First Lady Dr. Jill Biden.Photo: CBS via Getty
Dr.Jill Biden’s recent returnto in-personteaching highlights the history she’s madeas the only first lady in memoryto maintain a paying job outside the White House. But it has also raised questions regarding the ethics of — and perceptions of a conflict from — that paid work while husbandJoe Bidenis president.
The emoluments clause in the U.S. Constitution, which prevents any president from profiting from his role beyond his compensation as commander in chief, doesn’t extend to the first lady.
Even so, the Biden administration has reportedly been sensitive to perceptions of anything untoward.
Dr. Biden’s salary, in other words, is neither paid with state funding nor does it come from one specific donor.
As a spokesperson explained toCBS News, the funds used to pay the salary “are not attributable to any specific donor” and instead come via the “unrestricted proceeds of a grant NOVA completed in 2019.”
A spokesperson for NOVA confirmed Dr. Biden’s salary and its funding to PEOPLE.
Dr. Jill Biden.SUSAN WALSH/POOL/AFP via Getty
According to the CBS News report, the first lady’s team was already considering the ethical implications of her teaching role in the days and weeks after her husband was elected, with NOVA’s dean telling fellow administrators that Dr. Biden’s staff was “meeting with attorneys to make sure there were no legal barriers to her teaching.”
Dr. Biden, who has worked at NOVA since 2009, teaches writing and English. She made headlines last year when she said wouldcontinue teachingif she became first lady.
“If we get to the White House, I’m going to continue to teach,” she toldCBS Sunday Morningin November. “It’s important, and I want people to value teachers and know their contributions and lift up their profession.”
She says she has worked to maintain a strict divide between her personal and professional life. Known as “Dr. B” to many of her students, she keeps politics out of the classroom and previously said some of her students were unaware she was married to the then-vice president according to the Associated Press.
The first several months of her husband’s administration were, for Dr, Biden, full of remote instruction amid thecoronavirus pandemic.
The first lady marked the start of a new academic year recently, withthe AP reportingshe returned to campus at NOVA to teach classes in-person earlier this month.
Dr. Biden, who has received the COVID-19 vaccine, will be taking safety precautions, as NOVA is requiring everyone to wear a face covering while indoors this semester, regardless of vaccination status.
source: people.com
