United States Secretary of the Treasury explained

Post:	United States Secretary
Body:	the Treasury
Flag:	Flag of the United States Secretary of the Treasury.svg
Flagborder:	yes
Flagsize:	130
Flagcaption:	Flag of the secretary
Insignia:	Seal of the United States Department of the Treasury.svg
Insigniasize:	120
Insigniacaption:	Seal of the Department of the Treasury
Incumbent:	Janet Yellen
Incumbentsince:	January 26, 2021
Department:	Department of the Treasury
Style:	Madam Secretary (informal) The Honorable (formal)
Member Of:	Cabinet National Security Council
Reports To:	President
Seat:	Treasury Building Washington, D.C.
Appointer:	President
Appointer Qualified:	with Senate advice and consent
Termlength:	No fixed term
Precursor:	Superintendent of Finance
First:	Alexander Hamilton
Succession:	Fifth
Url:	https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/3/19
3 U.S. Code § 19 – Vacancy in offices of both President and Vice President; officers eligible to act
Website:	LII / Legal Information Institute
Access-Date:	February 4, 2017
Archive-Date:	December 26, 2018
Archive-Url:	https://web.archive.org/web/20181226123834/https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/3/19
Url-Status:	live

The United States secretary of the treasury is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, and is the chief financial officer of the federal government of the United States. The secretary of the treasury serves as the principal advisor to the president of the United States on all matters pertaining to economic and fiscal policy. The secretary is, by custom, a member of the president's cabinet and, by law, a member of the National Security Council., and high in the U.S. presidential line of succession.

Under the Appointments Clause of the United States Constitution, the officeholder is nominated by the president of the United States, and, following a confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Finance, will take the office if confirmed by the majority of the full United States Senate.

The secretary of state, the secretary of the treasury, the secretary of defense, and the attorney general are generally regarded as the four most important Cabinet officials, due to the size and importance of their respective departments.^[1]

The current secretary of the treasury is Janet Yellen, who is the first woman to hold the office.^{[2] [3]}

Powers and functions

The secretary along with the treasurer of the United States must sign Federal Reserve notes before they can become legal tender.^[4] The secretary also manages the United States Emergency Economic Stabilization fund.

Salary

The secretary of the treasury is a Level I position in the Executive Schedule,^[5]

List of secretaries of the treasury

The United States secretary of the treasury is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, and is the chief financial officer of the federal government of the United States. The secretary of the treasury serves as the principal advisor to the president of the United States on all matters pertaining to economic and fiscal policy. The secretary is, by custom, a member of the president's cabinet and, by law, a member of the National Security Council.

Under the Appointments Clause of the United States Constitution, the officeholder is nominated by the president of the United States, and, following a confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Finance, is confirmed by the United States Senate.

Parties (4) (4) (30) (5) (34) (1)

Status

No.	Portrait	Name	State of residence	Took office	Left office	President(s)
		Alexander Hamilton	New York	September 11, 1789	January 31, 1795		George Washington
		Oliver Wolcott Jr.	Connecticut	February 3, 1795	December 31, 1800
							John Adams
		Samuel Dexter	Massachusetts	January 1, 1801	May 13, 1801
							Thomas Jefferson
		Albert Gallatin	Pennsylvania	May 14, 1801	February 8, 1814		James Madison
		George W. Campbell	Tennessee	February 9, 1814	October 5, 1814
		Alexander J. Dallas	Pennsylvania	October 6, 1814	October 21, 1816
–		William Jones	Pennsylvania	October 21, 1816	October 22, 1816
		William H. Crawford	Georgia	October 22, 1816	March 6, 1825
							James Monroe
		Richard Rush	Pennsylvania	March 7, 1825	March 5, 1829		John Quincy Adams
		Samuel D. Ingham	Pennsylvania	March 6, 1829	June 20, 1831		Andrew Jackson
		Louis McLane	Delaware	August 8, 1831	May 28, 1833
		William J. Duane	Pennsylvania	May 29, 1833	September 22, 1833
		Roger B. Taney	Maryland	September 23, 1833	June 25, 1834
		Levi Woodbury	New Hampshire	July 1, 1834	March 3, 1841
							Martin Van Buren
14		Thomas Ewing	Ohio	March 4, 1841	September 11, 1841		William Henry Harrison
							John Tyler
15		Walter Forward	Pennsylvania	September 13, 1841	March 1, 1843
16		John Canfield Spencer	New York	March 8, 1843	May 2, 1844
		George M. Bibb	Kentucky	July 4, 1844	March 7, 1845
		Robert J. Walker	Mississippi	March 8, 1845	March 5, 1849		James K. Polk
19		William M. Meredith	Pennsylvania	March 8, 1849	July 22, 1850		Zachary Taylor
20		Thomas Corwin	Ohio	July 23, 1850	March 6, 1853		Millard Fillmore
		James Guthrie	Kentucky	March 7, 1853	March 6, 1857		Franklin Pierce
		Howell Cobb	Georgia	March 7, 1857	December 8, 1860		James Buchanan
		Philip Francis Thomas	Maryland	December 12, 1860	January 14, 1861
		John Adams Dix	New York	January 15, 1861	March 6, 1861
		Salmon P. Chase	Ohio	March 7, 1861	June 30, 1864		Abraham Lincoln
		William P. Fessenden	Maine	July 5, 1864	March 3, 1865
		Hugh McCulloch	Indiana	March 9, 1865	March 3, 1869
							Andrew Johnson
		George S. Boutwell	Massachusetts	March 12, 1869	March 16, 1873		Ulysses S. Grant
		William Adams Richardson	Massachusetts	March 17, 1873	June 3, 1874
		Benjamin Bristow	Kentucky	June 4, 1874	June 20, 1876
		Lot M. Morrill	Maine	July 7, 1876	March 9, 1877
		John Sherman	Ohio	March 10, 1877	March 3, 1881		Rutherford B. Hayes
		William Windom	Minnesota	March 8, 1881	November 13, 1881		James A. Garfield
							Chester A. Arthur
		Charles J. Folger	New York	November 14, 1881	September 4, 1884
		Walter Q. Gresham	Indiana	September 5, 1884	October 30, 1884
		Hugh McCulloch	Indiana	October 31, 1884	March 7, 1885
		Daniel Manning	New York	March 8, 1885	March 31, 1887		Grover Cleveland
		Charles S. Fairchild	New York	April 1, 1887	March 6, 1889
		William Windom	Minnesota	March 7, 1889	January 29, 1891		Benjamin Harrison
		Charles Foster	Ohio	February 25, 1891	March 6, 1893
		John G. Carlisle	Kentucky	March 7, 1893	March 5, 1897		Grover Cleveland
		Lyman J. Gage	Illinois	March 6, 1897	January 31, 1902		William McKinley
							Theodore Roosevelt
		L. M. Shaw	Iowa	February 1, 1902	March 3, 1907
		George B. Cortelyou	New York	March 4, 1907	March 7, 1909
		Franklin MacVeagh	Illinois	March 8, 1909	March 5, 1913		William Howard Taft
		William Gibbs McAdoo	New York	March 6, 1913	December 15, 1918		Woodrow Wilson
		Carter Glass	Virginia	December 16, 1918	February 1, 1920
		David F. Houston	Missouri	February 2, 1920	March 3, 1921
		Andrew Mellon	Pennsylvania	March 4, 1921	February 12, 1932		Warren G. Harding
							Calvin Coolidge
							Herbert Hoover
		Ogden L. Mills	New York	February 13, 1932	March 4, 1933
		William H. Woodin	New York	March 5, 1933	December 31, 1933		Franklin D. Roosevelt
		Henry Morgenthau Jr.	New York	January 1, 1934	July 22, 1945
		Fred M. Vinson	Kentucky	July 23, 1945	June 23, 1946		Harry S. Truman
		John Wesley Snyder	Missouri	June 25, 1946	January 20, 1953
		George M. Humphrey	Ohio	January 21, 1953	July 29, 1957		Dwight D. Eisenhower
		Robert B. Anderson	Connecticut	July 29, 1957	January 20, 1961
		C. Douglas Dillon	New Jersey	January 21, 1961	April 1, 1965		John F. Kennedy
							Lyndon B. Johnson
		Henry H. Fowler	Virginia	April 1, 1965	December 20, 1968
		Joseph W. Barr	Indiana	December 21, 1968	January 20, 1969
		David M. Kennedy	Utah	January 22, 1969	February 10, 1971		Richard Nixon
		John Connally	Texas	February 11, 1971	June 12, 1972
		George Shultz	Illinois	June 12, 1972	May 8, 1974
		William E. Simon	New Jersey	May 8, 1974	January 20, 1977
							Gerald Ford
		W. Michael Blumenthal	Michigan	January 23, 1977	August 4, 1979		Jimmy Carter
		G. William Miller	Rhode Island	August 7, 1979	January 20, 1981
		Donald Regan	New Jersey	January 22, 1981	February 1, 1985		Ronald Reagan
		James Baker	Texas	February 4, 1985	August 17, 1988
–		M. Peter McPherson	Michigan	August 17, 1988	September 15, 1988
		Nicholas F. Brady	New Jersey	September 15, 1988	January 17, 1993
							George H. W. Bush
		Lloyd Bentsen	Texas	January 20, 1993	December 22, 1994		Bill Clinton
–		Frank N. Newman	Massachusetts	December 22, 1994	January 11, 1995
		Robert Rubin	New York	January 11, 1995	July 2, 1999
		Lawrence Summers	Massachusetts	July 2, 1999	January 20, 2001
		Paul H. O'Neill	Pennsylvania	January 20, 2001	December 31, 2002		George W. Bush
–		Kenneth W. Dam	Illinois	December 31, 2002	February 3, 2003
		John W. Snow	Virginia	February 3, 2003	June 30, 2006
–		Robert M. Kimmitt	Virginia	June 30, 2006	July 10, 2006
		Henry Paulson	Illinois	July 10, 2006	January 20, 2009
–		Stuart A. Levey	Ohio	January 20, 2009	January 26, 2009		Barack Obama
75		Timothy Geithner	New York	January 26, 2009	January 25, 2013
–		Neal S. Wolin	Illinois	January 25, 2013	February 28, 2013
		Jack Lew	New York	February 28, 2013	January 20, 2017
–		Adam Szubin	Washington, D.C.	January 20, 2017	February 13, 2017		Donald Trump
		Steven Mnuchin	California	February 13, 2017	January 20, 2021
–		Andy Baukol	Virginia	January 20, 2021	January 26, 2021		Joe Biden
		Janet Yellen	California	January 26, 2021	Incumbent

Succession

Presidential succession

The secretary of the treasury is fifth in the presidential line of succession, following the secretary of state and preceding the secretary of defense.^[7]

!#!Office

1*	Under Secretaries of the Treasury
2	General Counsel of the Department of the Treasury
3*	Deputy Under Secretaries of the Treasury and those Assistant Secretaries of the Treasury appointed by the President by and with the consent of the Senate
4	Chief of Staff
5	Assistant Secretary for Management
6	Fiscal Assistant Secretary
7	Commissioner of Internal Revenue, Internal Revenue Service
8	Commissioner, Bureau of the Fiscal Service
9	Deputy Commissioner, Fiscal Accounting and Shared Services, Bureau of the Fiscal Service
10	Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, Internal Revenue Service
	In the order in which they shall have taken the oath of office as such officers.

External links

• • Web site: Secretaries of the Treasury . History of the Treasury . . April 9, 2006.

|-

Notes and References

1. Cabinets and Counselors: The President and the Executive Branch (1997). Congressional Quarterly. p. 87.
2. . Janet L. Yellen Sworn In As 78th Secretary of the United States Department of the Treasury . live . Washington, D.C. . U.S. Department of the Treasury . January 26, 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210127105142/https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy0002 . January 27, 2021 . January 27, 2021.
3. Web site: Janet Yellen is confirmed as the first female Treasury secretary in US history . Tappe . Anneken . Egan . Matt . January 25, 2021 . CNN . https://web.archive.org/web/20210126004747/https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/25/economy/yellen-treasury-secretary-first-woman/index.html . January 26, 2021 . live . January 26, 2021.
4. News: Rappeport . Alan . December 8, 2022 . Yellen Is First Female Treasury Secretary With Signature on U.S. Dollar . live . The New York Times . https://web.archive.org/web/20221209181953/https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/08/business/janet-yellen-signature-dollar.html . December 9, 2022 . December 9, 2022 . By tradition, the treasurer must sign the money along with the Treasury secretary. Both signatures are engraved onto plates at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, where they are printed and submitted to the Federal Reserve, which determines what currency will be added to circulation..
5. Web site: Salary Table No. 2021-EX Rates of Basic Pay for the Executive Schedule (EX) .
6. thus earning the salary prescribed for that level (US$246,400, as of January 2024).^[5]
7. Web site: Executive Order on Providing an Order of Succession within the Department of the Treasury. August 16, 2016. en-US. January 9, 2022. September 25, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210925221931/https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2016/08/17/2016-19723/providing-an-order-of-succession-within-the-department-of-the-treasury. live.

8. Succession within the Department

   On August 16, 2016, President Barack Obama signed Executive Order 13735, which changed the order of succession for filling the Treasury Secretary's role when necessary. At any time when the secretary and the deputy secretary of the treasury have both died, resigned, or cannot serve as secretary for other reasons, the order designates which Treasury officers are next in line to serve as acting secretary.

   The order of succession is:^[7]