Alan Viard was a senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas and an assistant professor of economics at Ohio State University prior to joining AEI. He has also worked for the Treasury Department's Office of Tax Analysis, the White House's Council of Economic Advisers, and the Joint Committee on Taxation of the U.S. Congress. Mr. Viard is a frequent contributor to AEI's Tax Policy Outlook, AEI's On the Margin column in Tax Notes, and AEI's Marginal Impact column in State Tax Notes. In January 2010, he was named by Tax Notes as a nominee for 2009 Tax Person of the Year.

Bill Thomas, a former chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1978 to 2007. During his six-year chairmanship, he guided the enactment of $2 trillion in tax relief, including the Economic Growth and Tax Reconciliation Act of 2001, which reduced all ordinary income tax rates; the Jobs and Growth Tax Reconciliation Act of 2003, which reduced the tax rate on dividends and capital gains; and the Job Creation Act of 2004, which provided significant reforms for corporate tax policy.

Alex Brill, a former policy director and chief economist of the House Ways and Means Committee, also served on the staff of the President's Council of Economic Advisers (CEA). In Congress and at the CEA, Mr. Brill worked on a variety of economic and legislative policy issues, including dividend taxation, the alternative minimum tax, international tax policy, social security reform, defined benefit pension reform, and U.S. trade policy.

At AEI, Mr. Brill studies the impact of tax policy in the U.S. economy; the fiscal, economic, and political consequences of stimulus legislation; health care reform, pharmaceutical spending, unemployment insurance reform; and financial innovation and technology.