Mark Schmitt

Senior Fellow and Director of the Fellows Program, Roosevelt Institute

Mark Schmitt is a noted voice on reform of the political process and an expert on campaign finance, congressional procedure, and state-level politics. He has written extensively on Budget & Tax Policy, and on the history and role of ideas in politics. In 2005, Mr. Schmitt began a monthly column, “The Out Years,” in The American Prospect; in 2009, he changed the name of the column to “Ways and Means”. Mr. Schmitt has written for The New Republic, The Financial Times, and many other publications, and has contributed chapters to numerous books. In 2003, he launched The Decembrist, which was named one of the five best political blogs in 2004 by Forbes. He is a frequent contributor to the widely read blog, TPMCafe. Previously, Mr. Schmitt served as the executive editor of The American Prospect.

Before joining the New America Foundation, Mr. Schmitt was Director of Policy and Research at the Open Society Institute, and served for seven years in the U.S. Senate as a speechwriter and later as Policy Director for Sen. Bill Bradley. He was a senior policy advisor on Bradley’s 2000 presidential campaign. Schmitt serves on the boards of the Center for Policy Alternatives and the Proteus Fund.

As a Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation, Mr. Schmitt works on developing new approaches to finding the balance between money and expression in the political process, as well as on tax and budget policy. He is working on a book on the emergence of strong political parties in the United States.

Issues: Anti-Poverty programs, Anti-Trust Regulations, Bank Bail Out, Bank Bonuses, Banking and Finance, Budget and Tax Policy, Discretionary Spending, Economic Mobility, Efficient Government, Fannie/Freddie, Federal Budget, Financial Markets, Government Investment, Healthcare, Housing Market Collapse, Medicare/Medicaid, Middle Class, Municipal/State Budgets, National Debt, Off Shore Tax Shelters, Payroll Taxes, Privatization, Ratings Agencies, Securitization, Social Insurance, Social Investment, Social Security, Too Big To Fail, Unfunded Mandates, US Infrastructure, Welfare, Workforce Development

Experience:

• Executive Editor, the American Prospect, 2008-2012
• Senior Fellow, the New America Foundation
• Director of Policy and Research, Open Society Institute
• Speechwriter and Policy Director, Senator Bill Bradley

Education:

B.A., Yale University, 1984