WASHINGTON — President Biden has selected Lael Brainard, the vice chair of the Federal Reserve, to direct the National Economic Council, according to people familiar with the decision.

He is also expected to tap Jared Bernstein, a longtime member of his inner circle dating back to Mr. Biden’s tenure as vice president, to be the next chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers. Mr. Bernstein is currently a member of the council.

Ms. Brainard, whom Mr. Biden previously considered appointing as Treasury secretary and Fed chair, will replace Brian Deese, who is stepping down this month after two years as the president’s top economic adviser. She joins Mr. Biden’s economic team as his administration is shifting its focus from passing legislation to carrying out the multi-trillion-dollar economic agenda that Mr. Biden signed into law in his first two years in office.

The move adds another seasoned policy expert to Mr. Biden’s close circle of aides, but it could create headaches for him at the Fed, including a potentially bitter fight in the Senate to confirm Ms. Brainard’s replacement as vice chair.

Mr. Bernstein, whose role requires Senate confirmation, would succeed Cecilia Rouse, the current chair, who is departing to return to her faculty position at Princeton University. Mr. Bernstein would almost certainly become the most outspoken supporter of labor unions to ever helm the council, and he would continue to serve as an economic sounding board for a president who relies on a small — and typically long-serving — circle of aides for policy advice.

The move would also give Mr. Biden a trusted spokesman on economic issues as the president gears up for his expected announcement that he will seek another term in 2024, a campaign in which the economy will take center stage. Mr. Bernstein has long been a frequent liberal voice on cable news and other media outlets, including throughout his tenure thus far in the Biden administration.

Ms. Brainard will immediately become a new public face for Mr. Biden’s efforts to sell Americans on the progress the economy has made on his watch, including record job growth, even as polls show voters remain anxious about the economy.

In his State of the Union speech and public appearances this year, Mr. Biden has made clear he plans to run for another term on the strength of his economic record — in particular, highlighting new construction projects funded or spurred by new federal spending on infrastructure, advanced manufacturing and the transition to lower-emission sources of energy.

The moves would leave Mr. Biden, who pledged to build the most diverse cabinet and circle of core White House aides in history, with one white man and two white women in the three most important economic policy jobs in the administration. Janet L. Yellen, the Treasury secretary, has indicated she will stay in her position through the duration of Mr. Biden’s four-year term.

The decisions could ripple across policymaking at the White House and the Fed.

Ms. Brainard is seen as the most liberal top official at the central bank and a potential brake on the Fed’s ongoing campaign to raise interest rates to tame inflation. Liberal groups have increasingly warned that continued rate increases could undercut economic growth and, potentially, Mr. Biden’s chances of winning a second term.

Ms. Brainard, 61, has been vice chair at the Fed since May 2022 and was a governor at the central bank’s board in Washington starting in 2014. Before that, she had been an official at the Treasury and had worked in the Clinton White House.

Her supporters say that experience will help Mr. Biden and his new chief of staff, Jeffrey D. Zients, as they ramp up for Mr. Biden’s expected announcement that he will seek re-election in 2024. That work will including coordinating spending decisions, new regulations and other efforts to put into effect the sprawling industrial policy agenda that Mr. Biden has already signed into law.

Her departure would leave the Fed’s No. 2 position open at a challenging time for the central bank. Officials have been raising interest rates to try to rein in rapid inflation, and 2023 is the year when those adjustments are likely to begin to bite most fully, potentially causing unemployment to rise. Policymakers will need to decide how much pain they are willing to risk to be sure that inflation is truly moderating.

Whoever is appointed as the new vice chair would need to be confirmed by the Senate, which could push the White House toward nominating someone who can either attract broad bipartisan support or who would not face a challenge among Democrats.

Mr. Bernstein is already a member of the Council of Economic Advisers, along with Heather Boushey. He did not need Senate confirmation for that appointment. Ascending to the chairmanship would force him to take a difficult road in the Senate, where Mr. Biden’s party commands a slim 51 to 49 majority when accounting for three independent senators who typically vote with Democrats. Ms. Rouse won confirmation in a landslide, 95 to 4, two years ago, becoming the first Black chair of the Council of Economic Advisers.

Mr. Bernstein comes from a very different branch of economic research from Ms. Rouse — and from most of the chairs who came before her. His doctorate is in social welfare. He has spent most of his career not in academia, but in Washington think tanks, with a longtime focus on economic inequality and on policies meant to lift wages and living standards for American workers.

He worked 16 years at the liberal, pro-labor Economic Policy Institute before Mr. Biden hired him to be chief economist for the vice president when Mr. Biden and former President Barack Obama took office in 2009. In announcing his departure, E.P.I. officials called Mr. Bernstein “a tireless advocate for middle- and low-income families and for greater equity in the U.S. economy.”

In 2011, after serving as executive director for Mr. Obama’s middle-class task force, Mr. Bernstein left government to join the Center on Budget Policy and Priorities, another liberal think tank in Washington. He helped give Mr. Biden regular economic briefings in his 2020 campaign before Mr. Biden appointed him to serve on the Council of Economic Advisers.

At the council, Mr. Bernstein — more so than Ms. Rouse — has been a regular on television to spar amiably with interviewers, defending Mr. Biden’s economic policy record and the performance of the economy under his stewardship.

Asked on “Fox News Sunday” about recession fears earlier this month, Mr. Bernstein replied, “Let’s just talk about some facts. A 3.4 percent unemployment rate, the lowest unemployment rate since May of 1969 — and I think I was 13 years old — 3.4 percent unemployment, 517,000 jobs. These are not recessionary numbers — 12.1 million jobs since this president took office, 10.5 million new small businesses.”

The program’s host, Shannon Bream, replied, “But to be clear: Millions of those were added back from the pandemic.”

“That’s a fair point,” Mr. Bernstein replied. “My point is that 3.4 percent unemployment is not recessionary. Half a million jobs in January is not recessionary. Two-point-nine percent on G.D.P. at the end of last year is not recessionary. So, those are the facts on the ground.”