President-elect appointed Jessica Hertz to serve as Staff Secretary

Listen to this article

On Wednesday, the transition team of Biden-Harris announced that President-elect has appointed the former Facebook attorney Jessica Hertz to serve as staff secretary of Joe Biden administration. Hertz is a longtime Biden aide and served as a director and associate general counsel for Facebook’s regulatory team in Washington, D.C. The incoming Biden administration has experienced criticism from both sides of the political aisle about its appointment of former Big Tech employees at a time when the industry is facing unprecedented antitrust scrutiny. Hertz was named to the role as part of a wave of appointments to several offices in Biden’s White House. The transition team also said that 61% of its appointees are women and 54% are people of color, in keeping with its pledge to build a diverse White House.

President-elect issued a statement and said, “Building a diverse team will lead to better outcomes and more effective solutions to address the urgent crises facing our nation. The appointees named today will draw from their expertise and life experiences to help us build the country back better. Moving forward together, there’s nothing we can’t accomplish”. Hertz had served as the Biden-Harris team’s general counsel since September, advising the president-elect on potential conflicts of interest. She also worked closely with Biden during his stint in the Obama administration, holding the position of principal deputy counsel in the office of the vice president. It is noteworthy that the appointment of Hertz to the role of staff secretary came just weeks after a bipartisan group of 48 state attorneys general and the Federal Trade Commission filed antitrust lawsuits against the social media giant.

Earlier this month, Prominent Republicans, including Sens. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley spoke out after the Biden transition team appointed several former employees of Facebook, Twitter, and Google to administration roles. GOP leaders have alleged prominent tech firms of exhibiting bias against conservatives. Buck said, “We must take action against Google and Facebook for their anticompetitive practices. Now is not the time to cozy up to Big Tech”. Revolving Door Project director Jeff Hauser informed a news outlet in September and said, “The ultimate arbiter for ethics for the Biden transition was a senior regulatory official for Facebook up until a few months ago, at a time when progressives and the Biden campaign are fighting against the right-wing agenda of Facebook”.