As Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs, Brian de Vallance acts as the Department’s principal liaison with the U.S. Congress, coordinating and overseeing the Department’s legislative activity, working closely with authorization, appropriations, and oversight committees of the House and Senate to ensure that the Department’s priorities are reflected throughout the legislative and oversight process, and advises the Secretary, Deputy Secretary, and other senior leadership of the Department on legislative matters.
Mr. de Vallance served as the Department’s Acting Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs from May 2013 to August 2014. Prior to that, he served as Senior Counselor to then-Secretary Janet Napolitano and Chief of Staff to then-Deputy Secretary Jane Holl Lute. In addition, he served as the Department’s Senior Accountable Officer for the implementation of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act and worked on issues relating to integration of public safety among the Federal departments and between the Federal and state, local, and tribal governments. Previously, Mr. de Vallance served on the senior staff of two governors, a mayor, a state supreme court chief justice, and U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, where he served as the U.S. Department of Justice’s Director of Intergovernmental Affairs and its Federalism officer. He is a graduate of Brown University and Arizona State University’s College of Law, where he served as the editor-in-chief of the law journal.