Good morning. Welcome to Axios today. It's Wednesday, December 16th. I'm Erica Pandey, filling in for Nialaboodoo. Here's how we're making you smarter today. What's standing in the way of COVID-heard

immunity? Plus, how virtual reality could help fight racism. First, though, today's one big thing.

We pull back the curtain on Joe Biden's latest cabinet picks.

This week we're hearing about even more cabinet nominations for the Biden administration.

Notably yesterday we heard former South Bend mayor and 2020 presidential candidate Pete Buda judge was nominated for

Transportation Secretary and he would be the first openly gay cabinet member if

confirmed. Axia's political reporter Hans Nichols joins me now and he has a scoop on another pick for the cabinet.

Good morning Hans. Good morning. So let's get right to it. What's the scoop?

Well which one? I mean there's been so many moving parts in the last 24 hours. The cabinet has been a puzzle and Pete was part of that puzzle.

They finally found a spot for him and now they're casting about for even more diversity.

So I think what you're referring to is Michael Regan

to be the EPA administrator.

We're really close to saying that's a totally done final deal,

but we're just not quite there yet.

And Hans, another thread you've been reporting on is a possible Republican at the Cabinet.

Yeah, they are absolutely looking at bringing a Republican into the Cabinet, probably at Commerce.

There's some pros and cons here.

The pros is you kind of get a reach out to Republicans,

send them and all of the branch,

let them know that you understand their concerns.

The cons are, who is this person going to be?

I mean, if it's a Meg Whitman type Republican, a never Trump Republican,

...