Harris’s economic policy is based on Biden alumni Brian Deese and Mike Pyle

Economist Brian Deese has begun advising Vice President Kamala Harris on developing her economic policy plan, according to three people familiar with the matter.

Deese is a former director of President Joe Biden’s National Economic Council and a senior fellow at MIT’s Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research.

Harris said she will release the first official platform for her new presidential campaign in the coming days, which will focus on supporting the middle class.

As Harris and her team crafted the policy plan, Deese served as a key adviser and sounding board for Harris, said the sources, who were granted anonymity to discuss internal campaign activities.

These people said Harris is also working with Mike Pyle, a former deputy national security adviser for international economics in the Biden White House.

Both Deese and Pyle are alumni of asset management giant BlackRock, a foundational Wall Street experience they bring to Harris’s team. Pyle was global chief investment strategist at BlackRock. Deese spent three years as the firm’s head of sustainable investing.

Another key figure returning to the group is Deanne Millison, Harris’s chief economic adviser through 2023, a person with direct knowledge told Vscek. Millison currently works as a lobbyist for Ford Motor Co.

Deese did not respond to requests for comment. Pyle did not respond to a request for comment sent through Macro Advisory Partners, where he is a senior adviser. A Ford spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Along with Pyle and Deese, former senior Treasury official Brian Nelson is also advising Harris on policy. As is longtime White House senior adviser Gene Sperling.

Deese is among a small group of advisers who are helping Harris and her team develop policy proposals that dovetail with Biden’s broader economic agenda. As Biden’s vice president for the past three years, Harris has been a vocal advocate for his economic recovery plan, both across the country and around the world.

But now that she is the Democratic nominee, Harris has so far offered little indication of how she might change course to craft a slightly different version of Biden’s economic agenda.

His tour of swing states last week spent little time on specifics, such as fiscal policy and jobs.

For now, Harris campaign spokesman Charles Lutvak referred Vscek for policy guidance to Harris’s recent remarks to reporters on the trail, where she addressed the issue of Fed independence and her planned policy rollout. He also pointed to a speech she gave in Atlanta two weeks earlier, where she hinted at some of her possible policy topics.

In that speech, Harris talked about rising prices, corporate landlords and fighting pharmaceutical giants.

Deese has been at the forefront of the Biden administration’s economic response to Covid-19, including the passage of trillions of dollars in stimulus measures and tax credits that have helped the U.S. economy recover faster than almost any other country.

He also helped push through Congress major economic bills, such as the Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPS Act, which are key elements of Biden’s White House legacy.

Deese’s career in Democratic economic policy spans several decades.

He began his career as an economic policy analyst at the progressive think tank Center for American Progress.

He has worked on several Democratic presidential campaigns, including for former Secretary of State John Kerry in 2004 and former President Barack Obama in 2008.

He eventually entered the Obama White House and rose to become one of the president’s top advisers.

Deese also played a key role in negotiating the Paris climate agreement under Obama, positioning himself as a climate-focused economic adviser in line with Biden’s agenda.