Bharat Ramamurti, the first and last senior member of President Biden’s National Economic Council, will leave the White House at the end of this month. Her resignation ends a chapter in Biden’s tenure that included a flurry of economic bills that directed massive federal spending to infrastructure, manufacturing, clean energy and other initiatives.
Ramamurti, an NEC deputy, is a central figure in Biden’s efforts to boost the economy through both legislation and executive action. Among them: Biden’s efforts to increase competition for businesses, an effort outlined in a 2021 executive order, and his plan to forgive a wide range of student loans, which the Supreme Court struck down. Also included.
Ramamurti was a candidate to lead the NEC under the Biden administration when its first chief, Brian Deese, resigned in February. He was replaced by former Federal Reserve official Lael Brainard.
In an interview, Brainard praised Ramamurti’s “excellent judgment, cohesiveness, strategic sense, policy acumen, and communication.”
Before joining Biden’s transition team after the 2020 presidential election, Ramamurthy was a policy aide to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., where she tracked parts of the $2 trillion economic stimulus package that was approved. He was also the first member of the Congressional Oversight Committee to be charged with a crime. by President Donald J. Trump amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Many had expected Ramamurti to help coordinate Biden’s economic team with Warren and other progressive Democrats in Congress on issues such as student debt relief. Biden’s plan called for less sweeping action than the more liberal wing of his party had envisioned, he urged.
Deese said Ramamurti had influence in shaping the ill-fated student loan proposal, expanding on Biden’s original promise to give $10,000 in loan relief to low-income and middle-class borrowers. He recalled that he was a realistic person.
Ramamurti is among those calling for expanded relief, especially for black students and other students of color who are burdened with high levels of debt. At the request of Mr. Deese and Susan Rice, then the chair of Mr. Biden’s Domestic Policy Council, he proposed several different ways to expand forgiveness in a targeted manner. The researchers ultimately settled on a plan that would provide an additional $10,000 in relief to students who were eligible for the federal Pell Grant, which benefits low-income families.
“In all of our work on college affordability, he was very conscious of the racial equity and distributional implications,” said Jared Bernstein, chairman of Biden’s Council of Economic Advisers. said. In the student loan debate, Ramamurti “brought both policy expertise and emotion to the meeting. ‘Angrily’ is the best way to describe it,” he said.
Some of Mr. Ramamurti’s influence on policy was more lasting, if less obvious. Mr. Bernstein will be more aggressive in lobbying other administration officials to enact a Labor Department rule that would expand the number of salaried workers who are automatically eligible for 1.5 hours of overtime pay if they work 40 hours in a week. He said it was extremely successful.
He cited his administration’s efforts to broker an agreement in early 2022 between the nation’s telecom giants and major airlines to deploy 5G wireless towers near airports that could cause devastating disruptions to air travel. adjusted.
He also helped lead much of Biden’s competition policy, including efforts to crack down on so-called junk fees charged by banks, airlines and online ticketing agents. The effort spanned Cabinet agencies and several departments in the West Wing, and his colleagues repeatedly praised Mr. Ramamurti’s coordinating abilities.
Hannah Garden Monheit, who currently leads Mr. Bharat, said this was due to “Mr. Bharat’s ability to follow proper processes, communicate very clearly, and summarize things for people, including all levels of the White House.” It was a huge undertaking that would not have been possible without them.” Biden Competition Council.
Biden has undergone significant changes from his original economic team. In addition to Deese and Rice, he lost the first CEA chair, Cecilia Rouse, and several senior members of the White House. His first labor secretary, Marty Walsh, resigned to become president of the National Hockey League players union.
