Trump-Biden transition updates: Trump continues to tout he won election at Ga. rally

Biden’s nominee to lead the Office of Budget and Management, Neera Tanden, would be the first woman of color and first South Asian American in the role if confirmed, but she is already facing resistance from some Senate Republicans who have signaled her nomination wouldn’t pass the Senate’s current GOP majority. 

Tanden did not directly fire back against those attacks in remarks Tuesday but shared a personal story behind why she believes she’s in the position to fulfill the critical economic role which has sometimes served as a check within the executive branch on any far-fetched spending plans fancied by other Cabinet members.

"Like the vice president-elect’s mother, my mother, Mamala, was born in India. Like so many millions suppressed every generation she came to America to pursue a better life," Tanden said, going on to detail how after her parent’s divorce, their family relief on food stamps and public housing to survive. "We relied on a safety net to get back on her feet."

"I'm here today because of social programs, because of budgetary choices, because of a government that saw my mother's dignity and gave her a chance. Now it is my profound honor to help shape those budgets and programs to keep lifting Americans up," she said. 

Tanden is currently the president and CEO of Center for American Progress, a center-left think tank, and a longtime adviser to Hillary Clinton.

Biden highlighted how Cecilia Rouse, a leading labor economist and his nominee to chair the Council of Economic Advisers, will become the first African American and just the fourth woman to lead the CEA if confirmed, the agency is tasked with offering the president objective economic advice on the formulation of domestic and international policy.

Rouse said she did not anticipate a return to public service, saying academics can relate to the difficult decision of leaving a school, which in her case is the position of dean of the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs.

“It requires a rare combination of urgency and opportunity to pull you away. But that rare accommodation is precisely what our nation is facing right now,” Rouse said. 

Like the nominees before her, she said she looks forward to efforting an economy that "works for everyone, brings fulfilling job opportunities and leaves no one to fall through the cracks."

Treasury Secretary nominee Janet Yellen, who would be the first woman to lead the Treasury Department, and the first person to have served as Treasury Secretary, Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, and Chair of the Federal Reserve, has already received bipartisan support on Capitol Hill ahead of Biden introducing her as his nominee in-person Tuesday.

Yellen opened on a personal note, saying she saw her own father’s story and that of her working neighborhood growing up -- reflected in Biden’s story, which she said inspired her to become an economist.

"When you reflect on what your father taught you about how a job is much more than a paycheck, I hear my own father who raised our family in working-class Brooklyn," Yellen began.

"I became an economist because I was concerned about the toll of unemployment on people, families and communities, and I've spent my career trying to make sure people can work and achieve the dignity and self-worth that comes with it," Yellen said. "Mr. President-elect, I know you've done the same."

Yellen said the economic damage from coronavirus pandemic has "had a disproportionate impact on the most vulnerable among us" and promised to address that with immediate action, arguing "inaction will produce a self-reinforcing downturn causing yet more devastation."

She also said she’d work together with the national security and foreign policy team Biden announced last week to help "restore America's global leadership" -- in contrast to the largely isolationist approach Trump took for four years.

"I look forward to working ... to rebuild the public trust to the American people," she said in closing. "We will be an institution that wakes up every morning thinking about you, your jobs, your paychecks, your struggles, your hopes, your dignity and your limitless potential."

Introducing his economic team nominees, Biden said they will lead the country’s economy out of the downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic and reiterated his slogan they’ll "build back better" than before through job creation and addressing structural inequities.  

"A team tested and experienced, it includes ground-breaking Americans who come from different backgrounds but who share my core vision for economic relief here in the United States of America. And given a fair shot and equal chance, there's nothing -- we all believe, there's nothing beyond the capacity of the American people," Biden began. 

Biden also called on Congress to pass another round of COVID-19 relief legislation now but vowed to continue that effort when he’s inaugurated in 50 days, saying his transition team is already working on a proposal.

“The full Congress should come together and pass a robust package for relief to address these urgent needs, but any package passed in a lame-duck session is likely to be, at best, likely a start,” Biden said. “Our message to everybody struggling right now is this: Help is on the way."

Biden then turned over the lectern to his nominee for Treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, who would be the first woman to lead the Treasury Department if confirmed by the Senate.

He joked moments earlier he might have to ask Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator of the hit musical "Hamilton" about the nation's first Treasury secretary, to write another musical about Yellen's history-making role.

"So, that’s what I’m working on right now, Janet," Biden said with a smile.