President-elect Joe Biden’s cabinet-level appointees were previously expected by many to be generally moderate in nature since the nominations were expected to be subject to bipartisan review, but now there’s no outside check against his more contentious nominees.
A Republican majority in the U.S. Senate, albeit narrow, would have served as a roadblock preventing Biden from getting every single pick he wanted for his cabinet. With the losses of GOP Georgia Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue in their runoff elections Jan. 5, Biden won’t need a single Republican vote for any nominee to be confirmed.