Tim Rieser is a senior aide to Senator Peter Welch who worked for Senator Patrick Leahy for 37 years.[1] He has been noted as one "of the most powerful staffers in Congress presiding over U.S. foreign policy and U.S. foreign assistance."[2]
In 2015 he was listed as number 22 of Politico 50 - a "guide to the thinkers, doers and visionaries transforming American politics".[3]
Rieser graduated from Dartmouth College in 1976 and from Antioch School of Law, now the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law, in 1979.[4]
Rieser is a former public defender from Vermont. He has worked for Leahy since 1985. Since 1989 he has served as the Democratic Clerk for the Appropriations Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations.[2]
Rieser was one of the architects of the 1992 law that banned land mines.[5][6]
Rieser also helped draft the 1998 Leahy Law which bans the United States from providing military assistance to foreign armies that violate human rights without being held to account.[5] In 2014, Guatemalan President Otto Pérez made international news by attacking Rieser publicly for aid restrictions.[7]
Rieser was influential in opening U.S. policy toward Cuba and played a "significant role" in getting USAID contractor Alan Gross released from prison in Cuba.[8][9][5][10]
