The US Senate finance committee said  it will begin considering whether to confirm Janet Yellen, President-elect Joe Biden’s nominee for Treasury secretary on January 19, one day before the President-elect is scheduled to take office.

If confirmed by the Senate, Yellen would become the first female Treasury secretary in US history, and take office as the United States struggles with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

“We face great challenges as a country right now. To recover, we must restore the American dream, a society where each person can rise to their potential and dream even bigger for their children,” Yellen said at her nomination in November.

The latest government data shows the economy shedding jobs in December and weekly layoffs continuing at a pace above the worst of the 2008-2010 global financial crisis ten months after COVID-19 first hit the country.

Biden, who defeated outgoing president Donald Trump in the November elections, is set to be sworn in to office on January 20 and expected to push Congress to enact a massive spending bill to help the economy recover.