WASHINGTON (AP) — White House senior adviser Gene Sperling is leaving her administrative role to work on Vice President Kamala Harris’ election campaign, as Democrats step up efforts to challenge donald trump on political issues in the November elections.
Sperling will be a senior economic adviser on Harris’ political team. The move was revealed by White House officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters.
Sperling served both Bill Clinton It is Barack Obama as director of the White House National Economic Council. President Joe Biden Biden tasked him with managing his $1.9 billion pandemic relief package, a role in which Sperling implemented the temporary expansion of the child tax credit. He was also the White House liaison to the union and the automakers during car strikes.
“Under Gene’s leadership, the American Rescue Plan provided economic relief to cities and counties across the country, protected millions in union pensions, made the largest-ever federal investment in public safety, and kept thousands of small businesses afloat.” , Biden said in a statement obtained by the Associated Press.
Sperling first worked with Harris when she was attorney general of California during her time in the Obama administration. He often consulted her as an outside advisor when she was in the Senate. The two partnered during Biden’s presidency in promoting monthly child tax credit payments, among other policies.
Pandemic programs have been cut in half child poverty with tax credits which went to 40 million households and provided rental assistance to 8 million.
But Republican critics blame pandemic aid for triggering rising inflation, an issue that has dogged the Biden administration as many voters say food, housing and gasoline have become less affordable. Financial markets opened Monday with a sell-off as a weaker-than-expected jobs report last week raised concerns about the resilience of the US economy.
The White House maintained that inflation was global in nature, with chief of staff Jeff Zients asserting that efforts coordinated by Sperling “have produced the strongest economy in the world.”
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, described the work Sperling led as “generational investments” and credited him with working with states to get the programs right.
