Senior economics aide Gene Sperling is leaving the White House to work on the Harris campaign

WASHINGTON — Senior White House Advisor Gene Sperling is leaving his administration post to work with Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign as Democrats ramp up their efforts to challenge Donald Trump on policy issues in the November election.

Sperling will become a senior economic adviser to Harris’ policy team, a move disclosed by White House officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters.

Sperling served both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama as director of the White House National Economic Council. President Joe Biden Biden tasked him with administering his $1.9 trillion pandemic relief package, a role in which Sperling implemented the temporary expansion of the child tax credit. He also served as the White House liaison to the union and car companies during the car strikes.

“Under Gene’s leadership, the American Rescue Plan has delivered economic relief to cities and counties across the country, protected millions in union pensions, made the largest federal investment ever in public safety, and kept thousands of small businesses afloat,” Biden said in a statement obtained by The Associated Press.

Sperling first worked with Harris when she was California’s attorney general during his time in the Obama administration. He consulted with her regularly as an outside adviser when she was in the Senate. The two worked together during Biden’s presidency to promote monthly payments for the child tax credit, among other policies.

Pandemic programs have been halved child poverty with tax credits which went to 40 million families and provided rent subsidies to 8 million.

But critics of the Republican Party blame the pandemic aid for higher inflation, a problem the Biden administration has long struggled with, as many voters say groceries, housing and gas have become less affordable. Financial markets opened with a sell-off on Monday A weaker-than-expected jobs report last week has raised concerns about the resilience of the US economy.

The White House has maintained that the inflation was global in nature, with chief of staff Jeff Zients saying the efforts coordinated by Sperling “have produced the strongest economy in the world.”

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, described the work Sperling led as a “generational investment” and praised him for working with states to get the programs right.