The New Administration

How is the cabinet approved

The process of making Cabinet appointments has its origins in the U.S. Constitution. Article II, Section 2 states that the president "shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States, whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by law.

Once a Cabinet candidate has been selected, and has cleared various background checks, the Office of the Executive Clerk sends the nomination to the Senate. There, it must be confirmed by the Senate committee that has jurisdiction (e.g., the Judiciary Committee confirms nominees for Attorney General.) Once the committee approves a nomination, it is voted on by the full Senate.

Because George W. Bush is not yet president, his choices for Cabinet positions are not technically nominated, but are designees. In its history, the Senate has rejected only nine of more than 500 nominees for Cabinet appointments.

The following positions recently named by Bush do not require Senate approval: National security adviser, chief economic adviser, White House chief of staff, White House press secretary and counselor to the president.

Condoleezza Rice, 46, is President-elect George W. Bush's choice to head the National Security Council. Rice is a longtime adviser to Bush on international policy issues, and was a prominent speaker at last summer's Republican National Convention in Philadelphia. She served previously as a top adviser to former President Bush on the Soviet Union.

A native of Birmingham, Alabama, she holds degrees in political science and international studies from Notre Dame University and the University of Denver. After the Bush administration, she worked as a senior fellow at the conservative Hoover Institution and most recently as provost of Stanford University.

COLIN POWELL - Secretary of state

Retired Gen. Colin Powell, 63, is President-elect George W. Bush's pick to head the State Department. Powell, Bush's first Cabinet announcement, is best known for his role as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. He has been active in Republican politics since retiring from the military.

Born in 1937 in New York the son of Jamaican immigrants, Powell graduated from City College of New York and earned a commission in the U.S. Army through ROTC. His rise to the top of the service included time served as an officer in the field in Vietnam, Korea and Germany as well as numerous positions on the White House staff.

Powell served as a military aide to the secretary of defense under presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. He worked as Reagan's national security adviser from 1987-88, and as the country's top military officer under presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton. He retired from the Army in 1993 and now serves on the board of several nonprofit organizations, including as chairman of America's Promise - The Alliance for Youth.

LAWRENCE LINDSEY - Chief economic adviser

Lawrence Lindsey, named head of the president's council of economic advisers, has been a leading advocate for the Bush campaign on economic and tax policy.

He is currently managing director of Economic Strategies, Inc. and a resident scholar and holder of the Arthur F. Burns chair at the American Enterprise Institute. He previously was a professor of Economics at Harvard University from 1984-89.

Lindsey was a member of the board of governors of the Federal Reserve System from 1991-97. From 1989-91 he was Special Assistant to the President for Policy Development under President Bush. He served from 1981-84 as senior staff economist for tax policy on the President's Council of Economic Advisors.

KAREN P. HUGHES - Counselor to the president

Karen Hughes, named counselor to the president, was Bush's campaign senior communications director and one his closest lieutenants. Along with campaign chief strategist Karl Rove and campaign manager Joe Allbaugh, she formed the Bush campaign’s so-called "Iron Triangle" of senior advisers.

A former Texas TV newswoman, she has been with Bush since his first gubernatorial election in 1994. She had previously worked in politics as the 1984 Reagan-Bush campaign’s press coordinator in the Lone Star State.

Bush on December 8 remarked of Hughes and Rove, "I hope a couple of my good friends will come up with me to Washington. I trust them, I trust their judgment."

ARI FLEISCHER - White House press secretary

Ari Fleischer, 40, is the Bush transition's press spokesman and Bush's choice for the White House press secretary. He served previously as the campaign's lead spokesman. He joined Bush in November 1999 after resigning from Elizabeth Dole's ending campaign. He also worked as deputy communications director on the 1992 Bush campaign and later served as communications director for the House Ways and Means Committee. He was the press secretary for Sen. Pete V. Domenici, R-N.M. in the late 1980s. A native of New York, Fleischer earned a bachelor's degree from Middlebury College in 1982.

ANDREW H. CARD JR. - White House chief of staff

Andrew Card is White House chief of staff designate for President-elect George W. Bush. A former deputy chief of staff and secretary of Transportation under President George Bush, he presided over the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia before joining the Bush campaign in July.

Card, 53, previously worked as the chief lobbyist in Washington for General Motors Corp. and before that he was president of the American Automobile Manufacturers Association from 1993-98.

He served as Transportation secretary from 1992-93 following eight years of service in the White House, starting under President Reagan in 1984. Card managed the pivotal New Hampshire primary campaign of then-Vice President Bush in 1988. Before his White House service, he was a Republican member of the Massachusetts state House before an unsuccessful run for the 1982 GOP gubernatorial nomination.

A Massachusetts-born engineer, Card studied at the University of South Carolina, the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

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