Organization and Staffing

Director

Phillip Swagel became the 10th Director of the Congressional Budget Office on June 3, 2019. Previously, he was a professor at the University of Maryland’s School of Public Policy and a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and the Milken Institute. He has also taught at Northwestern University, the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, and Georgetown University. His research has involved financial market reform, international trade policy, and China’s role in the global economy.

From 2006 to 2009, Dr. Swagel was Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy at the Treasury Department, where he was responsible for analysis of a wide range of economic issues, including policies relating to the financial crisis and the Troubled Asset Relief Program. He has also served as chief of staff and senior economist at the Council of Economic Advisers in the White House and as an economist at the Federal Reserve Board and the International Monetary Fund. He earned his Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University and his A.B. in economics from Princeton University.

Chief Economist

Mark Doms joined CBO as Chief Economist in 2020. He has examined a wide variety of topics throughout his career, including macroeconomics, financial markets, labor, productivity, and economic measurement. He has been a senior fellow at the Center for International Governance Innovation, a senior economist at Nomura Securities, Under Secretary of Commerce for Economic Affairs at the Department of Commerce, Chief Economist in that department, a senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, an economist at the Federal Reserve Board, and an economist at the Census Bureau. His research has been published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, the Journal of Political Economy, and elsewhere. He received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and a B.A. from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel

Mark Hadley served as CBO’s Deputy Director from 2016 through 2019. Before then, he was CBO’s General Counsel for nearly eight years. In that capacity, he oversaw the agency’s legal work, ethics program and acquisitions. He had advanced from the post of Deputy General Counsel. Before that, Mark Hadley was a transactional lawyer with Jones Day, a large international law firm, where he specialized in structured finance and derivatives. Prior to his legal career, he was an associate analyst at CBO for five years—during which time his areas of responsibility were aviation, deposit insurance, and commerce—and a financial specialist with the Small Business Administration. Mark Hadley has a Master’s degree in public affairs from the Robert M. La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin and a J.D. degree (with high honors) from The George Washington University Law School. Mark Hadley also serves as the Chair of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Network of Parliamentary Budget Officials and Independent Fiscal Institutions.

Research Director

Jeffrey Kling is an economist who served as Associate Director for Economic Analysis at CBO from 2009 through 2019. Previously, he was a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a faculty member at Princeton University. His research has been published in the American Economic Review, Econometrica, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, and elsewhere. He earned his Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his A.B. from Harvard University.

Director of Legislative Affairs

Leigh Angres joined CBO in 2007 and worked in a variety of positions before becoming head of legislative affairs in 2015. Before assuming her current post, she served for more than five years as a special assistant to the Director. Before joining the Director’s office in 2009, she was an analyst in the Budget Analysis Division. There, she prepared cost estimates for legislation involving deposit insurance, the U.S. court system, and Department of Justice programs. In earlier government service, she worked as a budget analyst in the Department of Justice’s Civil Division, preparing the agency’s appropriation requests. She earned her M.P.P. from the University of California at Berkeley and her A.B. from Duke University.

Director of Communications

Deborah Kilroe joined CBO as the head of its communications office in April 2011. Before coming to the agency, she spent five years working in communications in the Federal Reserve System. Most recently, she was a vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where she oversaw media relations and public affairs, and she previously worked in the public affairs office at the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, D.C. Before joining the Federal Reserve Board, Deborah Kilroe spent 15 years as a journalist, during which time she specialized in covering economics, monetary policy, financial markets, and politics. Her journalism career began at States News Service in Washington, covering the Congress and the Administration. She went on to be a staff writer at The Record, in New Jersey, focusing on municipal government. She later became an economics reporter at Bridge News in New York and at Dow Jones Newswires in Washington. She also worked as a senior producer for AOLTV and has been an on-air contributor to CNBC, MSNBC, and PBS’s Nightly Business Report. She holds a B.S. in journalism from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Senior Advisor

Robert A. Sunshine is a senior advisor to the Director, a post he assumed in June 2016. Before then, he was the Deputy Director for almost nine years, serving under three different Directors—and he served as Acting Director from November 2008 to January 2009. In 2003, he received the James L. Blum Award for exceptional and distinguished accomplishment and leadership in public budgeting from the American Association for Budget and Program Analysis. Bob Sunshine has been with CBO almost from its inception. From 1999 to 2007, he served as Assistant Director for Budget Analysis. From 1995 to 1999, he was the Deputy Assistant Director of the Budget Analysis Division. From 1978 to 1994, he served as Chief of the Natural and Physical Resources Cost Estimates Unit in that division. For the two years before that, he was a principal analyst in the Budget Analysis Division, covering transportation issues. Before coming to CBO, he was a senior associate with Simat, Helliesen and Eichner, Inc., a transportation consulting firm.

Director of Budget Analysis

Theresa Gullo is the Director of Budget Analysis at CBO. She guides and contributes to analyses that are critical to the legislative processes of the Congress—including projections of federal spending for the current year and the next 10 years under current laws and policies for about 1,000 budget accounts covering all federal activities; tallies of federal spending throughout the year; and about 600 formal cost estimates (most of which include estimates of the cost of federal mandates on state, local, and tribal governments) each year for legislation approved by committees and thousands of informal estimates each year for legislation under consideration. Ms. Gullo has worked at CBO since 1985. She served as an analyst in the Natural and Physical Resources Cost Estimates Unit, where she handled land and water management issues. She also helped create and managed the State and Local Government Cost Estimates Unit until 2007, when she became the division’s Deputy Director.

Before coming to CBO, Ms. Gullo worked at the Urban Institute, conducting research on a variety of public finance issues, including infrastructure investment and state implementation of federal block grants. She graduated from Scripps College with a bachelor’s degree in American studies and received a master’s degree in public policy from the University of California at Berkeley.

Deputy Director of Budget Analysis

Leo Lex, one of two deputies in the Budget Analysis Division, works with the Director of Budget Analysis to manage the division’s work on various topics, including health, defense, international affairs, and veterans’ issues. He came to CBO in 1995 to join the team that carries out CBO’s responsibilities under the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act by estimating the costs of intergovernmental and private-sector mandates in legislation. As an analyst, he was primarily responsible for producing mandate statements for bills that affected health and income security programs. He also focused on state tax issues. In 2007, he became the head of the State, Local, and Tribal Cost Estimates Unit and in that capacity reviewed CBO’s mandate analyses for all bills approved by authorizing committees. Before coming to CBO, he worked for the Illinois Bureau of the Budget, where he projected cash flows for the state’s general fund and coordinated the state’s borrowing for general obligation debt. He graduated from Augustana College in South Dakota with a bachelor’s degree in English and government and received a master’s degree in public administration, with a focus on state and local government finance, from Syracuse University.

Deputy Director of Budget Analysis

Sam Papenfuss is one of two deputies in the Budget Analysis Division. In that capacity, he works with the Director of Budget Analysis to manage the division’s work on a wide array of topics, including Social Security, income security, education, immigration, and natural and physical resources. Mr. Papenfuss joined CBO in 1999 as an analyst of military and veterans’ health care. He was responsible principally for the cost estimates and baseline projections for Tricare for Life (the health care program for military retirees who are eligible for Medicare), but also for work involving bioterrorism and international affairs. In 2007, he became the head of the Income Security and Education Cost Estimates Unit. In that post, he oversaw cost estimates and baseline projections for Social Security and for programs providing unemployment insurance, nutrition assistance, and student loans. He also was the primary coordinator for all of the division’s work related to immigration. Mr. Papenfuss graduated from Brigham Young University with a bachelor’s degree in economics and pursued doctoral studies in economics at George Mason University, where he completed all of the requirements for his degree except his dissertation.

Director of Financial Analysis

Sebastien Gay became CBO’s Director of Financial Analysis in May 2017. He came to the agency in 2016 as an analyst and performed research on federal housing programs and fair-market value analysis. Before joining CBO, he was a Director at Berkeley Research Group, a consulting firm, where he provided independent analysis, expert testimony, and dispute consulting for firms in the financial, health care, and insurance industries, as well as for government. He was also on the faculty at the Department of Economics at the University of Chicago. His research focused on corporate governance, financial risks and disclosures, real estate, health care, and experimental economics. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago, a master’s degree in finance from the Ecole Nationale de la Statistique et de l’Administration Economique (ENSAE) ParisTech, and an M.Phil. in law and political science from Sciences Po in Paris.

Deputy Director of Health Analysis

Chapin White is a health economist who joined CBO in 2004 and then worked at the Rand Corporation and the Center for Studying Health System Change before rejoining CBO in 2020. His areas of expertise include price transparency, health insurance coverage, provider payment policy, surprise billing, and microsimulation modeling. He holds an A.B. from Harvard College, an M.P.P. from the Harvard Kennedy School, and a Ph.D. in health policy from Harvard University.

Director of Labor, Income Security, and Long-Term Analysis

Julie Topoleski became CBO’s Director of Labor, Income Security, and Long-Term Analysis in January 2021. She previously served as a Deputy Director for Health, Retirement, and Long-Term Analysis. Before that, she was the chief of the Long-Term Analysis Unit, which is responsible for long-term projections of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and the federal budget, as well as for long-term analysis of policy changes in those areas. As unit chief, she directed the annual publication of The Long-Term Budget Outlook and managed CBOLT, which is CBO’s long-term microsimulation model. She joined CBO in 2003 as an analyst, working on CBOLT, playing an integral role in long-run analyses of proposed changes to Social Security and Medicare, and helping write The Long-Term Budget Outlook. Dr. Topoleski received a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Maryland and a B.A. in economics from Mary Washington College.

Director of Macroeconomic Analysis

Jeffrey F. Werling joined CBO in 2016. Before coming to the agency, he was the Director of Inforum, a research unit within the Department of Economics at the University of Maryland, College Park. There, he served as the principal investigator for projects concerning economic forecasts, infrastructure investment, health care, fiscal policy, port disruptions, immigration, and exchange rate fluctuations. For more than a decade, he contributed to the Blue Chip and other consensus economic forecasts. He also taught an undergraduate course in economic development. Previously, he held positions as an international and industry economist with the National Electrical Manufacturers Association, the Manufacturers Alliance for Productivity and Innovation, and Wharton Econometric Forecasting Associates (now Global Insight). He received a B.S. in mineral economics from the Pennsylvania State University, and an M.A. and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Maryland.

Deputy Director of Macroeconomic Analysis

John Kitchen came to CBO in 2018. He was previously a financial economist at the Office of Tax Policy in the U.S. Treasury, where he focused on corporate and business taxation, including tax policies affecting investment and depreciation. Before holding that position, he served as senior economist and then chief economist at the Office of Management and Budget; as chief economist at the Committee on the Budget in the House of Representatives; as senior economist at the Treasury’s Office of Economic Policy; and as a senior economist for the Council of Economic Advisers. His experience and research interests are in the areas of business economics, economic forecasting, international macroeconomics, and public finance. He holds a B.A. in economics and history from the College of William and Mary and an M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from the University of Pittsburgh.

Chief Administrative Officer and Director of Management, Business, and Information Services

Joseph E. Evans, Jr., became CBO’s Chief Administrative Officer in June 2013, having advanced from his position as the agency’s Chief Financial Officer, which he had held since 2004. As the head of CBO’s division providing all support services for the agency, Joe Evans has broad responsibilities —for human resources, financial systems, information and technology resources, library services, and facilities, as well as for the editing and production of CBO’s publications. During his time as Chief Financial Officer, he handled all aspects of planning and implementing the agency’s budgetary and financial activities.

Before he came to CBO, Joe Evans held increasingly responsible positions at the Defense Intelligence Agency. As the Deputy Chief Financial Executive/Comptroller, he provided fiscal oversight and management of the agency’s multibillion-dollar budget and worked in various ways to improve the agency’s management of resources. Before that, in a number of different roles over the course of about 15 years, he presided over the planning of and systems for the agency’s budget and finances, providing advice and analyses to align resources with needs and priorities. A certified government financial manager, he holds two bachelor’s degrees from the University of Maryland, in business management and accounting, and a master’s degree from the same institution, in management, with a specialization in procurement contracts.

Deputy Chief Administrative Officer and Chief Human Resources Officer

Stephanie M. Ruiz began her career at CBO in 1999. She started as a human resources specialist and was promoted in 2001 to lead the Human Resources Office. Since 2009, she has held the dual role of Chief Human Resources Officer and Deputy Chief Administrative Officer. Before joining CBO, she managed various human resources functions at the Samson Companies, a diversified oil and gas company with international operations, headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Ms. Ruiz has also held various roles in academic administration at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University and at the University of Tulsa. Ms. Ruiz received her bachelor’s degree in political science and Spanish from the University of Tulsa and her master’s degree in human resource management from Marymount University. She holds the Professional in Human Resources certification from the Human Resource Certification Institute and is an SHRM Certified Professional.

Director of Microeconomic Analysis

Joseph Kile came to CBO in 2005, following 16 years in various positions at the Government Accountability Office (GAO). While at that agency, he led the Center for Economics, within the Applied Research and Methods Team—overseeing a group of economists that provided analyses and reviews of a broad range of issues. Before that, he was a senior economist and an assistant director within GAO’s Office of the Chief Economist. His analyses focused, in particular, on the issues of transportation (especially aviation financing, airline competition, and air service to small communities), energy, natural resources and the environment, and the pharmaceutical industry. Joseph Kile received a master’s degree and a doctorate in economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His bachelor’s degree in economics and mathematics is from St. Olaf College, in Northfield, Minnesota.

Director of National Security Analysis

David E. Mosher returned to CBO in June 2010, resuming with the agency after having been a principal analyst at CBO from 1990 to 2000 in the division that he now leads. In the decade in between his time at CBO, he was a senior policy analyst at RAND. During his time at RAND, David Mosher was also an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and served as the director of the American Physical Society’s Study Group on Boost-Phase Intercept Systems for National Missile Defense. His research focused on environmental issues for the Army in contingency operations; ballistic missile defense; military use of space; nuclear proliferation; nuclear weapons; the role of the military and the National Guard in homeland security; special forces aviation; Army strategy; and terrorists’ acquisition and use of nuclear, biological, chemical, and radiological weapons. David Mosher holds an M.P.A. from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, and a B.A. in physics from Grinnell College, in Grinnell, Iowa.

Deputy Director of National Security Analysis

Edward G. Keating joined CBO in January 2017 as the Deputy Director of the National Security Division. Before coming to CBO, he worked for 24 years as an economist at the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, California. His research at RAND focused on helping government agencies, especially the Department of Defense, make cost-effective decisions; specific areas of research included the effects of aging on aircraft, when and whether to repair or replace military hardware, how the Department of Defense should structure its internal transfer pricing, military and civilian compensation policies, how the Forest Service should structure its aerial firefighting fleet, and the effects of government spending on economic development. He has published widely in RAND publications and in professional and trade journals. He earned a Ph.D. in economic analysis and policy from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a B.A. in mathematical methods in the social sciences and economics from Northwestern University.

Director of Tax Analysis

John McClelland came to CBO in August 2016 following 18 years at the Department of the Treasury. At that agency, he most recently was Special Assistant to the Director of the Office of Tax Analysis (OTA). Before that, at OTA, he was the Director of Revenue Estimating; in that role, he was responsible for the Administration’s estimates of the revenue consequences of all tax proposals. Over the course of his tenure at OTA, he worked on a variety of topics in taxation, with a particular focus on business taxes and the consequences of potential reforms. Earlier in his time at the Treasury Department, he was the analyst responsible for the forecasts of revenues from the corporate income tax and a variety of excise taxes. John McClelland received his doctorate in economics from the University of Maryland, College Park. He received his bachelor’s degree in economics, mathematics, and environmental studies from Bowdoin College, in Brunswick, Maine.

Deputy Director of Tax Analysis

Joseph Rosenberg joined CBO in July 2019. He previously worked at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, where he built models, conducted analyses, and published papers and reports about individual and corporate income taxes, payroll taxes, estate and gift taxes, excise taxes, carbon taxes, and value-added taxes. He has extensive experience estimating the budgetary, distributional, and economic effects of tax policies; building microsimulation models; and modeling behavioral responses to taxation. He received a B.A. from Colorado College and was a Ph.D. candidate in economics at the University of California, Berkeley.