Senate Confirms Janet L. Yellen as Treasury Secretary

Yellen won Senate confirmation along bipartisan lines and now faces a big challenge in confronting an economic threat that has caused financial hardship for millions of Americans.

Yellen, a labor economist and former Federal Reserve chair, to be Treasury secretary on Monday, putting in place a key lieutenant to President Biden at a perilous economic moment, as the new administration tries to revive an economy that has been battered by the coronavirus pandemic.

Her quick bipartisan confirmation underscored the support she has from both Republicans and Democrats given her previous stint as Fed chair from 2014 to 2018.

The magnitude of the task became clear over the weekend, as a bipartisan group of senators met virtually with senior White House officials on Sunday and expressed doubt that such a large package was necessary.

The Biden administration has said that it hopes a package can win bipartisan support in Congress.

While she gained the support of many Republicans, several voted against her confirmation, including Senator Dan Sullivan, Republican of Alaska.

Yellen will have the responsibility of being the United States’ most senior economic diplomat at a time of frayed global tensions.

Yellen will have to try to repair America’s economic relationships around the world, including with allies like Canada, Mexico and the European Union, which became strained under President Donald J.

Yellen said that China was “engaging in practices that give it an unfair technological advantage” and said the administration was prepared to use America’s “full array of tools” to address that.

Yellen plans to bring other big changes to the mission of the Treasury Department, including using its powers to help assess the economic risks of climate change and create incentives to support clean energy technologies.

Yellen will be under pressure to quickly staff a Treasury Department that had been depleted under her predecessor, Steven Mnuchin.

Her deputy, Wally Adeyemo, will require Senate confirmation and Ms.

Earlier this month, the Treasury Department announced a chief of staff, Didem Nisanci, and a team of senior advisers, many of whom served in the Obama administration, to work with Ms.

Mazur, a former senior Treasury official during the Obama administration, to be deputy assistant secretary for tax policy in the office of legislative affairs