Confirmation hearing for Biden Treasury pick Yellen slated for next Tuesday

The Senate Finance Committee is scheduled to hold a confirmation hearing for Janet Yellen, President-elect Joe Biden’s nominee for Treasury secretary, next Tuesday, according to an announcement from committee chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).

The planned hearing date is one day before Biden’s inauguration.

If confirmed, Yellen is expected to play a key role in the new administration’s response to the coronavirus-related economic downturn. Yellen, a former chair of the Federal Reserve, would also be the first woman to serve as Treasury secretary.

Democrats, as well as a number of Republicans and business groups, have spoken positively about her nomination.

Bloomberg News first reported the expected date for Yellen’s confirmation hearing.

It’s unclear how quickly Biden’s Cabinet nominees will be confirmed.

Hearings for two other nominees, Defense secretary nominee Lloyd Austin and Homeland Security secretary nominee Alejandro Mayorkas, have also been scheduled for the day before the inauguration. Aside from needing Senate confirmation, the House and the Senate will both need to approve a waiver for Austin, a retired U.S. Army general, to bypass a law that requires Defense secretaries to have been retired from active military service for at least seven years.

Biden said Monday that he hoped the Senate would be able to split its time between confirming his nominees and any impeachment trial of President Trump.

The House is expected to vote Wednesday on an article of impeachment against Trump that charges him with inciting a mob of his supporters to carry out a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol. A Senate impeachment trial is unlikely to start until after Biden is inaugurated because the upper chamber is out of session until next Tuesday.

Updated: 7:15 p.m.