Gene Sperling

Gene Sperling is a Visiting Fellow in the Economic Studies Program at the Brookings Institution. In addition to working on budgetary, tax, Social Security, and globalization issues, he will be leading an ongoing Brookings Forum on Universal Education in Poor Countries. Mr. Sperling is a Contributing Editor and Columnist for Bloomberg News. He also serves as a consultant for financial organizations and is a consultant/contributing writer for the television show, The West Wing.

Formerly, Mr. Sperling was National Economic Advisor and Director of the National Economic Council during President Clinton's second term and Deputy Director during the first term. Mr. Sperling was the third and longest serving Director of the National Economic Council, following Robert Rubin and Laura Tyson.

As National Economic Advisor and White House chief economic advisor, Mr. Sperling coordinated President Clinton’s efforts to institute debt reduction, Save Social Security First, as well as globalization and trade issues. Mr. Sperling was a principal negotiator for the 1997 Balanced Budget Agreement, a principal negotiator with Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers in finalizing the Financial Modernization Bill and together with United States Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky, successfully 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, including the design and passage of such legislation as:

• 1993 Deficit Reduction Act/Earned Income Tax Credit Expansion
• Passage of the China WTO Legislation
• Hope Scholarship and Lifelong Learning Tax Credit
• Digital Divide Initiatives (Technology Literacy Challenge, Community Technology Center)
• Workforce Improvement Act
• Debt Relief for Highly-Indebted Poor Countries Legislation
• Universal education and child labor legislation
• New Markets legislation, Empowerment Zones and CDFI Acts
• GEAR-UP mentoring legislation/America Reads/Child Literacy Legislation/Direct Student Loans
• Children’s Health Insurance Program

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 Foreign Affairs (forthcoming), Financial Times, 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. Additionally, he has appeared on such television shows as Meet the Press, Face the Nation, Good Morning America, Nightline, Moneyline, CNBC Business Center, Fox Morning News, and ABC, NBC and CBS Evening News broadcasts.

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.