Brian Deese, the director of President Joe Biden's National Economic Council, will depart the White House by February's end, Biden confirmed Thursday morning.
Deese, a former BlackRock executive, had been rumored to be mulling a return to the private sector for several months, and Federal Reserve vice chair Lael Brainard and deputy Treasury secretary Wally Adeyemo are viewed as two potential replacements at the NEC.
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"When I took office, we faced high unemployment, an economy in crisis, and main streets shuttered across the country. I knew we needed to not just get families back to work and businesses re-opened, we needed to rebuild our economy so no one was left behind," the president said in a statement. "For the past two years, I have relied on Brian Deese to help me do just that. Brian has a unique ability to translate complex policy challenges into concrete actions that improve the lives of American people. He has helped steer my economic vision into reality, and managed the transition of our historic economic recovery to steady and stable growth."
The president additionally called Deese "critical" to ushering through the passage of his hallmark economic packages, including the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, bipartisan infrastructure law, the Inflation Reduction Act, and the CHIPs and Science Act this past year, all of which Biden claims are "giving millions of families breathing room" while "investing in clean energy manufacturing and addressing the climate crisis."
"I am grateful to his wife Kara and his children Adeline and Clark for letting us borrow Brian," Biden closed. "I know well what it must have been like to say goodbye to him for the regular long commute to Washington, and I know they’re excited to welcome him home."
Though Deese will stay at the White House through the end of the month, he is the latest senior administration official to announce their departure heading into Biden's third year in office.
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Outgoing White House chief of staff Ron Klain will be replaced by former COVID coordinator Jeff Zients following Biden's State of the Union on February 7, and Gina McCarthy, Biden's former top climate adviser, stepped down in the latter part of 2022.