Biden's economic team losing adviser Rouse after midterms

WASHINGTON (AP) — A key member of President Joe Biden's economic team, Cecilia Rouse, will leave his administration in the spring, a White House official said Friday.

Rouse took academic leave from Princeton University to serve as chair of Biden's Council of Economic Advisers, and she plans to return to there. The official was not authorized to publicly discuss personnel changes and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The pending departure comes after the midterm elections and as Biden's term reaches its halfway point, often a time of transition for any presidential administration.

The economy could prove to be an even more delicate issue next year. The White House has tried to assuage concerns about a potential recession in the near future, pointing to a strong job market. But the Federal Reserve has also been raising interest rates to battle continued inflation.

Bloomberg was first to report Rouse's planned departure, and it said Brian Deese, director of Biden's National Economic Council, plans to depart next year.

Rouse, a labor economist, was the first Black woman to lead the Council of Economic Advisers.

Deese is scheduled to participate in a meeting with Biden and business and labor leaders at the White House on Friday afternoon. It's the Democratic president's first public event since returning from a trip to Egypt, Cambodia and Indonesia.

The official said there was no timeline for Deese to leave the administration.

There was additional turnover in the Biden administration earlier this month when Chris Magnus, the head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, was forced out of his job.

Immigration authorities have struggled to manage the flow of migrants toward the United States’ border with Mexico, a frequent point of criticism from Republicans.