Biden to introduce top economic advisers as virus threat worsens
US President-elect Joe Biden will formally introduce his top economic policy advisers on Tuesday as his administration prepares to take power amid a slowing economic recovery hampered by the resurgent coronavirus pandemic.
Biden will appear at an event in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, alongside his selections for senior roles, including his nominee for U.S. Treasury secretary, former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen. The team's makeup reinforces Biden's view that a more aggressive approach to the pandemic is required. The advisers have all expressed support for government stimulus to maximize employment, reduce economic inequality and help women and minorities, who have been disproportionately hurt by the economic downturn.
Other picks include Cecilia Rouse, an economist at Princeton University, as chair of the Council of Economic Advisers; economists Heather Boushey and Jared
Bernstein as council members; and Neera Tanden, chief executive of the liberal Center for American Progress think tank, as head of the Office of Management and Budget.
The transition to a Biden administration has proceeded despite Republican President Donald Trump's false claims that he lost the election as a result of voter fraud. On Monday, Biden received his first full classified intelligence briefing since winning the Nov. 3 election, after Trump's refusal to concede delayed the formal transition process for weeks.
Arizona and Wisconsin, two battleground states where Trump has pursued fruitless efforts to overturn the results, each certified Biden's victory on Monday.
The certification of vote totals is typically a formality, but the process took on added significance amid Trump's baseless allegations.
Trump has pursued a series of legal challenges in numerous states, although none has thus far resulted in any meaningful gains for the president. Most of the lawsuits have been rejected by judges, who have expressed skepticism about the claim that the election results are illegitimate. The Electoral College, which selects the presidential winner based on state-by-state results, is scheduled to meet on Dec. 14. Biden, the Democratic former vice president, will take office on Jan. 20. Biden's latest nominations would place several women in top economic roles, reflecting his commitment to increasing diversity at the highest levels of the federal government.
Rouse would be the first Black woman to lead the Council of Economic Advisers, which advises the president on economic policy; Tanden would be the first woman of color to run the OMB; and Yellen would be the first female Treasury secretary.
The coronavirus pandemic has killed more than 267,000 people in the United States, with nationwide cases and hospitalizations reaching record highs in recent weeks.
Meanwhile, Neera Tanden, President-elect Joe Biden's outspoken nominee to head the Office of Management and Budget, faces a challenge winning Senate confirmation after a Washington career in which she has crossed powerful figures on both the right and left. Biden unveiled many of his top economic nominees on Monday, including Treasury Secretary nominee Janet Yellen.
Tanden, 50, chief executive of the left- leaning Center for American Progress (CAP) think tank, and a longtime aide to former Secretary of State and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, would be the first woman of color to lead the OMB, which acts as the gatekeeper for the $4 trillion federal budget.
Republican Senator Tom Cotton called Tanden "a partisan hack" on Twitter for once referring to Republican Senator Susan Collins as "the worst." Tanden is "unfit to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate," he wrote.
She has "zero chance" of being confirmed, warned Drew Brandewie, communications director for Republican Senator John Cornyn, because of her "endless stream of disparaging comments about the Republican senators whose votes she'll need."