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U.S. Senate confirms Janet Yellen as Treasury chief
Updated 14:37, 26-Jan-2021
CGTN

The U.S. Senate on Monday voted 84-15 to confirm Janet Yellen as chief of the Treasury Department, making her the first woman to serve as U.S. Treasury secretary in the department's 231-year history. 

All 15 no votes came from Republicans.

At a confirmation hearing last week, Yellen said her first task as Treasury secretary will be helping Americans endure the final months of this pandemic and keeping people safe while getting them back to work.

Her role will be critical in the first weeks of the new administration as she will serve as the key negotiator with Congress in the bid to win approval for President Joe Biden's $1.9-trillion rescue package to help the U.S. economy recover from the COVID-19 crisis.

"Secretary Yellen's confirmation shatters another glass ceiling," Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein said in a statement. "In a field dominated by men, it's refreshing to finally see a woman leading the Treasury Department."

Yellen, 74, made history in 2014 when she became the first woman to chair the Federal Reserve. She was born in a middle-class Jewish family in Brooklyn in 1946. 

Yellen's public service career started in the late 1970s, when she became an economist at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. In 2004, she started working as president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, where she was credited with seeing early signs of the subprime mortgage crisis before many other Fed officials.

The White House had no immediate comment on when Yellen would be sworn in, or by whom.

(With input from agencies)

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