Rosie Rios became chair of the United States Semiquincentennial Commission in 2022.
Rios was designated by President Joe Biden in July 2022, succeeding Daniel DiLella. The commission is the bipartisan, congressionally established body responsible for planning the national commemoration of the 250th anniversary of American independence.
Rios had already served as the 43rd Treasurer of the United States from 2009 to 2016 under President Barack Obama. She was also one of the commission’s appointed private citizens before becoming chair. Her predecessor, Anna Escobedo Cabral, was not the outgoing chair; Cabral was Rios’s predecessor as U.S. treasurer.
The celebration marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, adopted in 1776, with the main anniversary observed on July 4, 2026. The commission is commonly confused with the separate White House Task Force on Celebrating America’s 250th Birthday, created in 2025 by Executive Order 14189.