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Joe Biden plans to announce Cecilia Rouse and Brian Deese as part of his economic team and Neera Tanden to head the Office of Management and Budget, sources tell Axios.

Why it matters: These are experienced hands. Unveiling a diverse group of advisers also may draw attention away from a selection of Deese to run the National Economic Council. Some progressives have criticized his work at BlackRock, the world's largest asset management firm.

Details: Rouse, dean of the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, will be nominated to chair the Council of Economic Advisers. If confirmed, she would be the first Black woman to lead the organization. She is also the daughter-in-law of the late novelist Toni Morrison.

Heather Boushey and Jared Bernstein, Biden's first economic adviser as vice president, also are expected to round out the CEA.

Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress and a former top adviser to Hillary Clinton, could face a rocky confirmation. Republicans tangled with her over the Affordable Care Act, and some progressives blame her for Bernie Sanders' loss in the 2016 presidential primary.

Deese is a former senior adviser to President Obama who worked on the auto industry bailout and Paris climate agreement.

Results for America's Ben Harris, who's been a chief economic adviser to Biden.

Bruce Reed, who ran the Domestic Policy Council under President Bill Clinton and served as one of Biden's vice presidential chiefs of staff.

Roger Ferguson, a former Fed vice chair, who announced his retirement as CEO of the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association.

Between the lines: Nominating Rouse for a Senate-confirmed post could give Biden more political space to pick some of his longtime associates and avoid confirmation fights, after progressives already signaled they are opposed to candidates like Deese and Reed. 

The CEA serves as an in-house think tank, providing hard economic data to the president. While Trump demoted the chair from Cabinet rank, Biden plans to restore it. 

Rouse and Boushey joined former Fed Chair Ben Bernanke in signing a letter in June that argued for a fiscal response covering the expected $16 trillion output gap expected over the next 10 years. 

The bottom line: Putting Rouse on a team with Janet Yellen would add academic heft and real-world experience to negotiations with Congress over the size of relief packages.

Biden turns to experienced hands for White House economic team

Joe Biden plans to announce Cecilia Rouse and Brian Deese.

Illustration of the white house on the back of a dollar with a now hiring sign hanging from it

Politics

Joe Biden

Politics & Policy

Top stories & latest news on the Federal Reserve, real-time data, plus the biggest shifts happening in the U.S. and global economy.

Economy

After a record economic expansion, the coronavirus pandemic sent the U.S. economy into a recession as unemployment soared to staggering heights. The country now faces urgent questions about how much stimulus is needed for reeling consumers and businesses, and what a recovery might look like.

Economy & Business

Jen Psaki, who previously served as Obama's communications director, will serve as President-elect Joe Biden's press secretary, the transition team announced Sunday. 

The big picture: All of the top aides in Biden's communication staff will be women, per the Washington Post, which first reported Psaki's appointment.

Other appointments announced by the transition team: 

Kate Bedingfield as White House communications director.

Senior campaign adviser Symone Sanders as chief spokesperson to Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.

Ashley Etienne, former spokesperson for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, as communications director for Harris.

Biden taps former Obama communications director for press secretary

All of the top aides in Biden's communication staff will be women.

Jared Kushner will travel in the coming days to Saudi Arabia and Qatar in a last-ditch effort to resolve the dispute between the Gulf countries. 

Why it matters: Fixing the rift between Saudi Arabia and Qatar would bring a sense of stability back to the Gulf and notch a last-minute achievement for Kushner and the Trump administration before Jan. 20.

Background: In June 2017, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and other Sunni states severed ties with Qatar and closed their airspace and sea routes to Qatari planes and vessels. They claimed their decision was based on Qatar's support for terror groups and relations with Iran.

The U.S. maintains close ties with both Qatar and its rivals, but the Trump administration's several attempts to reconcile the parties were unsuccessful. 

What to watch: Kushner will meet Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) and Qatari Emir Tamim Bin Hamad al-Thani, U.S. officials tell me. Kushner has close relationships with both leaders.

Accompanying Kushner will be White House envoy Avi Berkowitz, International Development Finance Corporation CEO Adam Boehler, and former Iran envoy Brian Hook, who is now an unpaid special adviser and was involved in previous efforts to resolve the rift.

Driving the news: Kushner’s trip comes a week after a secret meeting between MBS and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The trip also comes days after the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh. While the Qataris condemned the assassination, the Saudis remained silent. 

Kushner’s relations with MBS proved crucial over the last few months as the Trump administration moved forward with the Abraham Accords, which led to normalization between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain and Sudan.

The Saudis have not agreed to normalization, but they did agree to let Israeli airlines use Saudi airspace for the first time, and they gave Bahrain a green light for normalization with Israel. The decision by MBS to meet with Netanyahu was another significant step.

The Trump administration is still trying to push forward more potential normalization agreements before January.

What’s next: Kushner hopes to convince the Saudi and Qatari leaders to reconcile and reach a deal on several outstanding issues, U.S. officials tell me.

Kushner also wants to use the talks in Saudi Arabia to cement the agreement for Saudi Arabia to allow eastbound flights from Israel to pass through Saudi airspace.

Go deeper: Maximum pressure campaign escalates with Fakhrizadeh killing

Kushner to visit Saudi Arabia and Qatar seeking deal to end crisis

The Gulf standoff has rumbled on for three years.

Kushner with senior Saudi officials in the Oval Office in 2018. Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images

World

Middle East

Israel

Conflicts, policies and powers are intersecting and shaping the world. Breaking news and analysis of national security, foreign policy and global crises.

The two recounts in Wisconsin requested by the Trump campaign were completed Sunday and confirmed that President-elect Joe Biden won the state, the Washington Post reports. 

Driving the news: Biden won Wisconsin by more than 20,000 votes. Recounts in the state's most populous and liberal areas — Dane and Milwaukee counties — netted him an additional 87 votes. 

The Trump campaign was required by law to pay for the recounts, which cost them $3 million. 

Trump has continued to baselessly claim that massive voter fraud cost him the election, and he refuses to concede. On Saturday, he tweeted that another lawsuit would be filed after the recount was over. 

The campaign has lost a series of court battles in swing states. An appeals court recently ruled the campaign's claims in Pennsylvania "have no merit."

Wisconsin recount reaffirms Biden's victory in the state

The recounts — requested by the Trump campaign — netted Biden an additional 87 votes.

Wisconsin

2020 election

Hispanic lawmakers are openly lobbying to have New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham be named Health and Human Services secretary, according to a letter obtained by Axios. 

Why it matters: These members are now following the example some Black lawmakers have used for weeks: trying to convince Joe Biden his political interests will be served by rewarding certain demographic groups with Cabinet picks. 

The big picture: Biden is weighing Lujan Grisham, who he considered as his vice presidential running mate, along with Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo for the critical post.

The next HHS secretary will not only have to tackle the coronavirus crisis but reconfigure the Affordable Care Act, which the Trump administration has attempted to dismantle.

The case: In their letter to Biden, 32 members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus say nominating Alejandro Mayorkas to lead the Department of Homeland Security was a "good start" — but they believe the country deserves more. 

"Latinos constitute 18 percent of the U.S. population and the diversity of the Latino population in itself is incredibly varied, with Mexican-Americans making up 62.3 percent of the total Latino population," the letter says.   

"We write to restate our strong support for the first Democratic Hispanic woman elected state governor in U.S. history."

Lujan Grisham was a chairperson of the caucus while serving in the House from 2013 to 2019. While the letter is not a CHC document, the signers are members of the group.

Between the lines: Mayorkas is of Cuban extraction, and most of the letter signers, as well as Lujan Grisham, are of Mexican American descent. Cuban communities supported Trump, especially in south Florida, while other Hispanic demographics helped Biden win crucial states, including Arizona and Pennsylvania.

Congressional Hispanics want Lujan Grisham at HHS

Members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus are trying to convince Biden his political interests will be served by rewarding certain demographic groups with Cabinet picks.

New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham totes a suitcase as she arrives on Capitol Hill.

Michelle Lujan Grisham arriving on Capitol Hill. Photo: Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call

Congressional Hispanic Caucus

This fascinating map is made by Alasdair Rae of Sheffield, England, a former professor of urban studies who is the founder of Automatic Knowledge. It shows world population density in 3D.

Details: "No land is shown on the map, only the locations where people actually live. ... The higher the spike, the more people live in an area. Where there are no spikes, there are no people (e.g. you can clearly identify ... the Sahara Desert)."

The major world population concentrations are immediately obvious — particularly China, India and Indonesia.

"Yet it is often also possible to pick out even quite small towns and cities, such as those in the south of New Zealand, or northern Russia."

How it works: Rae says that he uses "data from the EU's GHSL dataset, software is Aerialod by @ephtracy and render time for the big image was about 6 hours."

Rae explains that the light-and-shadow effect lets you identify some isolated population centers, including ones in Hawaii and central Australia.

And he reminds us of the old saying: "Where there is water, there is life."

Go deeper: "How to make a 3D population density render for any country in the world." ... More maps.

Map: A look at world population density in 3D

No land is actually shown on the map, so it's easy to see major world population concentrations.

Graphic: Alasdair Rae via Twitter. Used by permission 

Maps

President-elect Biden has an aggressive Day 1 immigration agenda that relies heavily on executive actions to undo President Trump's crackdown. 

Why it matters: It's not that easy. Trump issued more than 400 executive actions on immigration. Advocates are fired up. The Supreme Court could threaten the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, and experts warn there could be another surge at the border.

Where it starts: On his first day, Biden has said he will rescind Trump's Muslim ban through executive action and send legislation to Congress with a pathway to citizenship for the nearly 11 million undocumented immigrants. 

Biden is expected to use executive action to bolster DACA even as the courts consider its validity. It's unclear whether he will expand protections for more immigrants or add benefits. 

He'll pause deportations for the first 100 days, stop border wall construction and create a task force to reunite immigrant families. 

Biden "will work to ensure our immigration policies are reflective of our American values," Jennifer Molina, a spokesperson for the Biden transition team, told Axios. 

Even so, it will be difficult for Biden to undo many of the policies Trump pushed through, uphold immigration law and pacify progressive Democrats and the immigration advocacy community, who will be far more critical of anything Biden does than during Barack Obama's presidency.

At the border, Biden has promised to end Trump's "Remain in Mexico" policy, which forced tens of thousands of asylum-seekers from all over to wait for their court dates in Mexico. 

But undoing all of Trump's strict border policies too quickly could leave the U.S. unprepared for a spike of migrants at the border. To mitigate large migrant flows to the border, the Biden administration is expected to invest in refugee programs in Central American countries. 

Biden also will be under pressure to let in more refugees from around the world after Trump cut the number of refugees allowed into the U.S. by 80%.

Biden has notably not said he will end the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention coronavirus-related emergency order, which has let officials almost immediately expel nearly 60,000 migrants at the border.

Temporarily leaving the order in place could help maintain some order when Remain in Mexico is ended, several immigration experts said. 

Border crossings are already starting to rise. Leon Fresco, an immigration attorney who worked at the Justice Department under Obama, said it's "pretty likely" that Biden will have to deal with a surge at the border as soon as next summer. 

Biden would want to avoid scenes of detained children and families that scarred both Obama and Trump, but he must keep order.

On DACA, Biden can easily restore the program by executive action — for now. But immigration advocates and experts are watching a Texas lawsuit challenging DACA's legality.

"What DACA recipients deserve is Congress to pass a pathway to citizenship immediately in the near year,” said Todd Schulte, president of FWD.us, a leading advocate of immigration reform.

It's a tall order for a likely divided Congress — especially after four years of Trump's immigration crackdown that was widely popular within the Republican Party. 

At DHS: Once confirmed, Alejandro Mayorkas — a favorite among advocates — will have to reshape one of the most politicized agencies under Trump.

He will need leaders on board at the immigration-focused subagencies of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Any permanent leaders will need to be confirmed by the Senate.

ICE has become one of the most contentious agencies for its role in arresting and detaining immigrants. 

Biden will likely reset priorities so agents focus arrests on immigrants with serious criminal records, as under Obama. 

But John Sandweg, who ran ICE under Obama, said Biden will have "a legal duty to faithfully execute the laws" and "there’s still going to be a big disconnect between who the advocates think should be arrested, and the size of the agency, and legal requirements."

Biden's Day 1 challenges: The immigration reset

He wants to reverse course on Trump's immigration crackdown, but nothing about it will be simple.

Illustration of a passport surrounded by geometric shapes and lines. 

Immigration

The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown the NFL season into chaos, with all Denver Broncos quarterbacks sidelined, the San Francisco 49ers left without a home or practice ground, and much of the Baltimore Ravens team unavailable, per AP.

Driving the news: The Broncos confirmed in a statement Saturday night that quarterbacks Drew Lock, Brett Rypien and Blake Bortles were identified as "high-risk COVID-19 close contacts" and will follow the NFL's mandatory five-day quarantine, making them ineligible for Sunday's game against New Orleans.

Multiple outlets reported that Denver's No. 3 quarterback Jeff Driskel tested positive for the virus earlier this week.

In San Francisco, the Santa Clara County Public Health Department announced new measures to combat a surge in coronavirus cases in the area — including prohibiting starting Monday contact sports from holding games and practices for three weeks.

The 49ers said in a statement that officials are aware of the emergency directive affecting the team. "We are working with the NFL and our partners on operational plans and will share details as they are confirmed," the statement added.

In Baltimore, the Ravens added six more players to their COVID-19 list of those who have either tested positive for the coronavirus or have been deemed high-risk close contacts of an infected person.

The Ravens-Pittsburgh Steelers game originally scheduled for Thanksgiving Day has been rescheduled for a second time, from Sunday to Tuesday, after three Baltimore players tested positive for the virus.

In Pittsburgh, the Steelers announced they had placed running back James Conner on the Reserve/COVID-19 list Saturday. Three other Pittsburgh players were added to the list Friday.

The big picture: The NFL has said it will prohibit all in-person team activities on Monday and Tuesday "in response to the continuous increase in positivity rates throughout the country" and because "a number of players and staff celebrated the Thanksgiving holiday with out-of-town guests."

The coronavirus crisis has seen cases spike across America, with over 13.2 million people confirmed to have tested positive for the virus in the U.S. by Saturday night.

Broncos and 49ers the latest NFL teams impacted by coronavirus crisis

All the Broncos quarterbacks are sidelined and the 49ers can't train at home due to a new health order.

Denver Broncos quarterbacks Drew Lock (L), Brett Rypien and Jeff Driskel during a training session at UCHealth Training Center on August 17, 2020 in Englewood, Colorado. 

From left, Denver Broncos quarterbacks Drew Lock, Brett Rypien and Jeff Driskel during an August training session at UCHealth Training Center in Englewood, Colorado. Photo: Justin Edmonds/Getty Images

Sports

National Football League (NFL)

Science

Health Care

Coronavirus

Shifts in technology and media are changing the way we play, watch and understand sports. Business models are adapting and social change is forcing those in charge of teams and leagues to reconsider decades-old practices.

The U.S. health system faces critical questions about cost, access and equity. Technological advances and new discoveries about diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s are transforming patient care and reshaping public health.

Health

Tony Hsieh, the longtime ex-chief executive of Zappos, died on Friday after being injured in a house fire, his lawyer told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. He was 46.

The big picture: Hsieh was known for his unique approach to management, and following the 2008 recession his ongoing investment and efforts to revitalize the downtown Las Vegas area. 

After investing in Zappos in 1999 and running the online shoe seller, he sold the company to Amazon in 2009 for about $1.2 billion, where he stayed until stepping down in August.

Zappos has published a statement which reads, in part: 

The world has lost a tremendous visionary and an incredible human being. We recognize that not only have we lost our inspiring former leader, but many of you have also lost a mentor and a friend. Tony played such an integral part in helping create the thriving Zappos business we have today, along with his passion for helping to support and drive our company culture.

Tony’s kindness and generosity touched the lives of everyone around him, as his mantra was of “Delivering Happiness” to others. His spirit will forever be a part of Zappos, and we will continue to honor his memory by dedicating ourselves to continuing the work he was so passionate about.

Tony Hsieh, longtime Zappos CEO, dies at 46

In the last decade, he invested heavily in revitalizing the downtown Last Vegas area.

Business

Amazon

Technology

Axios Pro: Deals

From the Valley to D.C., Big Tech players like Facebook, Google and Amazon are under more scrutiny than ever as new technology develops and privacy and antitrust concerns grow in lockstep with companies’ ambitions.

Pro Rata

Axios Pro Rata

Airbnb and DoorDash plan to go public in the next few weeks, capping off a very busy year for IPOs. 

Other companies expected to complete IPOs before Christmas include fintech Affirm, gaming platform Roblox and e-commerce company Wish.

State of play: There are over 500 "unicorns," or upstart companies that are valued at $1 billion or more by venture capitalists, according to CB Insights. More than half of those are based in the U.S., and around two dozen are valued at more than $5 billion.

Among some of the better known names are ByteDance (owner of TikTok), SpaceX, Instacart, Epic Games (maker of Fortnite), Coinbase and Stripe.

Then there are the lesser-known cloud software companies seeking to become the next DataDog or Snowflake — valued at a combined $4.6 billion entering 2020, now trading with combined market cap of $130 billion.

"The real story of 2020 is that it's just the preview for 2021, especially if there's a vaccine and the economy roars back," a tech IPO banker tells Axios. 

Another banker, this one based in San Francisco, adds that he regularly participates in multiple "bake-offs" on the same day for large tech IPOs.

There's also been a recent boom in special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs), which represent another way for startups to go public — including those that might not be ready to do a traditional IPO, like many of the uncommercialized electric vehicle makers. 

Most of the SPACs formed in 2020 will seek out targets in 2021.

The bottom line: There used to be only a handful of unicorn IPOs per year, due to a limited pipeline, making each one a major Wall Street event. Those days are over.

The unicorn stampede is coming

Airbnb and DoorDash plan to go public in the next few weeks, and that's just the beginning.

Sunday's top stories