President-elect Joe Biden is set to unveil his economic team Tuesday amid growing concerns about the pace of the nation's economic recovery as governments reimpose restrictions to curtail the surging coronavirus pandemic.
Biden has assembled a team of liberal advisers who have long focused on the nation’s workers and government efforts to address economic inequality, as unemployment remains high and as the COVID-19 outbreak widens the gulf between average Americans and the nation's most well off. The virus, which has killed more than 268,000 Americans, is resurgent across the country amid holiday travel and colder weather sending people indoors.
Janet Yellen, announced Monday as Biden’s nominee for treasury secretary, served as chair of the Federal Reserve from 2014 to 2018, when she placed a greater emphasis than previous Fed chairs on maximizing employment and less focus on price inflation. Biden also named Cecilia Rouse as chair of his Council of Economic Advisers, and Heather Boushey and Jared Bernstein as members of the council.
President-elect Joe Biden speaks at The Queen theater, Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2020, in Wilmington, Del. (AP PhotoCarolyn Kaster)
All are outspoken supporters of more government stimulus spending to boost growth — which Biden embraced on the campaign trail — though their proposals could face a difficult reception in Congress, which has stalemated on a new round of economic relief for months now.
The prospects for a large-scale deal could hang on the outcome of runoff elections for both Georgia Senate seats. Victories in both would give Democrats control of the chamber — and its agenda —- by the slimmest of margins, but Republican victories will quickly test Biden and his team's ability to negotiate across the aisle to deliver on their promised relief for Americans.
The event comes a day after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said that the pace of improvement in the economy has moderated in recent months with future prospects remaining “extraordinarily uncertain.”
FILE - In this Monday, Nov. 10, 2014, file photo, Neera Tanden, president of Center for American Progress, speaks during an introduction for New Start New Jersey at NJIT in Newark, N.J. President-elect Joe Biden is expected to name several of his most senior economic advisers in the coming days. Tanden could be one of those named. (AP PhotoMel Evans, File)
In remarks released by the Fed on Monday, Powell said that the increase in new COVID-19 cases both in the United States and abroad was “concerning and could prove challenging for the next few months. A full economic recovery is unlikely until people are confident that it is safe to reengage in a broad range of activities.”
It also comes as Steven Mnuchin, President Donald Trump's treasury secretary, announced last month that over the objections of the Fed that he would not grant extensions for five lending programs being operated jointly by the Fed and the Treasury Department that are scheduled to expire on Dec. 31, including backstops for corporate and municipal debt and the purchase of loans for small businesses and nonprofits.
Yellen, if confirmed by the Senate, would be the first woman to serve as treasury secretary, after breaking ground as the first woman to chair the Fed. Rouse would be the first Black woman to lead the CEA in its 74 years of existence. And Neera Tanden, Biden’s pick for director of the Office of Management and Budget, would be the first South Asian American in that job.
Biden also selected Wally Adeyemo to be Yellen’s deputy, which would make him the first Black deputy treasury secretary. Rouse, Tanden and Adeyemo will all require Senate confirmation, and Tanden in particular is already drawing heavy Republican criticism.
Some Republicans panned the announcement of Tanden after she spent years attacking GOP lawmakers on social media — and some doubted she would be able to secure confirmation.
Christopher Rugaber, Aamer Madhani and Martin Crutsinger contributed to this report.
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The Biden administration said Friday it will restrict new oil and gas leasing on 13 million acres (5.3 million hectares) of a federal petroleum reserve in Alaska to help protect wildlife such as caribou and polar bears as the Arctic continues to warm.
The decision — part of a yearslong fight over whether and how to develop the vast oil resources in the state — finalizes protections first proposed last year as the Democratic administration prepared to approve the contentious Willow oil project.
The approval of Willow drew fury from environmentalists, who said the large oil project violated President Joe Biden's pledge to combat climate change. Friday's decision also completes an earlier plan that called for closing nearly half the reserve to oil and gas leasing.
A group of Republican lawmakers, led by Alaska U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, jumped out ahead of Friday's announcement about the new limitations in the National Petroleum-Reserve Alaska before it was publicly announced. Sullivan called it an “illegal” attack on the state’s economic lifeblood, and he predicted lawsuits.
“It’s more than a one-two punch to Alaska," Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski said, “because when you take off access to our resources, when you say you cannot drill, you cannot produce, you cannot explore, you cannot move it — this is the energy insecurity that we’re talking about.”
The decision by the Interior Department doesn’t change the terms of existing leases in the reserve or affect currently authorized operations, including Willow.
The Biden administration also Friday recommended the rejection of a state corporation's application related to a proposed 210-mile (338-kilometer) road in the northwest part of the state to allow mining of critical mineral deposits, including including copper, cobalt, zinc, silver and gold. There are no mining proposals or current mines in the area, and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management determined the road-building alternatives analyzed “would significantly and irrevocably impact resources,” the agency said in a statement. A final decision on the recommendation is pending.
Brian Ridley, chief of Tanana Chiefs Conference, an Alaska Native nonprofit corporation, said the administration's “choice to reject the Ambler Road Project is a monumental step forward in the fight for Indigenous rights and environmental justice.” The tribes of the Tanana Chiefs Conference had expressed concerns a road would harm their communities, land and wildlife.
Sullivan accused the administration of undermining U.S. national security interests with both decisions. Alaska political leaders have long accused the administration of harming the state with decisions limiting the development of oil and gas, minerals and timber.
“Joe Biden is fine with our adversaries producing energy and dominating the world’s critical minerals while shutting down our own in America, as long as the far-left radicals he feels are key to his reelection are satisfied,'' Sullivan said Thursday at a Capitol news conference with 10 other GOP senators. “What a dangerous world this president has created.”
Biden defended his decision regarding the petroleum reserve.
Alaska’s “majestic and rugged lands and waters are among the most remarkable and healthy landscapes in the world,” are critical to Alaska Native communities and “demand our protection,” he said in a statement.
Nagruk Harcharek, president of Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat, a group whose members include leaders from across much of Alaska's North Slope region, in a statement said the decision “does not reflect our communities’ wishes.” The group's board of directors previously passed a resolution opposing the administration's plans for the reserve.
The American Petroleum Institute, the oil industry's top lobbying group, called the rule “misguided'' and said it sharply limits future oil and natural gas development in the petroleum reserve, "a region explicitly intended by Congress to bolster America’s energy security'' and generate revenue for Alaskan communities.
"At a time when the world is looking for American energy leadership, this is yet another step in the wrong direction,” said Dustin Meyer, an API senior vice president.
The petroleum reserve, about 100 miles (161 kilometers) west of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, is home to caribou and polar bears and provides habitat for millions of migrating birds. It was set aside around a century ago as an emergency oil source for the U.S. Navy, but since the 1970s it has been overseen by the Interior Department. There has been ongoing, longstanding debate over where oil and gas development should occur.
Most existing leases in the petroleum reserve are clustered in an area that’s considered to have high development potential, according to the Bureau of Land Management, which falls under the Interior Department. The development potential in other parts of the reserve is lower, the agency said.
The rules announced Friday would place restrictions on future leasing and industrial development in areas designated as special for their wildlife, subsistence or other values and call for the agency to evaluate regularly whether to designate new special areas or bolster protections in those areas. The agency cited as a rationale the rapidly changing conditions in the Arctic due to climate change, including melting permafrost and changes in plant life and wildlife corridors.
Environmentalists were elated.
“The Biden administration’s actions for America’s Arctic shows a commitment to conservation that meets the needs of the region’s outsized vastness and ecological value," said Kristen Miller, executive director at Alaska Wilderness League. “Our nation’s public lands are an essential part of addressing the climate and biodiversity crisis, and this decision could not come at a more critical time.”
Activist Bill McKibben called the decision a “massive win,″ adding: “We lost the fight over Willow, but the huge outcry meant that some real good came of that debacle.″
Jeremy Lieb, an attorney with Earthjustice, called the decision an important step but urged "even bolder action to keep the fossil fuel industry out of the Arctic, for the sake of the climate and future generations.” Earthjustice is involved in litigation currently before a federal appeals court that seeks to overturn Willow’s approval.
A decision in that case is pending.
Daly reported from Washington.
Follow the AP's coverage of the U.S. Department of the Interior at https://apnews.com/hub/us-department-of-the-interior.
FILE - President Joe Biden speaks at the United Steelworkers Headquarters in Pittsburgh, April 17, 2024. Biden and former President Donald Trump will go before voters April 23, 2024, in Pennsylvania's presidential primaries, a prelude to the November general election when the commonwealth is expected to once again to play a critical role in the race for the White House.(AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, speaks during a hearing of the Homeland Security subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Appropriations on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, April 10, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
In this undated photo provided by the United States Geological Survey, permafrost forms a grid-like pattern in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, managed by the Bureau of Land Management on Alaska's North Slope. (David W. Houseknecht/United States Geological Survey via AP)
This July 8, 2004, photo provided by the United States Geological Survey shows Fish Creek through the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, managed by the Bureau of Land Management on Alaska's North Slope. (David W. Houseknecht/United States Geological Survey via AP)
