Peter Swire

Senior Fellow

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Peter P. Swire is a Senior Fellow at American Progress, and works in two broad areas of expertise: housing/financial regulation, and privacy and the law of cyberspace. He is also the C. William O’Neill Professor of Law at the Moritz College of Law of the Ohio State University. He lives in the Washington, D.C. area, teaches in Ohio during the fall semester, and is director of the law school's Washington, D.C. summer program.

Swire was special assistant to the president for economic policy from 2009 until August 2010, serving in the National Economic Council under Lawrence Summers. In that role, he was White House coordinator for the administration’s interagency housing and housing finance policy, including the HAMP mortgage modification program, Federal Housing Administration issues, and a wide range of other housing topics. He was centrally involved in the reform process for the government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. From October 2009 until April 2010, he was also the lead person at the NEC on technology issues, including broadband, spectrum, privacy and cybersecurity, and net neutrality.

Swire served as the Clinton administration’s chief counselor for privacy from 1999 to 2001 in the Office of Management and Budget. In that position he coordinated administration policy on the use of personal information in the public and private sectors. He was White House coordinator for the proposed and final HIPAA medical privacy rules, and chaired a White House task force on how to update wiretap laws for the Internet age. He played a leading role on topics including financial privacy, Internet privacy, encryption, public records and privacy, e-commerce policy, and computer security and privacy.

In addition to this government service, Swire’s numerous professional activities include: author of two books and many law review articles and policy writings; member of the Obama-Biden Transition; testimony before seven congressional committees; and regular interviews in national press and electronic media. He is a graduate of Princeton and the Yale Law School, and studied at the Universite Libre de Bruxelles on a Rotary Foundation Scholarship.