The Biden administration nominated a team of “liberal and centrist economic advisers” to help him steer America’s recovery. Here are the administration’s top picks.
Key Takeaways
- President Biden won the 2020 election and nominated former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen to be his treasury secretary.
- Shalanda Young was confirmed as the first Black woman to lead the Office of Management and Budget.
- The chair of the Council on Economic Affairs is labor economist Cecilia Rouse.
Treasury Secretary
The Biden administration nominated former Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen for Treasury secretary Yellen as the first woman to hold the job. Yellen is a well-respected economist who was also the first woman to lead the Federal Reserve from 2014 to 2018. In her new position, she plays a leading role in shaping economic policy as the U.S. continues to recover from the turbulence caused by the 2020 economic crisis.
Yellen’s top deputy at the Treasury Department is Adewale “Wally” Adeyemo, a veteran of the Obama administration and an expert on macroeconomic policy and consumer protection with national security experience.
Director of the Office of Management and Budget
The Office of Management and Budget, one of the largest of the Executive Branch, helps the President develop and administer the federal budget. For the director of the Office of Management and Budget, Biden originally chose Neera Tanden, head of the think tank Center for American Progress. Her nomination was subsequently withdrawn when it appeared she didn’t have enough support to carry the nomination.
On Nov. 24, 2021, Biden nominated Shalanda Young as Director of the Office of Management and Budget. Young had been serving as Acting Director since March 24, 2021. She was confirmed as Director on March 15, 2022, becoming the first Black woman to lead the agency.
Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers
Biden chose Cecilia Rouse, a Princeton University labor economist, to chair the Council of Economic Advisers (a role Yellen occupied during Clinton’s administration). Rouse has previously been confirmed by the Senate as a member of the CEA in 2009. She was confirmed as chair on March 2, 2021. She is the first African American to lead the CEA.
Rouse was joined on the CEA by two campaign economic advisers, Jared Bernstein and Heather Boushey. Bernstein previously served as the chief economist to Biden in the first years of the Obama administration, while Boushey is an economist focused on economic inequality and the CEO of the Washington Center for Equitable Growth.