Paul Winfree was Deputy Assistant to the President for
Domestic policy, Deputy Director of the
Domestic Policy Council, and Director of Budget Policy in the
Trump administration. He was als
formerlythe distinguished fellow in economic policy and public leadership at
The Heritage Foundation. In addition, he was director of the
Thomas A. Roe
Thomas Anderson Roe Jr. (1927–2000) was an American businessman, philanthropist, and conservative activist.
Early life and education
Roe was born in 1927 in Greenville, South Carolina. He graduated from Furman University in 1948, and worked as ...
Institute for Economic Policy Studies and the Richard F. Aster Fellow at
The Heritage Foundation. Winfree was Chair of the
Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board from 2020 until 2022.
Education
Winfree has a Ph.D. in economics from
Queen's University Belfast
, mottoeng = For so much, what shall we give back?
, top_free_label =
, top_free =
, top_free_label1 =
, top_free1 =
, top_free_label2 =
, top_free2 =
, established =
, closed =
, type = Public research university
, parent = ...
where his research focused on the development of the US political economy during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Winfree also has a Master's degree from the
London School of Economics and a Bachelor's degree from
George Mason University
George Mason University (George Mason, Mason, or GMU) is a public research university in Fairfax County, Virginia with an independent City of Fairfax, Virginia postal address in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area. The university was origin ...
.
Career
In 2006, Winfree took a job at The Heritage Foundation, where he researched issues of economic mobility and coauthored a book on that topic published by the Pew Charitable Trusts.
Between 2011 and 2015, Winfree was director of income security at the
Senate Budget Committee. In this capacity, he contributed greatly to implementing deficit-neutral
risk corridor legislation in the
Affordable Care Act.
In 2015, Winfree returned to The Heritage Foundation, serving as Director of the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies, the Center for
Data Analysis
Data analysis is a process of inspecting, cleansing, transforming, and modeling data with the goal of discovering useful information, informing conclusions, and supporting decision-making. Data analysis has multiple facets and approaches, enco ...
, as well as becoming the inaugural Richard F. Aster Fellow. His research focused on public finance and economic modeling.
In this capacity, he was lead-authoring the 165-page "Blueprint for Balance" proposal, which later became an important idea-giver
for the Trump transition team, of which Winfree eventually became a part of.
During the 2016 Presidential transition, Winfree worked alongside
Linda M. Springer
Linda M. Springer served as the eighth Director of the United States Office of Personnel Management. She was unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate in June 2005. Prior to her appointment, Ms. Springer served as controller and head of t ...
, a member of the
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
administration, looking forward to achieve a more direct political impact.
In November 2016, he stated that
President-elect Trump was highly interested in questions of domestic policy.
He became the Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy, the Deputy Director of the Domestic Policy Council, and the Director of Budget Policy in January 2017. Winfree and former Representative
OMB Director,
Mick Mulvaney, were lead authors of the administration’s budget proposition.
Winfree also authored and led the administration of the
President’s Executive Order number 13781, with the objective of establishing "A Comprehensive Plan for Reorganizing the Executive Branch." Winfree was also the author of the Executive Order number 13828 on "Reducing poverty in America by promoting opportunity and economic mobility
He left the White House and returned to Heritage at the end of 2017, in a move which was anticipated by media and policy experts in
Washington, D.C., Washington,
who saw him as well as several other early members of the Trump administration leave after one year in office.
Paul Winfree also was founder and president of N58 Policy Research, a firm that provided analytical research and strategy for decision makers in matters of public policy.
Winfree is the author of a book on the evolution of economic and fiscal policy from colonial America until the present called
The History (and Future) of the Budget Process in the United States: Budget by Fire' (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019).
In 2019, Winfree was appointed by
President Trump to the
Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board. During Winfree’s three terms as Fulbright Board Chair from 2020 until 2022, he established partnerships between the Fulbright Program, universities, and other top institutions. These include initiatives between Fulbright, the US National Archives, and the US National Park Service that will expand scholarship related to cultural, historical, and environmental conservation. For his service as Chair, Winfree received a distinguished service award from the
US State Department’s Bureau of Education and Culture Affairs for his “stewardship during the COVID-19 pandemic, and for meaningful contributions to advance mutual understanding through the Fulbright Program.”
Personal background
Winfree is from
Williamsburg, Virginia, where he once worked as a cooper's apprentice at the colonial town's
historical district
A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from c ...
.
He is married and has three children.
References
External links
Biography at the Heritage Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Winfree, Paul
The Heritage Foundation
Trump administration personnel
George Mason University alumni
Alumni of the London School of Economics
American magazine publishers (people)
American newspaper publishers (people)
People from Williamsburg, Virginia
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)