Top Warren aide to join Biden’s economic team

A longtime top aide to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is joining President Biden’s National Economic Council (NEC) as a deputy director, the White House confirmed Monday.

Jon Donenberg will replace former deputy director Bharat Ramamurti, who left the NEC last month. Donenberg will focus on issues including student debt relief, competition, junk fees, financial regulation and technology policy, a White House official said. 

He will start at the NEC in early November, CNN first reported, a year out from the 2024 election when Biden’s economic plan will be a major selling point for the president on the campaign trail.

Donenberg is Warren’s chief of staff and previously worked as policy director and senior adviser for the Massachusetts senator’s 2020 presidential run. He is a “key architect” of Warren’s policies on student debt, financial regulation, corporate taxation, competition and technology policy, the White House official said.

Warren was one of the top progressive voices in Congress pushing Biden to forgive student debt after making loan forgiveness a part of her presidential platform. She hailed Biden’s move to cancel up to $10,000 in debt for people making less than $125,000 annually when it was first announced in August 2022. The program has since been struck down by the Supreme Court.

“Jon is a superstar — and one of the nation’s foremost experts on the fight for an economy that works not just for some of our families, but for all of them. His unique combination of technical, legal, and economic skills and judgment will make him an invaluable asset to the President,” Warren said in a statement on Monday.

Donenberg was named chief of staff for Warren in March 2020. He earlier served as her chief counsel and legislative director for more than five years and worked for Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and former Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.).