Richard Burr is principal policy advisor
and chair of AKD Partners's Health Policy
Strategic Consulting practice within the
firm's Regulatory and Government Affairs
practice group. He provides policy advice,
strategic consulting and a wide range of
related services to clients navigating a
rapidly changing policy landscape and
significant regulatory and political
uncertainty.
After nearly three decades in federal
service as a US congressman and senator,
Richard Burr is widely known as one of the
foremost government authorities in
healthcare, life science, geopolitical
risk, and national security policy.
Richard is a former Chairman of the
Senate's Select Committee on Intelligence.
As a member of the Intelligence Committee,
Richard helped drive the shift of the
intelligence community towards current
threats and advised banking, manufacturing
and academic sectors of the threats posed
by malign actors around the world. As
Chairman, he led the committee to act as
the de facto technology committee,
informing others in the Senate about
threats and opportunities of 5G
modernization, supply chain
vulnerabilities related to semiconductors
and other emerging technologies.
Since his election to Congress in 1994 and
through his tenure as Ranking Member of
the Senate Committee on Health, Education,
Labor and Pensions (HELP), Senator Burr
has led many of the most transformative
government initiatives in the healthcare
and life sciences fields. His legislative
accomplishments include the 1997 FDA
Modernization Act, the Pandemic All
Hazards Preparedness Act, which created
the Biomedical Advanced Research and
Development Authority (BARDA) and was
critical in the rapid development of the
COVID-19 pandemic vaccine, the PREVENT
Pandemics Act, and the creation of ARPA-H,
which established the Advanced Research
Projects Authority for Health (ARPA-H)
within the National Institutes of Health.
For decades, Senator Burr has helped shape
nearly every medical agency,
instrumentality and operation of the US
Federal Government.
During his five terms in the House of
Representatives and three terms in the
Senate, Richard also led initiatives in
education, civil rights and conservation
policy. He contributed to drafting the
Bipartisan Student Loan Certainty Act,
which dramatically reduced interest rates
for students who have federal student
loans, and he was the principal drafter of
the latest Child Care Development Block
Grant reauthorization. Richard spearheaded
the passage of the Stephen Beck, Jr.
Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE)
Act, which allowed for individuals with
disabilities to save money in their own
name without losing critical benefits, and
he worked to reauthorize the Emmett Till
Unsolved Civil Rights Crimes
Reauthorization Act. Richard also led a
bipartisan group of senators in passing
the Great American Outdoors Act, landmark
conservation legislation that fully and
permanently funds the Land and Water
Conservation Fund (LWCF).
Richard Burr is not a lawyer.
