Newsman: President-elect Biden is set to formally unveil a list of people he’s planning to nominate to key economic roles today, including a number of nominees who would represent historic firsts if confirmed by the Senate. He will disclose name of his economic team. Meanwhile, Biden announces his all female communication team on Sunday night. The incoming administration is taking shape as as Biden’s campaign pledges a diverse administration.
Jen Psaki, former President Obama’s White House communications director, will assume to be on podium as the White House press secretary. And Kate Bedingfield, who served as deputy campaign manager and communications director on the Biden campaign, comes aboard as the White House’s top communications aide.
Chief among them is Janet Yellen, the President-elect’s expected choice to head the Treasury Department. Already the first woman to have chaired the Federal Reserve, Yellen would carry the same distinction if the Senate confirms her as Biden’s Treasury secretary.
Biden’s set to nominate Adewale “Wally” Adeyemo to serve under Yellen as the deputy Treasury secretary. If confirmed, Adeyemo, the current president of the Obama Foundation in Chicago, would be the first Black person to hold that powerful position.
The selection of Cecilia Rouse, a Princeton economist, to lead the Council of Economic Advisers, is a historical marker just the same as some. Rouse will become the first woman of color to chair the council. Last week Biden announced several other administration picks including the first woman to lead the US intelligence community, in Avril Haines, and Alejandro Mayorkas, who would be the first Latino and immigrant to helm the Department of Homeland Security.
Biden is also planning to name Neera Tanden to lead the Office of Management and Budget, two people familiar with the appointment said. The chief executive of the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, and a former top aide to Hillary Clinton, Tanden would be the first woman of color to oversee the agency. But she already is facing her opposition. The first round of pushback against Tanden’s nomination came not from the left, but from the communications director for Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas.
In addition to Psaki and Bedingfield, Biden also announced on Sunday that Karine Jean-Pierre, a senior adviser on the Biden campaign who later served as chief of staff to Harris, will serve as principal deputy press secretary.
Jean-Pierre is a progressive favorite and former chief public affairs officer at MoveOn.org, the liberal activist hub. Symone Sanders, who was a senior adviser on Biden’s campaign in 2020 after serving as a national press secretary for Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign, will join the White House as a senior adviser and chief spokesperson for Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.
