Tom Daschle

Tom Daschle, a BPC co-founder, co-chairs its Commission on Political Reform and Health Project. He served as Senate minority leader from 1995 to 2001 and from 2003 to 2005, and as the majority leader from 2001 to 2003. He is the founder and chairman of The Daschle Group, a public policy advisory of Baker Donelson, where he provides strategic advice on key national issues including health care, energy, transportation, and the environment.

In 1978, he was elected to the House of Representatives, where he served for eight years. In 1986, he was elected to the Senate and was chosen as Senate Democratic leader in 1994.

After leaving the Senate in 2005, Daschle joined Alston & Bird LLP as a special policy advisor and then went on to work in the same role at DLA Piper before establishing The Daschle Group in 2014.

Daschle serves as the chair of the DuPont Advisory Committee on Agriculture Innovation and Productivity, as well as the BP Tangguh Independent Advisory Panel. He is also chair of the board of directors at the Center for American Progress and vice-chair for the National Democratic Institute. He serves on the board of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute, the LBJ Foundation, and is a member of the Council of Foreign Relations. He also is a member of the Health Policy and Management Executive Council at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Daschle graduated from South Dakota State University in 1969. He then served for three years as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Air Force Strategic Command. Following his military service, he spent five years as an aide to Senator James Abourezk.