Biden nominates former Fed Chair Janet Yellen as treasury secretary

WASHINGTON - US President-elect Joe Biden on Monday unveiled his economic team, nominating Janet Yellen, former Federal Reserve chair, to lead the Treasury Department.

If confirmed by the Senate, Yellen would be the first woman to serve as US treasury secretary in the department's 231 years of history. She would also be the first person to have served as treasury secretary, chair of the Council of Economic Advisors, and chair of the Federal Reserve.

Biden also selected Neera Tanden, who currently serves as president & CEO of the Center for American Progress, as director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and named Cecilia Rouse, dean of the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, to lead the White House Council of Economic Advisers.

The two selections also will make history, as Tanden would be the first woman of color and first South Asian American to lead the OMB, and Rouse would become the first African American woman to lead the Council of Economic Advisers.

The president-elect also selected Wally Adeyemo, president of the Obama Foundation, as deputy secretary of the Treasury. If confirmed, Adeyemo would be the first Black deputy secretary of the Treasury.

Jared Bernstein and Heather Boushey were appointed as members of the Council of Economic Advisers. Bernstein served as chief economist to then-Vice President Biden in the Obama-Biden Administration before joining the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Boushey is a long-time economic counselor to Biden and currently serves as president & CEO of the Washington Center for Equitable Growth.

"President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris have chosen an accomplished, crisis-tested team, made up of historic trailblazers and representing a broad diversity of backgrounds and lived experiences, who will get to work on day one to build our economy back better - and ensure that every single American is in on the deal," Biden said in a statement.