President Biden Announces Intent to Nominate Key Roles for the Department of Treasury

Today, President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate Nellie Liang, Lily Batchelder, Ben Harris, and Jonathan Davidson to serve in key roles at the Department of Treasury. 

Under Secretary for Domestic Finance – Nellie Liang

Nellie Liang was a Senior Fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution.  She also was a Visiting Scholar at the International Monetary Fund’s Monetary and Capital Markets Department, Lecturer at the Yale School of Management, and a member of the Congressional Budget Office’s Panel of Economic Advisors.  Over three decades at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Liang held a range of positions, including as the first Director of the Division of Financial Stability from 2010 to 2017.  In that position, she oversaw the development of financial stability policies related to risks in financial firms and financial markets, and interactions of financial policies with monetary policy.  Her recent research has focused on the financial system and macroeconomic growth. Liang received a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Maryland and a B.A. in economics from the University of Notre Dame.

Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy – Lily Batchelder

Lily Batchelder is the Robert C. Kopple Family Professor of Taxation at NYU School of Law and an affiliated professor at the NYU Wagner School of Public Service. From 2014 to 2015, she served as Deputy Director of the White House National Economic Council and Deputy Assistant to the President under President Obama. There, she was responsible for tax and budget issues, including tax reform, retirement policy, and low-income benefits. From 2010 to 2014, she served as Majority Chief Tax Counsel for the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance, where she led Chairman Baucus’s work on tax issues, including tax reform and the fiscal cliffs. Batchelder’s scholarship and teaching focus on personal income taxes, wealth transfer taxes, business tax reform, retirement savings, social insurance, and the effects of fiscal policy on economic insecurity, income disparities, and intergenerational mobility. Before joining NYU in 2005, Batchelder was an associate at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, director of community affairs for a New York state senator, and a client advocate for a small social services organization in Ocean Hill-Brownsville, Brooklyn. Batchelder received an AB in Political Science with honors and distinction from Stanford University, an MPP from the Harvard Kennedy School, and a JD from Yale Law School.

Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy – Ben Harris

Ben Harris was a research associate professor and Executive Director at the Kellogg Public-Private Interface at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. Harris also served as the chief economist with Results for America and the senior economic advisor to the Biden Campaign. During the Obama-Biden Administration, Harris was the chief economist and economic adviser to Vice President Biden and a senior economist with the Council of Economic Advisers. Harris has held research positions at several think tanks, including the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute. He holds a PhD in economics from George Washington University, masters’ degrees from Cornell and Columbia Universities, and a BA from Tufts University. He was also a Fulbright Scholar to Namibia. 

Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs – Jonathan Davidson

Jonathan Davidson has worked on Capitol Hill for more than two decades. He has served as Senator Michael Bennet’s Chief of Staff since 2011. Previous to that, he served as Chief of Staff to Senator Paul Sarbanes and Representative John Sarbanes, and Chief Counsel to Senator Mark Warner. During the transition, Davidson served as the Biden-Harris Transition’s Economic Nominations Confirmation team lead. Davidson is also an Adjunct Professor at American University’s School of Public Policy, periodically teaching a class on the Legislative Process. Davidson clerked for Judge William Sessions, Chief Judge of the Federal District Court of Vermont. Jonathan is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Georgetown University Law Center.

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