[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 14 (Monday, January 25, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S113]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   NOMINATION OF JANET LOUISE YELLEN

  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, this week, the Senate will continue 
confirming President Biden's highly qualified and history-making 
nominees.
  In a few hours we will hold a vote on Janet Yellen to serve as the 
next Secretary of the Treasury. Janet Yellen, of course, is no stranger 
to this Chamber. She has been confirmed by the Senate no fewer than 
four times and was reported favorably to the floor by a unanimous vote 
of the Finance Committee on Friday.
  The bipartisan support of Ms. Yellen's multiple nominations reflects 
her breathtaking range of experience and just how well suited she is to 
manage the economic challenges of our time. Ms. Yellen, I am proud to 
report, is a native of working-class Brooklyn, the daughter of a 
schoolteacher and physician, raised during the Great Depression. She 
went to Fort Hamilton High School, one of James Madison High School's 
rivals. A graduate of Brown and Yale, Ms. Yellen has taught economics 
at some of the world's most prestigious universities. Of course, Janet 
Yellen is best known for her tenure as Chair of the Federal Reserve, 
overseeing a period of falling unemployment and steady economic 
recovery from the global financial crisis.
  Few people possess the experience and expertise that Ms. Yellen would 
bring to the Treasury, particularly during this moment of economic 
crisis. At the Treasury Department, there are long hallways on the 
third floor where the portraits of all 77 Treasury Secretaries hang--
all of them men, all the way back to Alexander Hamilton, the first 
Secretary. I am thrilled today to vote to confirm the first woman to 
ever hold the position of Treasury Secretary and someday add her 
portrait to that hallway.
  On that note, I would add it was a great pleasure to read the Biden 
administration's announcement today that the Treasury Department plans 
to speed up the plans to add the portrait of Harriet Tubman to the $20 
bill. This is an issue I have long championed and something that should 
have been done a long time ago. I feel particularly strong about it 
since Harriet Tubman was an Auburn, NY, resident, and our office worked 
for years to successfully make her home in Upstate New York a national 
historic monument.
  I am glad the Biden administration is reversing the Trump 
administration's foot-dragging. It is the kind of thing they did--no 
excuse, no reason, just didn't do it. But now the Biden administration 
is reversing the Trump administration's foot-dragging and will press 
forward with plans to circulate new currency celebrating Harriet 
Tubman's life and legacy.
  After Ms. Yellen's confirmation tonight, the Senate will continue to 
process nominations to President Biden's Cabinet for the Secretaries of 
State, Homeland Security, and Transportation. With cooperation, the 
Senate could complete both confirmations this week. Again, those are 
the Secretaries of State, Homeland Security, and Transportation, in 
addition to Treasury this evening.
  I remind my colleagues that President Trump had his Secretary of 
Homeland Security installed on Inauguration Day. We cannot allow our 
national security and our domestic security to be compromised in any 
way by the prolonged delay of Mr. Mayorkas' nomination

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