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WASHINGTON: The Senate on Monday (January 25) approved President Joe Biden’s nomination of Janet Yellen to be the nation’s 78th Secretary of the Treasury, making her the first woman to hold the position in the department’s 232-year history. .
Yellen, a former chairman of the Federal Reserve, was approved by the Senate on a vote of 84-15, becoming the third member of Biden’s cabinet to win confirmation.
He is expected to play a key role in getting Congressional approval of Biden’s $ 1.9 trillion coronavirus aid package, which faces strong opposition from Republicans who believe the price is too high.
READ: Yellen Wins Senate Panel Unanimous Vote for Treasury Despite Republican Taxes and Debt Concerns
Speaking to the full Senate before the vote, Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer noted that the former chairman of the Federal Reserve had bipartisan support.
Schumer said Yellen has an “impressive array of experience” and the support for her nomination reflects “how well prepared she is to handle the economic challenges of our time … particularly during this time of economic crisis.”
Prior to approval by the full Senate, Yellen had received the unanimous endorsement of the Senate Finance Committee.
Republicans on the panel said they had a number of political disagreements with Yellen and the Biden administration in areas such as raising taxes on corporations and the wealthy, but believed it was important to allow Biden to assemble his economic team quickly.
In his confirmation hearing before the Finance Committee last week, Yellen had argued that without swift action, the nation faced the threat of a “longer and more painful recession.”
READ: Yellen-Endorsed Policies Set To Help Risk Assets Raise Long-Term Concerns
He urged swift action on the coronavirus relief package that would provide an additional $ 1,400 in payments to people earning less than $ 75,000 annually, as well as provide expanded unemployment benefits, more help for small businesses, and support for cities. and states to prevent layoffs.
The plan also provides more support for the production and distribution of vaccines.
“You can take complicated economic theories and put them into understandable language, all while showing real heart for the millions of Americans who are suffering through no fault of their own,” Senator Ron Wyden said before the vote.
During his confirmation hearing, Yellen faced substantial rejection of the plan from Republicans who argued that the package was too big, especially at a time when the federal budget deficit has skyrocketed above $ 3 trillion. They also opposed measures such as raising the minimum wage to $ 15 an hour.
Senator Charles Grassley told Yellen that Biden’s plan represented a “long list of liberal structural economic reforms.”
READ: Yellen’s call to ‘act big’ reflects a lengthy rethinking of great public debt
As Secretary of the Treasury, Yellen, 74, will play a pivotal role in shaping and directing Biden’s economic policies. She enters the Treasury post after many years holding other important economic jobs, including as the first woman to serve as chair of the Federal Reserve from 2014 to 2018.
An economist by training who was a professor at the University of California at Berkeley, Yellen will represent the Biden administration on global financial affairs and will lead an expanding department whose responsibilities include overseeing IRS tax collection, formulating policy on regulations banking and administration contact function. with Wall Street.
In her previous positions, Yellen developed experience in areas ranging from labor markets to international finance. In public, he frequently expressed concern about how economic policies affect ordinary people, especially disadvantaged communities.
He earned high marks for his tenure at the Federal Reserve, where he employed historically low interest rates and massive bond purchases, two policies pioneered by his predecessor Ben Bernanke, to support the economy as it struggles out of a deep recession. Now it will face a new crisis caused by a global pandemic.
Since leaving the Fed, Yellen has been a distinguished fellow in residence at the Brookings Institution, a liberal think tank in Washington.
According to the financial disclosure forms you provided during your confirmation, you collected more than $ 7 million in conference fees during more than 50 in-person and virtual engagements over the past two years, including with many Wall Street firms.
Yellen has agreed to refrain from making decisions that would affect certain financial organizations.
