officials she’ll need to run her administration.
Anticipating that scenario, Harris’ team is exploring whether to keep in place some of the Biden administration officials who’ve already been confirmed by the Senate and wouldn’t need to face the gauntlet again, four people familiar with her transition planning said.
Her aides are also looking at the option of initially retaining some current officials so that she’d have more time to make staffing decisions. With only a few months to build a campaign after abruptly replacing President Joe Biden at the top of the ticket, Harris has had little time to focus on the makeup of a new administration, the people familiar with the planning said.