Baucus Announces David Schwartz to Serve as Finance Committee Acting Health Policy Chief

Washington, DC – Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) today announced that David Schwartz will be promoted to Acting Chief Health and Welfare Counsel on the Senate Finance Committee staff.  Schwartz will replace Liz Fowler, who will serve as Deputy Director of the Office of Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).  Fowler served as Baucus’ top health policy advisor for health care reform and will work on implementation of the new law in her position at HHS.  Schwartz is a Finance Committee veteran who has been advising Baucus on health care policy since 2004.     

“My health policy team played an important role in advising me and the entire Finance Committee as we crafted the landmark health care reform law and I’m very proud of their hard work and dedication.  Liz Fowler is an extremely knowledgeable and dedicated advisor, and while I’m very proud of her new position, she will certainly be missed at the Committee,” Baucus said.  “David Schwartz has served the Finance Committee well for nearly seven years and I’m very confident he will continue to do so in this new role leading the team’s work on critical health policy issues, including implementation of the new health care reform law.  The health care reform law is a significant victory for Americans all across the country who will benefit from increased competition, lower health care costs and higher quality care.  That law is going to be successful in part because of the years of sound and comprehensive preparation and effort by Liz, David and the rest of my health policy team during all of the Finance Committee’s hard work on the bill.  I’m very thankful for their dedication to help us make the new law such an achievement.”

Schwartz currently serves as Health Counsel to the Chairman for Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), pharmacy and pharmaceutical issues, medical malpractice, and program integrity in federal health care programs.  He began working on the Committee as a Capitol Hill Fellow in 2004 and as a detailee from the Social Security Administration in 2005 and 2006 before joining the permanent staff in 2007.  Before coming to the Committee, Schwartz served as an Attorney-Advisor to the Executive Counselor for Special Initiatives in the office of the Commissioner of Social Security.  Schwartz has also previously served as an Attorney-Advisor in the Medicare division of the Social Security Administration’s Office of Hearings and Appeals.  Schwartz, a native of Little Neck, New York, earned his B.A. in Psychology from the University at Albany, State University of New York and a J.D. from The George Washington University Law School. 

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