James C. Musser is an independent consultant and serves as a Senior Policy Expert at the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy, a Virginia-based think tank, where he focuses on economic issues. Mr. Musser has served as Special Adviser to the Chairman of the House Budget Committee and Senior Staff Counsel to the Honorable Jim Bunning of Kentucky. Mr. Musser’s policy expertise includes the federal budget, taxes, entitlement programs, and health care. He has also served as a guest lecturer at the Harvard Law School.

As Special Adviser to Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price, Mr. Musser focused on reforming the dysfunctional budget process. As Mr. Bunning’s Senior Staff Counsel, Mr. Musser provided advice and counsel regarding tax, budget and legal issues and represented Mr. Bunning on two conference committees between the House and Senate.

From 2008 to 2015 Mr. Musser led the federal and state outreach teams for the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. In that role, Mr. Musser led a staff of fourteen in providing economic data and educational programs to policymakers and thought leaders at all levels of government. He also served on the organization’s management team.

Prior to his work at the Mercatus Center Mr. Musser engaged in legislative consulting work representing clients such as the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad, Pfizer, Novartis, the Polycystic Kidney Disease Foundation, the Cincinnati Museum Center and the American Senior Benefits Association (ASBA). Mr. Musser assisted these clients with an array of government relations issues from taxes to appropriations, grant-writing, the budget process, and health care. Mr. Musser was part of the PhRMA speaker’s bureau, an on-line columnist for ASBA, and a frequent guest lecturer at Shenandoah University.

Mr. Musser began his career practicing law in the Northern Kentucky region of the Greater Cincinnati Area. His practice with the firm Ziegler and Schneider, P.S.C. was concentrated on civil litigation, municipal law and public body law. Mr. Musser earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Kentucky College of Law and he is a summa cum laude graduate of Marshall University.