Ramamurti, Senior Aide to Biden on Economic Matters, to Depart

The last original senior member of President Joe Biden’s National Economic Council is departing at the end of September, The New York Times reported Tuesday.

Bharat Ramamurti, a deputy on the panel, was an initial candidate to lead the NEC after Brian Deese stepped down in February. Former Federal Reserve Vice Chairwoman Lael Brainard was given the position.

Ramamurti is said to have been crucial in crafting Biden’s economic agenda over the past three years, including with the Build Back Better framework, the American Rescue Plan, and the Inflation Reduction Act.

Ramamurti was also crucial in developing Biden’s student debt forgiveness proposal, which the Supreme Court eventually shot down. The plan would have waived up to $20,000 in student loans for some people.

Before joining Biden’s team, Ramamurti was a policy aide to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and co-led overseeing the initial COVID-19 recovery funds approved during the Trump administration.

“In all of our work on college affordability, he was very conscious of racial equity and distributional impacts,” Jared Bernstein, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, told The Times.

Specifically in the student debt debate, Ramamurti “brought a level of both policy expertise and emotion – which is a nice way of saying ‘p***ed off’ – to those meetings,” Bernstein added.

Bernstein also said Ramamurti helped implement a policy expanding the number of salaried workers who qualify for overtime pay and broker a deal between airlines and telecom giants.

It’s unclear if Ramamurti will enter the private sector or return to Congress.