George T. Frampton, Jr. is Chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality. In this capacity, he serves as the senior environmental policy advisor to President Clinton and Vice President Gore.
Mr. Frampton previously served the Administration as Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Fish, Wildlife and Parks, with policy, budget and administrative responsibility for the National Park Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. During his tenure, from 1993 to 1997, Mr. Frampton played a leading role in major initiatives including the development and implementation of a federal-state restoration plan for Florida's Everglades; administrative reform of the Endangered Species Act with innovative approaches such as "habitat conservation plans"; and restoration of Prince William Sound following the Exxon Valdez oil spill.
From 1986 to 1993, Mr. Frampton was President of the Wilderness Society, a national conservation organization headquartered in Washington, D.C. Under Mr. Frampton's leadership, the Society's budget grew three-fold and membership increased four-fold. Major priorities included ending government subsidies harmful to the environment; bringing economic and biological expertise to the challenge of protecting national forests, including the ancient forests of the Pacific Northwest; and assisting rural Western communities with the transition to sustainable economies.
Mr. Frampton was born in Washington, D.C. on August 24, 1944, and was raised in Urbana, Illinois. He graduated from Yale University in 1965, with a degree in Physics and Philosophy. After receiving a masters degree in Advanced Economic Theory from the London School of Economics, he graduated from Harvard Law School in 1969, where he was Managing Editor of the Harvard Law Review.
In the early 1970s, Mr. Frampton was a Law Clerk for the Honorable Harry A. Blackman, U.S. Supreme Court. From 1973 to 1975, he served as an Assistant Special Prosecutor in the Watergate investigation. From 1979 to 1980, he served as Deputy Director and Chief of Staff for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Special Inquiry into the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island.
Mr. Frampton's legal background includes his tenure as partner in the Washington law firm of Rogovin, Huge, and Lenzner from 1977 to 1985. Following his tenure at the Department of Interior, Mr. Frampton served as an environmental consultant and attorney, and as Corporate Adviser to Earth Satellite Corp, a leading interpreter of satellite remote sensing data for environmental, natural resource, agricultural and national security uses.
Mr. Frampton has been a visiting lecturer in constitutional law at Duke University Law School, special counsel to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a VISTA volunteer lawyer and a fellow at the Center for Law and Social Policy.
He has written extensively about the environment, including an introduction to Breaking New Ground, the autobiography of forest management pioneer Gifford Pinchot. He is also the author of "Bringing Racial Diversity to the Environmental Movement," in Reconstruction and more than 40 op-ed pieces in national newspapers.