Trump-Biden transition: Attorney Sidney Powell back at White House Sunday

Incoming White House senior adviser and director of the Office of Public Engagement Cedric Richmond has tested positive for COVID-19, Biden’s transition team said Thursday, noting that while Richmond did travel to Georgia for Biden’s event on Tuesday, he did not travel with Biden and was not in close contact with him as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Incoming White House communications director Kate Bedingfield said in a statement Biden had a PCR test this morning that came back negative.

“Richmond was not in close contact, as defined by the CDC, with the President-elect. President-elect Biden underwent PCR testing for COVID-19 today and COVID-19 was not detected. On Tuesday, December 15th, Richmond traveled to Georgia for a campaign event with the Ossoff and Warnock campaigns. Neither the candidates nor any member of the Ossoff or Warnock campaign teams were in close contact with Richmond, nor were Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, Stacey Abrams or Nikema Williams, who also attended the Tuesday event,” the statement reads.

“Richmond’s interactions with the President-elect happened in open air, were masked and totaled less than 15 consecutive minutes, the CDC’s timeframe for close contact. Richmond traveled to Georgia on his own and not with the President-elect," it added.

Richmond developed symptoms on Wednesday and received two positive tests -- one rapid test on Wednesday and one PCR test Thursday. He will quarantine for 14 days and will produce two negative PCR tests before he returns to any in-person work in Congress or on the transition, according to Bedingfield.

News of Richmond's diagnosis could raise more questions about the timing of Biden's own vaccination, which is expected next week. Public health experts have said that Biden should be vaccinated as soon as possible for national security reasons.

"The sooner we can protect the incoming president, the better that would be," Dr. Leana Wen, a public health expert at George Washington University and a former Baltimore City health commissioner, told ABC News. "And the faster he can develop immunity, which is ultimately the goal."

The Louisiana Democrat is the 39th member of Congress to test positive for COVID-19, or be presumed positive, according to an ABC News tally. Several others have tested positive for COVID-19 antibodies.

-ABC News' Molly Nagle and Ben Siegel

Biden is expected to nominate Michael Regan, the leader of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, as his pick for administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, two sources familiar with the transition’s planning tell ABC News. 

If confirmed, Regan, 44, would be the first African American man to head the agency.

Biden has laid out an ambitious climate agenda that Regan would play a key role in carrying out, including addressing climate change, environmental inequality, and moving the country towards achieving a 100% clean energy economy and net-zero emissions no later than 2050. 

According to a source familiar with the president elect’s thinking, Biden was impressed by Regan’s leadership at the Department of Environmental Quality and his creation of the state's environmental justice and equity board to give communities disproportionately impacted by environmental inequality a role in the state’s environmental action. 

The source also pointed to Regan’s work holding polluters to account, particularly his role in reaching the largest coal ash cleanup settlement in U.S. history against Duke Energy.

-ABC News' Molly Nagle

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., told reporters Thursday she's thrilled that Biden is slated to nominate Rep. Deb Haaland to the head the interior department, complimenting him on the choice. 

"I think Biden's climate appointments actually represent progress -- real progress," Ocasio-Cortez said. 

"Congresswoman Haaland would not just represent the first native woman in charge of federal lands, but she brings a philosophy of both a commitment on climate and justice, and the historic weight of having a native woman that was a progressive one in charge of our federal lands -- I mean it's pretty enormous," she added.

Asked if she's concerned that the House could be losing yet another progressive voice to the administration, narrowing Democrats' already slim majority, Ocasio-Cortez commended Haaland's work as being a "builder" within the party and said she's certain whoever might replace her in Congress will be just as worthy.

-ABC News' Mariam Khan

Biden is expected to name Rep. Deb Haaland his nominee for interior secretary, according to sources familiar with his plans -- a historic move that would make her the first Native American to lead the department managing public lands and relations with the country's Indigenous people.

A member of the Laguna Pueblo tribe, Haaland, if confirmed, would lead an agency that manages roughly 450 million acres of public land in the United States -- including national parks and wildlife habitats -- along with education and health programs for the 574 federally recognized tribes. She marks another historic pick in Biden's Cabinet he has touted as "full of firsts."

She would also play a major role in implementing Biden's climate agenda -- and carrying out his pledge to limit new oil and gas drilling on public lands. 

Haaland is the third House Democrat to join the Biden administration, which will leave the party's already thin House majority even slimmer in the opening months of the Biden administration.

Democrats currently hold 222 seats in the House, with two races still outstanding, and would hold just 219 seats when Haaland, Reps. Cedric Richmond and Marcia Fudge leave Congress. 

Still, House Democratic leaders publicly signaled this week that they had no objections to Haaland's selection, with Speaker Nancy Pelosi supporting the pick in a statement on Wednesday.

Progressives and indigenous groups applauded the news of Haaland's selection Thursday. 

"With the historic appointment of Deb Haaland as Interior Secretary, Joe Biden chose the most qualified person and put a true movement progressive in his Cabinet. We're thrilled that Deb will fight alongside Janet Yellen, Xavier Becerra, and others for the ambitious policy priorities that Biden campaigned on," Stephanie Taylor of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee said in a statement.

Hilary C. Tompkins, who served under President Barack Obama as the first Native American to hold the position of solicitor in the department, called the decision "historic."

"Rep. Haaland will bring her wisdom, lived experiences as a Native woman, and great leadership to Interior for the betterment of our public lands and waters, the trust relationship, and wildlife protection," Tompkins said.

Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., the chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, told ABC News that Haaland will bring an "outside perspective" to the Interior Department, and dismissed early GOP criticism based on her support for the Green New Deal and other progressive proposals.

"Some senators can saber-rattle, but she’s going to get confirmed," he said. "It's difficult to stand in front of history and try to stop it."

-ABC News' Benjamin Siegel and Molly Nagle