United States Secretary of the Treasury

"Secretary of the Treasury" redirects here. For other uses, see Secretary of the Treasury (disambiguation). Not to be confused with Treasurer of the United States.

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,^[4] and fifth in the U.S. presidential line of succession.

United States Secretary of the Treasury
Seal of the Department of the Treasury
Flag of the secretary
Incumbent Janet Yellen since January 26, 2021
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 with Senate advice and consent
Term length	No fixed term
Constituting instrument	31 U.S.C. § 301
Precursor	Superintendent of Finance
Formation	September 11, 1789; 235 years ago (1789-09-11)
First holder	Alexander Hamilton
Succession	Fifth[1]
Deputy	Deputy Secretary[2]
Salary	Executive Schedule, Level I[3]
Website	treasury.gov

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.^[5]

The current secretary of the treasury is Janet Yellen, who is the first woman to hold the office.^[6][7]

Powers and functions

The Secretary is responsible for formulating and recommending domestic and international financial, economic, and tax policy, participating in the formulation of broad fiscal policies that have general significance for the economy, and managing the public debt. The Secretary oversees the activities of the Department in carrying out its major law enforcement responsibilities; in serving as the financial agent for the United States Government; and in manufacturing coins and currency. The Chief Financial Officer of the government, the Secretary serves as Chairman Pro Tempore of the President's Economic Policy Council, Chairman of the Boards and Managing Trustee of the Social Security and Medicare Trust Funds, and as U.S. Governor of the International Monetary Fund, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

— U.S. Department of the Treasury Web site^[8]

The secretary along with the treasurer of the United States must sign Federal Reserve notes before they can become legal tender.^[9] The secretary also manages the United States Emergency Economic Stabilization fund.^[10]

Salary

The secretary of the treasury is a Level I position in the Executive Schedule,^[3] thus earning the salary prescribed for that level (US$246,400, as of January 2024).^[11]

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.^[12]

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

  Federalist (4)   Democratic-Republican (4)   Democratic (30)   Whig (5)   Republican (34)   Independent (1)

Status

  Denotes an acting secretary of the treasury

No.	Portrait	Name	State of residence	Took office	Left office	President(s)
1		Alexander Hamilton	New York	September 11, 1789	January 31, 1795		George Washington
2		Oliver Wolcott Jr.	Connecticut	February 3, 1795	December 31, 1800
							John Adams
3		Samuel Dexter	Massachusetts	January 1, 1801	May 13, 1801
							Thomas Jefferson
4		Albert Gallatin	Pennsylvania	May 14, 1801	February 8, 1814		James Madison
5		George W. Campbell	Tennessee	February 9, 1814	October 5, 1814
6		Alexander J. Dallas	Pennsylvania	October 6, 1814	October 21, 1816
–		William Jones Acting[a]	Pennsylvania	October 21, 1816	October 22, 1816
7		William H. Crawford	Georgia	October 22, 1816	March 6, 1825
							James Monroe
8		Richard Rush	Pennsylvania	March 7, 1825	March 5, 1829		John Quincy Adams
9		Samuel D. Ingham	Pennsylvania	March 6, 1829	June 20, 1831		Andrew Jackson
10		Louis McLane	Delaware	August 8, 1831	May 28, 1833
11		William J. Duane	Pennsylvania	May 29, 1833	September 22, 1833
12		Roger B. Taney	Maryland	September 23, 1833	June 25, 1834
13		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
17		George M. Bibb	Kentucky	July 4, 1844	March 7, 1845
18		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
21		James Guthrie	Kentucky	March 7, 1853	March 6, 1857		Franklin Pierce
22		Howell Cobb	Georgia	March 7, 1857	December 8, 1860		James Buchanan
23		Philip Francis Thomas	Maryland	December 12, 1860	January 14, 1861
24		John Adams Dix	New York	January 15, 1861	March 6, 1861
25		Salmon P. Chase	Ohio	March 7, 1861	June 30, 1864		Abraham Lincoln
26		William P. Fessenden	Maine	July 5, 1864	March 3, 1865
27		Hugh McCulloch	Indiana	March 9, 1865	March 3, 1869
							Andrew Johnson
28		George S. Boutwell	Massachusetts	March 12, 1869	March 16, 1873		Ulysses S. Grant
29		William Adams Richardson	Massachusetts	March 17, 1873	June 3, 1874
30		Benjamin Bristow	Kentucky	June 4, 1874	June 20, 1876
31		Lot M. Morrill	Maine	July 7, 1876	March 9, 1877
32		John Sherman	Ohio	March 10, 1877	March 3, 1881		Rutherford B. Hayes
33		William Windom	Minnesota	March 8, 1881	November 13, 1881		James A. Garfield
							Chester A. Arthur
34		Charles J. Folger	New York	November 14, 1881	September 4, 1884
35		Walter Q. Gresham	Indiana	September 5, 1884	October 30, 1884
36		Hugh McCulloch	Indiana	October 31, 1884	March 7, 1885
37		Daniel Manning	New York	March 8, 1885	March 31, 1887		Grover Cleveland
38		Charles S. Fairchild	New York	April 1, 1887	March 6, 1889
39		William Windom	Minnesota	March 7, 1889	January 29, 1891		Benjamin Harrison
40		Charles Foster	Ohio	February 25, 1891	March 6, 1893
41		John G. Carlisle	Kentucky	March 7, 1893	March 5, 1897		Grover Cleveland
42		Lyman J. Gage	Illinois	March 6, 1897	January 31, 1902		William McKinley
							Theodore Roosevelt
43		L. M. Shaw	Iowa	February 1, 1902	March 3, 1907
44		George B. Cortelyou	New York	March 4, 1907	March 7, 1909
45		Franklin MacVeagh	Illinois	March 8, 1909	March 5, 1913		William Howard Taft
46		William Gibbs McAdoo	New York	March 6, 1913	December 15, 1918		Woodrow Wilson
47		Carter Glass	Virginia	December 16, 1918	February 1, 1920
48		David F. Houston	Missouri	February 2, 1920	March 3, 1921
49		Andrew Mellon	Pennsylvania	March 4, 1921	February 12, 1932		Warren G. Harding
							Calvin Coolidge
							Herbert Hoover
50		Ogden L. Mills	New York	February 13, 1932	March 4, 1933
51		William H. Woodin	New York	March 5, 1933	December 31, 1933		Franklin D. Roosevelt
52		Henry Morgenthau Jr.	New York	January 1, 1934	July 22, 1945
53		Fred M. Vinson	Kentucky	July 23, 1945	June 23, 1946		Harry S. Truman
54		John Wesley Snyder	Missouri	June 25, 1946	January 20, 1953
55		George M. Humphrey	Ohio	January 21, 1953	July 29, 1957		Dwight D. Eisenhower
56		Robert B. Anderson	Connecticut	July 29, 1957	January 20, 1961
57		C. Douglas Dillon	New Jersey	January 21, 1961	April 1, 1965		John F. Kennedy
							Lyndon B. Johnson
58		Henry H. Fowler	Virginia	April 1, 1965	December 20, 1968
59		Joseph W. Barr	Indiana	December 21, 1968	January 20, 1969
60		David M. Kennedy	Utah	January 22, 1969	February 10, 1971		Richard Nixon
61		John Connally	Texas	February 11, 1971	June 12, 1972
62		George Shultz	Illinois	June 12, 1972	May 8, 1974
63		William E. Simon	New Jersey	May 8, 1974	January 20, 1977
							Gerald Ford
64		W. Michael Blumenthal	Michigan	January 23, 1977	August 4, 1979		Jimmy Carter
65		G. William Miller	Rhode Island	August 7, 1979	January 20, 1981
66		Donald Regan	New Jersey	January 22, 1981	February 1, 1985		Ronald Reagan
67		James Baker	Texas	February 4, 1985	August 17, 1988
–		M. Peter McPherson Acting[b]	Michigan	August 17, 1988	September 15, 1988
68		Nicholas F. Brady	New Jersey	September 15, 1988	January 17, 1993
							George H. W. Bush
69		Lloyd Bentsen	Texas	January 20, 1993	December 22, 1994		Bill Clinton
–		Frank N. Newman Acting[b]	Massachusetts	December 22, 1994	January 11, 1995
70		Robert Rubin	New York	January 11, 1995	July 2, 1999
71		Lawrence Summers	Massachusetts	July 2, 1999	January 20, 2001
72		Paul H. O'Neill	Pennsylvania	January 20, 2001	December 31, 2002		George W. Bush
–		Kenneth W. Dam Acting[b]	Illinois	December 31, 2002	February 3, 2003
73		John W. Snow	Virginia	February 3, 2003	June 30, 2006
–		Robert M. Kimmitt Acting[b]	Virginia	June 30, 2006	July 10, 2006
74		Henry Paulson	Illinois	July 10, 2006	January 20, 2009
–		Stuart A. Levey Acting[c]	Ohio	January 20, 2009	January 26, 2009		Barack Obama
75		Timothy Geithner	New York	January 26, 2009	January 25, 2013
–		Neal S. Wolin Acting[b]	Illinois	January 25, 2013	February 28, 2013
76		Jack Lew	New York	February 28, 2013	January 20, 2017
–		Adam Szubin Acting[c]	Washington, D.C.	January 20, 2017	February 13, 2017		Donald Trump
77		Steven Mnuchin	California	February 13, 2017	January 20, 2021
–		Andy Baukol Acting[d]	Virginia	January 20, 2021	January 26, 2021		Joe Biden
78		Janet Yellen	California	January 26, 2021	Incumbent

Former flag of the Secretary of the Treasury, originating from the 19th century.

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.^[1]

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:^[13]

#	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.

Notes

1. As Secretary of the Navy.
2. As Deputy Secretary of the Treasury.
3. As Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence.
4. As Deputy Assistant Secretary for Monetary Policy.

References

1. "3 U.S. Code § 19 – Vacancy in offices of both President and Vice President; officers eligible to act". LII / Legal Information Institute. Archived from the original on December 26, 2018. Retrieved February 4, 2017.
2. 31 U.S.C. § 301
3. 5 U.S.C. § 5312
4. 50 U.S.C. §§ 3021–Security Council National Security Council
5. Cabinets and Counselors: The President and the Executive Branch (1997). Congressional Quarterly. p. 87.
6. "Janet L. Yellen Sworn In As 78th Secretary of the United States Department of the Treasury" (Press release). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of the Treasury. January 26, 2021. Archived from the original on January 27, 2021. Retrieved January 27, 2021.
7. Tappe, Anneken; Egan, Matt (January 25, 2021). "Janet Yellen is confirmed as the first female Treasury secretary in US history". CNN. Archived from the original on January 26, 2021. Retrieved January 26, 2021.
8. "Duties & Functions: Secretaries of the Treasury". United States Department of the Treasury. Archived from the original on November 19, 2010. Retrieved November 30, 2012.
9. Rappeport, Alan (December 8, 2022). "Yellen Is First Female Treasury Secretary With Signature on U.S. Dollar". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 9, 2022. Retrieved 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.
10. 12 U.S.C. § 5211: Purchases of troubled assets
11. "Salary Table No. 2021-EX Rates of Basic Pay for the Executive Schedule (EX)" (PDF).
12. 50 U.S.C. §§ 3021–Security Council National Security Council
13. "Executive Order on Providing an Order of Succession within the Department of the Treasury". August 16, 2016. Archived from the original on September 25, 2021. Retrieved January 9, 2022. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.

External links

• Official website
• "Secretaries of the Treasury". History of the Treasury. United States Department of the Treasury. Retrieved April 9, 2006.

U.S. order of precedence (ceremonial)
Preceded by David Souter as retired Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court	Order of precedence of the United States as Secretary of the Treasury	Succeeded by Lloyd Austin as Secretary of Defense
U.S. presidential line of succession
Preceded by Secretary of State Antony Blinken	5th in line	Succeeded by Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin