More team members announced
Communications, economics jobs named by Biden
President-elect Joe Biden has filled out his economics and communications teams, enlisting mostly women, including several of color, in a move that reflected his campaign pledge to create an administration that presents a diverse face to America as it tackles twin pandemic and economic crises.
Biden is expected to nominate Neera Tanden, the chief executive of the left-leaning Center for American Progress, as director of the influential Office of Management and Budget, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the nominations freely. Tanden, whose parents emigrated from India, would be the first woman of color to oversee the agency.
The president-elect also will appoint Princeton University labor economist Cecilia Rouse as chair of the three-member Council of Economic Advisers, with economists Jared Bernstein and Heather Boushey serving as the other members. Rouse, who is African American, would be the first woman of color to chair the counci.
Biden earlier chose economist Janet Yellen to be treasury secretary.
Jennifer Psaki, a veteran Democratic spokeswoman, will be Biden's White House press secretary, one of seven women who will fill the upper ranks of his administration's communications staff. It is the first time that all of the top aides tasked with speaking on behalf of an administration will be female.
Biden's press team will be led by Kate Bedingfield, a longtime Biden aide who served as his campaign communications director and will hold the same title in his White House.
Biden, 78, has frequently tried to use his political power to break barriers. His selection of Sen. Kamala Harris, D-calif., as a running mate will make her the first woman to be vice president, as well as the first Black person and first Asian American to hold that title.
The communication team includes women with deep ties to Biden.
Psaki, who did a stint as White House communications director under President Barack Obama, will become the face of the new Biden administration. She has been working on the transition team, and she has served as a spokeswoman for then- Secretary of State John Kerry.
Brian Deese, who served as a senior economic official during the Obama administration, will be named the director of the White House National Economic Council.
Rounding out the White House press team will be Karine JeanPierre, a campaign adviser and former top official with Moveon, as principal deputy press secretary. Pili Tobar, who worked for America's Voice, a liberal immigration policy group, and was a staffer for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., will become deputy White House communications director.