President-elect Biden Officially Nominated
Yellen Starts Communication with First Tweet
Women of Color Appointed as CEA Chair and OMB Director
[Asia Economy New York=Correspondent Baek Jong-min] President-elect Joe Biden on the 30th (local time) nominated former Federal Reserve (Fed) Chair Janet Yellen as Secretary of the Treasury.
Biden's transition team announced in a statement that in addition to former Chair Yellen, Indian-American Neera Tanden, President of the Center for American Progress (NEC), was appointed as Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and Cecilia Rouse, a professor at Princeton University, was appointed as Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA).
Wally Adeyemo, former Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economics at the White House National Security Council (NSC), will serve as Deputy Secretary of the Treasury.
Economist Jared Bernstein, who worked with Biden during his vice presidency, and Heather Boushey, a longtime economic advisor to Biden, will assist Chair-designate Rouse as members of the CEA.
Biden referred to the COVID-19 pandemic situation and said, "This team will immediately provide economic relief for Americans during the economic crisis and help rebuild the economy better than ever."
Brian Deese, who was expected to be appointed as Chair of the White House National Economic Council (NEC) a day earlier, was not included in this announcement.
The focus of this economic team appointment is, as expected, former Chair Yellen. If Yellen passes the Senate confirmation process, she will become the first female Secretary of the Treasury in the 232-year history of the U.S. Treasury Department. She will also set a record by having served as Chair of the CEA, Chair of the Fed, and Secretary of the Treasury.
Yellen served as Chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers during the Bill Clinton administration. She also became the first female Fed Chair in 2014 during the Barack Obama administration, fulfilling her role as the "world's economic president." She was praised for successfully leading the normalization from crisis response measures taken during the global financial crisis.
Yellen began tweeting for the first time after her nomination, engaging with the public. She said, "We must restore the 'American Dream,'" and expressed her commitment, "As Secretary of the Treasury, I will work every day to rebuild this dream for everyone." She described the American Dream as a society where each individual can realize their potential and dream bigger for their children.
This appointment reflects Biden's plan to appoint a large number of people of color.
If confirmed, Tanden will become the first woman of color and the first South Asian American to serve as OMB Director. Professor Rouse will become the first Black woman and the fourth woman overall to serve as CEA Chair.
Bloomberg reported that if these three pass the Senate confirmation hearings, it will be the first time that women occupy the three highest economic positions requiring Senate approval: Secretary of the Treasury, OMB Director, and CEA Chair.
Adeyemo, the nominee for Deputy Secretary of the Treasury and a Nigerian immigrant, also has experience working at the financial firm BlackRock.
The Washington Post evaluated the economic team appointments as showing "remarkable diversity in background and experience, from progressive scholars to Wall Street," and noted that "some focused on 'worker-first' approaches in preparation for managing the economic crisis."
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