Biden builds key economic, media advisory teams
WILMINGTON, Del. — Presidentelect Joe Biden on Monday announced his senior economic team, including his plans to nominate the first woman to head the Treasury Department as well as several liberal economists and policy specialists who established their credentials during the previous two Democratic administrations.
Biden also fortified his victory Monday, with both Arizona and Wisconsin certifying that he defeated President Trump in those states.
In a statement, Biden said he would nominate Janet Yellen, the UC Berkeley professor and former Federal Reserve chair, to lead the Treasury Department, and former Clinton and Obama adviser Neera Tanden to serve as director of the Office of Management and Budget. He also named Wally Adeyemo, a former Obama administration official and the first CEO of the former president’s nonprofit foundation, as his nominee for deputy treasury secretary. He also unveiled his White House economic team, consisting of economists Cecilia Rouse, Jared Bernstein and Heather Boushey.
Biden, who has placed a premium on diversity in his selection of Cabinet nominees and key advisers, is looking to notch a few firsts with his economic team selections. Yellen would be the first woman to lead the Treasury Department and Adeyemo the first Black deputy secretary. Tanden would be the first woman of color to lead OMB and Rouse the first woman of color to chair the Council of Economic Advisers.
“As we get to work to control the virus, this is the team that will deliver immediate economic relief for the American people during this economic crisis and help us build our economy back better than ever,” Biden said.
Yellen became Federal Reserve chair in 2014 when the economy was still recovering from the devastating Great Recession. If confirmed, she would become the first woman to lead the Treasury Department in its nearly 232year history.
Tanden, the president and CEO of the liberal think tank Center for American Progress, was the director of domestic policy for the Obama-Biden presidential campaign.
But Senate Republicans are signaling they’ll oppose her confirmation. Late Sunday a spokesman for GOP Sen. John Cornyn of Texas tweeted that Tanden “stands zero chance of being confirmed.”
Biden also has assembled an allfemale senior communications team for the White House. His campaign communications director Kate Bedingfield will serve as White House communications director. Jen Psaki, a longtime Democratic spokeswoman, will be his press secretary.
Four of the seven top communications roles at the White House will be filled by women of color, and it’s the first time the senior White House communications team will be entirely female.