Yellen will remain Treasury secretary heading into the Biden administration’s third year

By Phil Mattingly and Betsy Klein, CNN

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen plans to stay in her Cabinet role heading into the third year of the administration, a decision she conveyed to President Joe Biden during a December conversation, according to two White House officials.

Biden welcomed Yellen’s desire to stay, which comes as the administration enters the critical moment of implementing Biden’s sweeping legislative wins of his first two years.

Yellen, in the final months of last year, repeatedly expressed her desire to oversee Treasury’s central role in that effort — a process that officials say Biden has repeatedly stressed to senior officials inside his administration must be carried out successfully in the months ahead.

Still, as Biden’s top economic official, Yellen drew some of the criticism for the soaring inflation that plagued much of the administration’s second year in office, leading some to believe she would be among the officials to depart during a period that historically lends itself to turnover in the first term of an administration.

Yet along with Biden’s legislative success has come the first clear signs that inflation’s grip is starting to ease — at the same moment the US economy’s strength has remained durable despite rapid Federal Reserve interest rate increases and signs of fragility in the global economy.

Biden’s Cabinet and senior team has been defined in part by its stability over his first two years in office. Still, Biden’s top advisers have been planning for departures in the weeks ahead as the administration enters the period between the midterm elections and Biden’s State of the Union address when past administrations have seen notable departures.

Asked about reports she had informed the White House she wanted to stay into next year, Yellen told CNN in October it was “an accurate read.”

“I feel very excited by the program that we talked about,” Yellen said at the time. “And I see in it great strengthening of economic growth and addressing climate change and strengthening American households. And I want to be part of that.”

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