Michael Faulkender — profile dossier

Pandemic-program role: Treasury co-signatory of the Jan 14, 2021 PPP Interim Final Rule and lead author of Treasury's PPP job-preservation working paper; returned in 2025 as Deputy Secretary.
Institution · office: Treasury · Office of Economic Policy (2019–21); Office of the Deputy Secretary (2025) · Type: political (PAS)
Tenure (relief-relevant): Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy 2019 – January 2021 (Treasury biography and congress.gov nomination, in post by December 2020 per the working paper and on Jan 14, 2021 per the IFR); Deputy Secretary from late March 2025 (Senate confirmation announced in Treasury release sb0062, March 27, 2025) to Aug 22, 2025 (CNBC)

The job (role mechanics)

Level / appointment: PAS, Senate-confirmed. Role 1: Assistant Secretary (Economic Policy) = Executive Schedule IV. Role 2: Deputy Secretary = Executive Schedule II.
Reports to: Role 1: Secretary of the Treasury (Mnuchin). Role 2: Secretary of the Treasury (Bessent); Deputy Secretary is the department's chief operating officer and second-ranking official.
Core responsibility: As Asst. Secretary for Economic Policy, advise the Secretary on domestic/international economic conditions and analyze policy (incl. relief design). As Deputy Secretary, day-to-day management of the entire department.
Pay: Role 1: EX-IV = $172,500 (2021); Role 2: EX-II = $199,300 (2021 table), per the OPM 2021-EX table; 5 U.S.C. 5313 and 5315.
Expectations / mandate: Economic Policy produces Treasury's economic analysis and forecasts; Deputy Secretary exercises authority delegated by the Secretary across all bureaus.
Tenure norm: Serves at the pleasure of the President (political). Actual: about 17 months in Role 1; about five months in Role 2.

Michael Faulkender is an American finance academic who served as a senior Treasury official in both Trump administrations.

B.S., University of California, Davis; Ph.D., Northwestern University (Kellogg) (Treasury biography).

Finance faculty appointments, most recently at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business (Treasury biography).

As Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy he was the Treasury-side signatory on the second-round PPP rule and, per the working paper's own disclosure, "contributed to Treasury's efforts to support the Small Business Administration's implementation of PPP."
He co-signed the Jan 14, 2021 PPP Interim Final Rule implementing the Economic Aid Act amendments — 86 FR 3692, FR Doc 2021-00451. The signature block reads "Jovita Carranza" (SBA Administrator) and "Michael Faulkender, Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy" (Treasury).
Authored Treasury's Office of Economic Policy working paper on PPP's job-preservation effects: The Job-Preservation Effects of Paycheck Protection Program Loans (Treasury EP Working Paper 2020-01).

PPP Interim Final Rule, Jan 14, 2021 (86 FR 3692; FR Doc 2021-00451) — Treasury co-signatory (Federal Register PDF).
Treasury EP Working Paper 2020-01, The Job-Preservation Effects of Paycheck Protection Program Loans (author).

Chief Economist at the America First Policy Institute between his Treasury stints (CNBC).
March 27, 2025: Treasury release sb0062 announces his Senate confirmation as the 16th Deputy Secretary of the Treasury; the senate.gov roll-call page for the confirmation vote (No. 149) is cited, but we do not have a copy.
Served concurrently as Acting IRS Commissioner in 2025 (CNBC).
Aug 22, 2025: departure from the administration reported by CNBC.