Bolt will direct economic security issues
First Focus on Children is pleased to welcome Chad Bolt as our newest staff member.
Bolt brings more than a decade of Capitol Hill and advocacy experience to the team. As Senior Vice President for Economic Security, he will co-lead our work on tax issues with Senior Vice President for Budget and Tax Policy Michelle Dallafior and will direct our efforts on SNAP, child poverty, Social Security, and Supplemental Security Income.
“Chad is a brilliant, strategic leader who is well-respected in advocacy and on Capitol Hill, where he spent years leading on issues such as the Child Tax Credit,” said First Focus on Children President Bruce Lesley. “He will be a critical addition not only to our work at First Focus on Children, but to the entire child advocacy community. His inside-outside experience is particularly valuable, especially in this moment when kids face unprecedented challenges.”
On Capitol Hill, Bolt was a senior Legislative Assistant to Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, where he managed tax, Social Security, and retirement policy. During his time in the office, he staffed the senator on major legislation that was signed into law and made a significant difference in the lives of children and workers, including the temporary expansion of the Child Tax Credit included in the American Rescue Plan; the Butch Lewis Act, which saved the pensions of more than a million union workers and retirees; and the Social Security Fairness Act, which restored full Social Security benefits for more than 2 million public service retirees who had been unfairly penalized. As Staff Director of the Finance Committee’s Social Security, Pensions, and Family Policy Subcommittee, Bolt spearheaded Sen. Brown’s efforts to introduce the first bipartisan legislation to improve SSI in decades. In a previous stint in the Senate, Bolt was a Legislative Assistant to Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, who at the time was Chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Bolt has previously applied his policy acumen for advocacy organizations including Indivisible, where he helped lead the organization’s 2017 work to protect the Affordable Care Act and at Prosperity Now, where he successfully expanded funding for federal matching grants for the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program. He most recently was Chief Strategist at the Families Over Billionaires campaign.
“I’m thrilled to be joining such a talented and effective team to help give kids a fair shot,” Bolt said. “I look forward to working with my colleagues and our partners to ensure that kids have enough to eat, have a social insurance system they can rely on, and have a tax code that helps their family get ahead and stay ahead.”