Linda J. Bilmes (born 1960) is an American public policy expert who is the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Senior Lecturer Chair in Public Policy and Public Finance at Harvard University. She is a faculty member at the Harvard Kennedy School where she teaches public policy,budgeting and public finance. She served as Assistant Secretary and Chief Financial Officer of the US Department of Commerce during the presidency of Bill Clinton.[1]
Bilmes is credited with drawing attention to the cost of the Iraq War and to the long-term cost of caring for returning Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans.[2] She is the recipient of the 2008 “Speaking Truth to Power”Award from the American Friends Service Committee. In 2017,she was nominated by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to serve a four-year term as one of 24 experts on the UN Committee of Experts on Public Administration and re-appointed to a second term from 2021 to 2025. She is internationally recognized for coining the term “Ghost Budget”to describe the hidden,off-ledger mechanisms through which the United States has financed its post-9/11 wars. [3]. She is a contributor to the Watson Institute's Costs of War Project. She has testified to the US Congress regarding the costs of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and the long-term consequences for providing veterans care. She co-authored the centennial study of the economic value of the US National Parks System,which established a baseline value of $92 billion for the parks and programs and co-authored a book on the economic value of national parks.[4]
Bilmes was born in New York and raised in San Mateo,California,the daughter of Lila Yolanda Lynn and Murray Bilmes. Her adoptive stepfather is Myron Nye Humphrey. She was given the middle name "Jan" after her godmother,singer Jan DeGaetani. She attended public schools including Aragon High School. During her senior year,she worked as an intern for Governor Jerry Brown during his first term as Governor of California. Bilmes holds an AB artium baccalaureus degree in government from Harvard University,a master's of business administration degree from Harvard Business School and a doctor of philosophy degree from the University of Oxford. She wrote her dissertation on the financing of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.[6]
After earning a graduate business degree,she worked as a pollster and political consultant for Campaign Strategies Inc. and then as a management consultant with Bain &Company until 1986. From 1987 to 1996,she worked at management consulting company The Boston Consulting Group based in London,Madrid and Moscow. As a principal at The Boston Consulting Group,Bilmes helped build the company's United Kingdom healthcare practice,launch its Madrid office,and was appointed as one of 10 Western advisors to the Russian Ministry of Privatization,where she helped to draft Russia's first healthcare financing legislation and managed public financial restructuring projects throughout Europe.[7]
Government career
Bilmes has held senior positions in the US government including US Assistant Secretary for Administration,Management and Budget and CFO of the United States Department of Commerce. Prior to joining the Harvard faculty,Bilmes served in government during the presidency of Bill Clinton. She was confirmed twice by the U.S. Senate,first as Assistant Secretary for Administration and Budget,and additionally as Chief Financial Officer,of the United States Department of Commerce,from 1998 to 2001. She previously served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Administration from 1997 to 1998.[8] She has been appointed to several high-ranking commissions,including a Treasury Department commission to examine the viability of the Inter-American Investment Corporation. From 2009 to 2011 She served as a commissioner on the bipartisan National Parks Second Century Commission. During the Obama administration she served from 2011 to 2017 on the U.S. Department of Interior National Parks System Advisory Board and on the US Department of Labor Advisory Board on Veterans Employment and Training.[9]
↑ Stiglitz, Joseph E.; Bilmes, Linda J. "The $3 Trillion Dollar War". Vanity Fair. Vanity Fair. Retrieved 19 November 2023.
↑ {{|Bilmes, Linda J. Linda J. Bilmes, The “Ghost Budget”: Explaining U.S. Budgetary Deviations during the Post-9/11 Wars (DPhil thesis, University of Oxford, 2020).|}}
Bilmes, Linda "Soldiers Returning From Iraq and Afghanistan: The Long-term Costs of Providing Veterans Medical Care and Disability Benefits" 2007 SSRN939657
Bilmes, Linda J.; Stiglitz, Joseph E. (20 August 2008). Lessons from Iraq: avoiding the next war. Boulder, Colorado: Paradigm Publishing. pp.48–64. ISBN978-1594514999.
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