Gene B. Sperling is National Economic Advisor and Director of the National Economic Council. The National Economic Council (NEC) was created by President Clinton in 1993 to coordinate the economic policy process among all cabinet agencies, with respect to both domestic and international economic issues. As Director of the NEC, Mr. Sperling is responsible for ensuring that economic policy is consistent with the President's long term goals of maintaining fiscal discipline, making key investments in the American people, and opening foreign markets for American workers, farmers and businesses.
Mr. Sperling is the third and longest serving Director of the National Economic Council, following Robert Rubin and Dr. Laura D'Andrea Tyson. During President Clinton's first term, Mr. Sperling served as NEC's Deputy Director. As Deputy Director, he helped design and pass several of President Clinton's early initiatives including: the 1993 Deficit Reduction Act; the increase in the Earned Income Tax Credit; the Direct Student Loan Program; Empowerment Zones and the Community Development Financial Institutions program; and the Technology Literacy Initiative. He also helped create the America Reads child literacy initiative.
As National Economic Advisor and NEC Director, Mr. Sperling has coordinated President Clinton's efforts to institute debt reduction, Save Social Security First, and reform Medicare policies. Mr. Sperling was a principal negotiator for the 1997 Balanced Budget Agreement. He also served as a principal negotiator with Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers in finalizing the Financial Modernization Bill. Together with United States Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky, Mr. Sperling successfully negotiated and concluded the historic China-WTO agreement in Beijing. He played a lead role in the design and passage of many of President Clinton's other initiatives, particularly the GEAR-UP mentoring program, the Hope Scholarship Tax Credit, the Workforce Improvement Act, and the Children's Health Insurance Program. He is currently playing a lead role in such initiatives as the New Markets legislation, Debt Relief for Highly Indebted Countries, and the President's goal of universal basic education.
Prior to joining the NEC, Mr. Sperling served as Deputy Director of Economic Policy for the Presidential Transition and Economic Policy Director of the Clinton-Gore Presidential campaign. From 1990 to 1992, he was an economic advisor to Governor Mario Cuomo of New York.
Mr. Sperling's publications have appeared in the Yale Law Journal, Columbia Law Review, Michigan Law Review, and Pennsylvania Law Review, as well as the Atlantic Monthly, Washington Post, New York Times, USA Today, Christian Science Monitor, and The American Prospect.
Mr. Sperling graduated from the University of Minnesota and Yale Law School, and attended Wharton Business School. At Yale Law School he was Senior Editor of the Yale Law Journal. He is a native of Ann Arbor, Michigan, where his parents still live.
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