Joe Biden nominee Janet Yellen would be first woman to head US Treasury

US President-elect Joe Biden’s US Treasury Department nominee would be the first woman ever to hold the role.

In a statement, Mr Biden said he would nominate Janet Yellen, the former Federal Reserve chair, to lead the Treasury Department.

Former Clinton and Obama adviser Neera Tanden is being nominated to serve as director of the Office of Management and Budget.

He also named Wally Adeyemo, a former Obama administration official and the first CEO of the former president's nonprofit foundation, as his nominee for deputy treasury secretary.

He also unveiled his White House economic team, consisting of economists Cecilia Rouse, Jared Bernstein and Heather Boushey.

Mr Biden, who has placed a premium on diversity in his selection of Cabinet nominees and key advisers, is looking to notch a few firsts with his economic team selections.

Ms Yellen would be the first woman to lead the Treasury Department and Adeyemo the first Black deputy secretary.

Ms Tanden would be the first woman of colour to lead OMB and Ms Rouse the first woman of colour to chair the Council of Economic Advisers.

"As we get to work to control the virus, this is the team that will deliver immediate economic relief for the American people during this economic crisis and help us build our economy back better than ever," Mr Biden said in a statement.

Ms Yellen became Federal Reserve chair in 2014 when the economy was still recovering from the devastating Great Recession.

In the late 1990s, she was President Bill Clinton's top economic adviser during the Asian financial crisis.

If confirmed, Ms Yellen would become the first woman to lead the Treasury Department in its nearly 232-year history.

She would inherit an economy with still-high unemployment, escalating threats to small businesses and signs that consumers are retrenching as the pandemic restricts or discourages spending.

Ms Tanden, the president and CEO of the liberal think tank Center for American Progress, has been tapped to serve as the director of the Office of Management and Budget.

She was the director of domestic policy for the Obama-Biden presidential campaign, but she first made her mark in the Clinton orbit.

She served as policy director for Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign. Before that, she served as legislative director in Clinton's Senate office and deputy campaign manager and issues director for Ms Clinton's 2000 Senate campaign.

Ms Tanden was a senior policy adviser in the Bill Clinton administration.

If confirmed, she would be the first woman of color and the first South Asian woman to lead the OMB, the agency that oversees the federal budget.

But Senate Republicans are signaling they'll oppose confirmation. Late Sunday a spokesman for Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas tweeted that Ms Tanden "stands zero chance of being confirmed."

And Josh Holmes, a political adviser to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, tweeted that confirmation was likely doomed. Republicans hold the edge in the current Senate, although next year's majority won't be decided until January 5 runoffs in two races involving Republican incumbents in Georgia.