The United States National Security Council (NSC) is the national security council used by the president of the United States for consideration of national security,military,and foreign policy matters. Based in the White House,it is part of the Executive Office of the President of the United States,and composed of senior national security advisors and Cabinet officials.
Jacob Joseph Lew is an American attorney and diplomat who had served as the United States ambassador to Israel. He was the seventy-sixth United States secretary of the treasury from 2013 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party,he also served as the twenty-fifth White House chief of staff from 2012 to 2013 and as director of the Office of Management and Budget in both the Clinton administration and Obama administration.
Bruce Reed is an American political advisor and non-profit administrator who was the president of the Broad Foundation. Prior to assuming that role in December 2013,he served as Chief of Staff to U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and as CEO of the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC). On December 22,2020,it was announced that Reed would serve as a White House deputy chief of staff in the Biden administration,along with Jen O'Malley Dillon.
Lael Brainard is an American economist who served as the 14th director of the National Economic Council from 2023 to 2025. She previously served as the 22nd vice chair of the Federal Reserve between May 2022 and February 2023. Prior to her term as vice chair,Brainard served as a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors,taking office in 2014. Before her appointment to the Federal Reserve,she served as the under secretary of the treasury for international affairs from 2010 to 2013.
Jared Bernstein is an American government official who is the chair of the United States Council of Economic Advisers. He is a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. From 2009 to 2011,Bernstein was the chief economist and economic adviser to Vice President Joe Biden in the Obama administration. In 2008,Michael D. Shear described Bernstein as a progressive and "a strong advocate for workers".
Brian Christopher Deese is an American economic and political advisor who was the 13th director of the National Economic Council,serving under President Joe Biden.
Jeffrey Dunston Zients is an American business executive and a government official in the administration of U.S. president Joe Biden. Zients served as the 31st White House chief of staff from February 2023 to January 2025. Earlier in the Biden administration,he served as counselor to the president and White House coronavirus response coordinator from January 2021 to April 2022.
Daniel I. Werfel is an American government official who served as Commissioner of Internal Revenue from 2023 to 2025. He was formerly a Managing Director and Partner at Boston Consulting Group (BCG) from 2014 to 2023,acting Commissioner of Internal Revenue in 2013,and Controller of the Office of Management and Budget from 2011 to 2013.
Jonathan Finer is an American journalist and civil servant who served as deputy national security advisor under national security advisor Jake Sullivan in the Biden administration. He previously served as the chief of staff and director of policy planning for former Secretary of State John Kerry at the U.S. Department of State.
Nani A. Coloretti is an American policy advisor who is currently serving as the deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget. Coloretti served as United States Deputy Secretary of Housing and Urban Development from 2014 to 2017. Following her service as deputy secretary,she became senior vice president for financial and business strategy and treasurer at the Urban Institute.
Derek Tai-Ching Kan is an American businessman and government official who has served as a governor of the United States Postal Service since 2022. He served as deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget in 2020. Kan served as the under secretary of transportation for policy from 2017 to 2019. He was confirmed by the Senate four times.
Benjamin H. Harris is an American economist who is currently the Vice President and Director of the Economic Studies program at the Brookings Institution. Throughout his career,he has served in several public-service positions,most notably as the chief economist and chief economic advisor to Vice President Joe Biden from 2014 until the end of the Obama administration,and as Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy and Chief Economist of the U.S. Treasury. Harris was the executive director of the Kellogg Public-Private Initiative at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University,the Chief Economist to the evidence-based policy organization Results for America,and the founder of the economic policy consulting firm Cherrydale Strategies. He has been a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal and regularly appears on cable television to discuss macroeconomics and public policy.
Adewale O. "Wally" Adeyemo is an American attorney. He served as the United States deputy secretary of the treasury during the Presidency of Joe Biden. He was the first president of the Obama Foundation and served during the Obama administration as the deputy national security advisor for international economics from 2015 to 2016 and deputy director of the National Economic Council.
The presidential transition of Joe Biden began on November 7,2020,and ended on January 20,2021. Unlike previous presidential transitions,which normally take place during the roughly 10-week period between the election in the first week of November and the inauguration on January 20,Biden's presidential transition was shortened somewhat because the General Services Administration under the outgoing first Trump administration did not recognize Biden as the "apparent winner" until November 23.
Ali A. Zaidi is a Pakistani-American lawyer and political advisor who served as the second White House National Climate Advisor from 2022 to 2025. He was the New York deputy secretary for energy and environment. Zaidi held climate policy positions in the Obama administration including United States Domestic Policy Council deputy director for energy policy and associate director for natural resources,energy,and science at the Office of Management and Budget. Zaidi was a policy aide to U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu. He served as the first White House Deputy National Climate Advisor from 2021 to 2022.
Donet Dominic Graves Jr. is an American lawyer. He served as Deputy Secretary of Commerce in the Biden administration from 2021 to 2025. Graves formerly led the Beau Biden Cancer Moonshot and served in multiple roles in the Obama administration,including as an advisor to then-Vice President Joe Biden.
Shalanda Delores Young is an American political advisor who was the 43rd director of the Office of Management and Budget,previously serving in an acting capacity from March 24,2021,through March 17,2022 concurrently as deputy director. She previously worked for the United States House Committee on Appropriations as its staff director.
Brian Patrick McKeon is an American attorney and national security advisor who served as the Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources in the Biden Administration from March 2021 to December 2022.
