David Bowen

Former Staff Director for Health Policy, Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (since 2005)

(David Bowen)

Why He Matters

Bowen, who has a doctorate in neurobiology, has called himself a "scientist gone bad." An interest in public service led him to the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee a decade ago, where he was instrumental in the passage of landmark healthcare reform legislation.

As the staffer in charge of health policy for HELP, which was chaired by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) until his death in August 2009, Bowen played a major role in drafting and shepherding health-reform legislation through the Senate in 2009.

More on: David Bowen

At a Glance
Path to Power
The Issues
The Network
Additional Resources

Corrections?

Background

At a Glance

Career History: Minority deputy staff director for health, Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (2002 to 2005); Congressional fellow for the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (1999 to 2002); Senior staff scientist, NeuralStem Biopharmaceuticals (until 1999)
Birthday: May 21, 1967
Hometown: Summit, N.J.
Alma Mater: Brown University, B.A., 1986; University of California, San Francisco, Ph.D. (neurobiology), 1995

Spouse: Sherrie
DC Office: 527 Hart Senate Office BuildingWashington, District of Columbia20510-6002 (202) 224-7676
Web site

Path to Power

Bowen attended Brown University in Providence, R.I., graduating in 1986. He earned a Ph.D. in neurobiology from the University of California at San Francisco. He studied the synapses which connect nerve and muscle and completed his degree in 1995.

He had a postdoctoral appointment at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, based in Tarrytown, N.Y., working with a gene-receptor that kick-started synapses. He then joined the startup biotechnology firm NeuralStem Biopharmaceuticals as a senior staff scientist.

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The Issues

As HELP health staff director, Bowen advised the chairman on anything health-related that comes before the committee.

"The trick all of us try to do - because we all don't feel that we have as much time to immerse ourselves in the substance as we ought to - is to try to get to the level you need to make intelligent policy recommendations and analyses to the senator," he told Politico.

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Bowen coordinated the 2002 Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act, which was originally drafted to combat pandemics but took on an even broader scope after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

"I never felt that because I had a science background that put me [at] a huge advantage over other people," he said. "In some ways you are almost under a burden to not let the reverse happen, which is to ... let your technical knowledge trip you up too much."

Health-Care Reform

Kennedy, who was chairman of the HELP committee and Bowen's boss until his August 2009 death, was a longtime advocate of reforming America's health-care system.

After pro-reform President Obama took office, Bowen helped Kennedy redouble his efforts to pass a progressive overhaul of the system in 2009, with Kennedy's brain cancer diagnosis making the task seem all the more urgent.

The effort started even before Obama took office, though, when Bowen and his staff organized 15 roundtables with health-care stakeholders at the end of the last Congress.

In spring 2009, Bowen led his staff in drafting health-reform legislation, saying they wanted to include progressive reforms such as a mandate that all Americans carry health insurance, subsidies for those who cannot afford coverage and a government-run health insurance option. In June 2009, Kennedy and HELP Democrats released a partial bill, "The Affordable Health Choices Act."

The bill would go through many iterations before, after more than a year of legislative wrangling, the House passed the Senate version of health-care reform on March 21, 2010, clearing the way for the Senate to approve a package of amendments insisted on by the lower chamber with a simple majority (using a process known as reconciliation).

The $940 billion bill required most Americans to carry health insurance and required insurance companies to cover them, regardless of pre-existing conditions. It established a national insurance exchange allowing Americans to compare and purchase insurance plans. The bill was financed by increasing taxes on well-off Medicare recipients and by taxing premium insurance plans. By the end of the bill's 10-year roll-out, 32 million uninsured Americans would have health coverage and the deficit would be $138 billion lower, the Congressional Budget Office estimated.

The Network

Bowen worked for Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Bowen reported to staff director Michael Myers.

Bowen's former deputy staff director for health at HELP, Caya B. Lewis, heads outreach and public health policy at the Health and Human Services Department's Office of Health Reform, run by Jeanne Lambrew.

Additional Resources