“The Secret Service is making some staff changes in the presidential detail that will guard President-elect Joe Biden, amid concerns from Biden allies that some current members were politically aligned with President Trump,” the Washington Post reports.

“As Biden readies his new administration, the Secret Service plans to bring back to the White House detail a handful of senior agents whom Biden knows well from their work more than four years ago guarding him and his family when he was vice president.”

President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team said at a press briefing on Wednesday that the Office of Management and Budget has been limiting support to the incoming administration, accusing the agency of “intentionally generated opacity,” Axios reports.

“President-elect Joe Biden plans to nominate two former senior officials to fill the Pentagon’s No. 2 and No. 3 jobs, transition officials said, further signaling the new administration’s intent to forge a more predictable foreign policy and revitalize agencies that Biden says have been ‘hollowed out’ by President Trump,” the Washington Post reports.

“The officials said Biden has selected Kathleen Hicks, a think tank strategist and former senior Pentagon official who is heading Biden’s Defense Department transition team, as his nominee to be deputy defense secretary.”

“The officials said Colin Kahl, who served as a top Pentagon official for the Middle East during the Obama administration and later as Biden’s national security adviser, would be nominated to become undersecretary of defense for policy, an influential role that helps shape major security decisions.”

Incoming national security adviser Jake Sullivan told NPR the outgoing Trump administration still isn’t providing information in the way President-elect Joe Biden’s lieutenants feel is appropriate for a team poised to take the reins of power.

Said Sullivan: “It kind of comes back to the lack of visibility that we have right now into a number of critical issues relating to military operations because of DoD’s obstruction and roadblocks, and that will mean that we are going to have to take time at the beginning of the administration after Jan. 20 to take a hard look at how we’re postured, and what threats we’re up against, and what continuing the drawdowns look like in the way of risk to force and other considerations.”

“The century-old tradition of the post-inauguration lunch is the latest pandemic casualty as COVID-19 continues to upend the ceremonies around the Jan. 20 swearing-in of President-elect Joe Biden,” Roll Call reports.

“The Inaugural Luncheon tradition, which has been around since the late 1800s, has evolved into a three-course meal and musical performance in the Capitol’s Statuary Hall for the new Cabinet, the Supreme Court and congressional leadership. The hall, however, will be quiet after this January’s scaled-back inauguration, the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies announced Tuesday.”

Vice President-elect Kamala Harris received her first dose of the Moderna coronavirus vaccine in D.C. Tuesday morning, Axios reports.

A new HuffPost/YouGov poll finds Democratic voters think President-elect Joe Biden should compromise to work with Republican lawmakers, 43% to 33%.

However, Republican voters think their party’s lawmakers should stick to their positions, 54% to 25%.

1100 Pennsylvania: “After having been blocked off on the reservation calendar for six months, over this past weekend rooms at the Trump Hotel D.C. became available to book the week of the presidential inauguration.”

President-elect Joe Biden told the New York Times that he will be able to work with Republicans because of his years working alongside them, despite a sharply divided Congress. 

Said Biden: “My leverage is, every senior Republican knows I’ve never once, ever, misled them. I’ll never publicly embarrass them.”

“President-elect Joe Biden’s historic choice for secretary of defense is running into hurdles on Capitol Hill, as key Democrats express concerns publicly and privately about whether installing a retired four-star general at the helm of the Pentagon further erodes civilian oversight of the military,” Politico reports.

“Rep. Seth Moulton, an influential member of the House Armed Services Committee, on Wednesday became the most prominent House Democrat to say he will not vote to grant retired Gen. Lloyd Austin a waiver to the law barring recently retired military officers from serving as defense secretary.”

“President-elect Joe Biden is considering nominating Boston Mayor Marty Walsh… Biden has a long personal relationship with Walsh, who spent decades as a union member and leader, most recently as head of Boston’s Building and Construction Trades Council. Walsh has won support from a number of prominent union leaders — most notably AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka,” Politico reports.

“But Walsh is a white man. And although Biden has already nominated the most diverse Cabinet in history, some groups are pushing for more representation among the five Cabinet posts that remain unfilled.”

“Hunter Biden ramped up business activities with European and Chinese tycoons as his father exited the vice presidency four years ago. For him it was a potential path to income; for the tycoons, the Biden family name promised to burnish their reputations,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“The dealings got the younger Mr. Biden a discounted stake in a private-equity firm in China and consulting arrangements with a Romanian property magnate and overall allowed him to maintain a globe-trotting lifestyle, according to interviews, documents and communications reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. A Chinese energy tycoon gave Mr. Biden a 2.8-carat diamond, and entities linked to him wired nearly $5 million to Mr. Biden’s law firm, according to an investigation by Senate Republicans.”

“Less than a month before he is sworn in, President-elect Joe Biden has not yet selected his attorney general, a key role given how politicized the department became under President Donald Trump and while federal officials are investigating Biden’s son,” Bloomberg reports.