Chris Jennings
Chris Jennings is a more than a 25-year health policy veteran of the Congress, the White House, and the private sector. He currently serves as president of Jennings Policy Strategies (JPS), a nationally-respected health policy consulting firm in Washington, D.C., where he provides policy analysis, political positioning, coalition building and media relations guidance to his clients.
Mr. Jennings has committed himself and his firm to secure the effective and sustainable implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). In this capacity, in addition to providing (non-lobbying) consulting services to his clients, he serves as a senior advisor to the non-for-profit foundation-sponsored Federal-State Implementation Project (F-SIP). This follows his service from 2008—2009 as co-staff director (along with Mark McClellan) of the Robert Wood Johnson-funded Bipartisan Policy Center’s health reform project with former Majority Leaders’ Baker, Daschle, Dole and Mitchell. Recognizing his policy and political expertise, Mr. Jennings was appointed as the Policy Advisor to the 2008 Democratic Platform Drafting Committee. Previous to that appointment, he served as a senior health care advisor to then-Senator Hillary Clinton’s Presidential campaign. At present, he also serves on the Boards of the National Quality Forum, the National Organization for Rare Disorders, and the David A. Winston Health Policy Fellowship.
Prior to founding JPS, Inc., Mr. Jennings served in the White House as the Senior Health Care Advisor to President William Jefferson Clinton at the Domestic Policy and National Economic Councils. In this capacity, Mr. Jennings coordinated and oversaw the health policy work of numerous Federal agencies, including the Office of Management and Budget and the Departments of Health and Human Services, Treasury, and Labor.
During his tenure in the Clinton Administration, Mr. Jennings made significant contributions toward the enactment of major, bipartisan health legislation including the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, the Mental Health Parity Act, the Food and Drug Administration Modernization Act, the Work Incentives Improvement Act, and the doubling of funding for research at NIH and the tripling of funding for international AIDS programs for prevention, care, treatment and health infrastructure. Recognizing his work at the White House, the National Journal designated Mr. Jennings as one of Washington’s 100 most influential individuals throughout the entire Federal government.
In 1993 and 1994, he served as the Senior Advisor to Administrator of the then Health Care Financing Administration. In this capacity, he served concurrently as the congressional liaison for First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton providing assistance for her testimony before five committees and staffing her for hundreds of meetings with members of Congress as she advocated for affordable, quality health insurance for all Americans.
Prior to joining the Clinton Administration, Mr. Jennings served as Committee staff for three United States Senators (Glenn, Melcher, and Pryor) over the course of almost ten years on Capitol Hill. As Deputy Staff Director of the Senate Aging Committee for Chairman David Pryor (D-AR), he staffed the Senator before the Finance Committee and the “Pepper Commission.” He also coordinated the Aging Committee’s legislative initiatives on health insurance affordability and access, long-term care, rural health, and prescription drug coverage and cost containment.
Health Project, Leaders' Project on the State of American Health Care
