By Kate Deming
Janet Yellen was nominated for the position of Secretary of the Treasury by President-Elect Joe Biden in November 2020. She was born and raised in Brooklyn, and went on to graduate from Brown University summa cum laude with a degree in Economics. Yellen has been breaking the glass ceiling for some time, as she went on to pursue her Ph.D. from Yale and was the only female in the doctoral class.
Following her graduation she was an assistant professor at Harvard University, until she was offered a position at University of California at Berkeley to teach Macroeconomics in 1980. Former President Bill Clinton appointed her to be a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, and she later became one of Clinton’s top advisors, being appointed to be the Chair of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers. In 1999, Yellen went back to teaching at Berkeley and maintained this position until 2004, when she was appointed to the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, where she was majorly credited for steering the country away from recession during the financial crisis of 2007. In 2010, Yellen was appointed to become the vice chair of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. Unlike other economists and members of the Federal Reserve, Yellen has been described as extremely passionate about the issue of unemployment rather than inflation. This sparked controversy among Republicans in the Senate as Former president Obama nominated Janet Yellen to be the Chair of the US Federal Reserve System. Although Yellen was confirmed in 2013 with the smallest margin in history, controversy was stirred up among Republicans. GOP Senator for Alabama Richard Shelby stated in an interview that he had voted against her due to her “inflationary bias.”
Since her appointment, she has gained support and respect from politicians and legislators across the political spectrum. Yet, when it came time for President Trump to decide whether to renominate Janet Yellen, controversy arose. In a interview with the President of the British Academy, Nicholas Stern, Yellen responded to being asked if she expected another financial crisis, “You know probably that would be going too far, but I do think we’re much safer and I hope that it will not be in our lifetimes and I don’t believe it will be,” Many believe that this was a factor in President’s Trump’s decision to nominate Jerome Powell to succeed her.
Yellen left the reserve, and soon became a fellow at the Brookings Institution. If Yellen is confirmed, she will be the first woman in the history of the United States to be Secretary of the Treasury. Yellen has spent her life fighting for others. In an interview with economics professor, Simon Bowmaker, in 2013 she stated, “I care about people….. I discovered that economics was of enormous relevance to our lives and had the potential to make the world a better place.”
Source: Center for American Progress (CAP)
Neera Tanden was nominated for the position of Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) by President-Elect Joe Biden in November of 2020. Tanden would be breaking lots of barriers, the same as many nominees of the new administrations cabinet, but would be the first Indian-American and female to hold this position. Neera Tanden was born to Indian immigrant parents in Bedford, Massachusetts. Despite being on welfare for a few years during her childhood, Tanden graduated from University of California at Los Angeles with a Bachelor of Science degree and later went on to attend Yale Law School.
Following her graduation, Tanden worked in think tanks and with multiple Senate campaigns in Washington, but was eventually named the Associate Director for Domestic Policy in the Clinton Administration, as well as the senior policy adviser to Hillary Clinton. In 1999 Tanden became Hillary Clinton’s deputy campaign member for her Senate campaign, resulting in a victory.
After the nomination of then senator Barack Obama in 2008, Tanden was one of the first people to be chosen to be appointed domestic policy director for the election campaign. After the election, Tanden was appointed as a senior advisor to Kathleen Sebelius, who was then Secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services. Tanden was extremely involved in the mechanics of the Affordable Care Act, and worked with the Obama administration to draft healthcare legislation, and helped get it through Congress.
Neera Tanden was named the CEO of the Center for American Progress, also known as the CAP, in 2011. Tanden also helped to found CAP in 2003. The mission of the organization states, “The Center for American Progress is an independent nonpartisan policy institute that is dedicated to improving the lives of all Americans…” Following President Trump’s win in 2016, Tanden spoke out about the role CAP would be playing, stating, “Our goal is to be the central hub of the Trump resistance, to hold Trump accountable for the promises he made.”
Tanden has sparked major controversy due to her active twitter usage against Senate Republicans from both sides of the political spectrum. Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas called Tanden “radioactive,” as well as Biden’s “worst nominee so far”, due to her tweets. Yet Politico stated in a recent report, “Democrats see her as effective at communicating the president’s annual budget proposal to Congress and detailing the president’s funding wish list and priorities. But her prolific, combative use of Twitter since joining the liberal Center for American Progress has drawn strong criticism from Republican senators.” Recently, Tanden has deleted most of her tweets criticizing Republican Senators as her confirmation process approaches.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/12/08/joe-biden-administration-cabinet-picks-442621#14
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janet_Yellen
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Janet-Yellen
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-55136504
https://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/center-american-progress-tanden-trump-232667
https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/02/politics/kfile-neera-tanden-deleted-tweets-slamming-gop/index.html