Federal Reserve Vice Chair Lael Brainard is a top contender to become the head of the White House’s National Economic Council, according to people familiar with the deliberations.
President Joe Biden has not made a final decision on who will fill the role being vacated by Brian Deese, the people said, noting that interviews were still ongoing.
Other candidates include Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo, Biden adviser Gene Sperling, former Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell, former Deputy National Security Advisor Daleep Singh and Bharat Ramamurti, the council’s current deputy.
The president’s decision isn’t expected imminently, one of the people said. Deese, who has been in the role for two years, hasn’t given a firm date for his departure.
If Brainard is appointed, it would open a slot on the Fed’s seven-member Board at a time when policymakers are debating how much more to raise interest rates. Biden would need to find a successor who could win the backing of the Senate.
That Brainard was a frontrunner was first reported by the Washington Post.
The move comes as Biden prepares for a turnover of top aides. Chief of Staff Ron Klain is due to leave in the coming weeks and is set to be replaced by Jeff Zients, a former NEC director who also served as Biden’s Covid czar.
Cecilia Rouse, who leads the Council of Economic Advisers, is also planning on leaving shortly, which will mean Biden has to replace another top economic aide.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen — whose job Brainard was once a serious candidate for — also committed in a private December meeting with Biden to staying in her role, at least for now.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell and Brainard have led the Fed as it raised interest rates over the past year at the steepest pace in four decades to curb inflation that officials mistakenly thought would prove transitory. While Brainard has been in sync with Powell on all of the Fed’s rate decisions, she has in recent months offered a public tone that was more mindful of the risks to economic growth from Fed tightening, or more favorable to the idea that inflation is coming down.