Bruce Reed (political operative)


Bruce Reed is the former president of the Broad Foundation. Prior to assuming that role in December 2013, he served as Chief of Staff to U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and is a former CEO of the Democratic Leadership Council.

Early life and education

Reed is a native of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, and the son of Idaho State Senator Mary Lou Reed and Scott Reed, prominent environmental attorney. He attended Princeton University and graduated with an A.B. in English in 1982 after completing a 92-page long senior thesis titled "Dickens, Decency, and Discontent: George Orwell and the Literature of Generous Anger." He then earned a master's degree in English Literature from Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar.

Career

Reed served as chief speechwriter for Tennessee Senator Al Gore from 1985 to 1989. He was founding editor of the DLC magazine, The New Democrat and served as policy director of the DLC from 1990 to 1991 under DLC Chairman and Governor of Arkansas Bill Clinton. In 1992, he was deputy campaign manager for policy of the Clinton-Gore presidential campaign. During the Clinton presidency, Reed served as chief domestic policy advisor and director of the Domestic Policy Council. Reed oversaw the administration's criminal justice policy, and worked closely with Joe Biden to pass "tough-on-crime" legislation including the 1994 Crime Bill. Reed also helped to write the 1996 welfare reform law known as the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act. He is credited with coining the welfare reform catchphrase, "end welfare as we know it."
In 2006, Reed published his book The Plan: Big Ideas for America, co-written by Rahm Emmanuel. A Foreign Affairs review of the book notes "the most important big idea in the book is that Democrats should stop defending the New Deal and instead concentrate on recasting it for a more mobile society".
Reed is the author of the taunt, "change you can Xerox," from the in Austin, Texas. Reed supplied Senator Hillary Clinton with the phrase to invoke accusations of plagiarism against rival Senator Barack Obama while parodying his campaign slogan: "Change you can believe in."
In the spring of 2010, Reed took a leave of absence from the DLC to become Executive Director of President National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, the commission tasked with finding a path to a balanced budget during the Great Recession. As Executive Director, Reed allowed senior staff members of the Simpson-Bowles Commission to be paid by Blackstone founder Pete Peterson. The Simpson-Bowles Commission notably proposed cuts to Social Security and Medicare.
On January 14, 2011 he was named Chief of Staff to Vice President Joe Biden, succeeding Ron Klain. In November 2013 it was announced that he would step down as the Vice President's Chief of Staff to become president of the Broad Foundation.

Works