Chris Sarley

Principal
Washington, DC; Chicago, Illinois; Springfield, Illinois

Chris Sarley

Principal
Washington, DC; Chicago, Illinois; Springfield, Illinois

Quick Facts

  • Newest member of Cornerstone's energy, environmental, and health practice groups
  • 14-year Hill veteran, most recently serving as policy director for Congressman Shimkus (R-IL) and professional staff on the Energy & Commerce Committee

Chris' Bio

In May 2017, Cornerstone added House Republican expert, Chris Sarley. Chris joins Cornerstone having most recently served as policy director for Congressman John Shimkus (R-IL) and professional staff on the Energy & Commerce Committee.

A 14-year Hill veteran, he served Congressman Shimkus as the principal advisor on energy, environment and health care policy. Chris provided counsel on energy policy with a focus on infrastructure, modernizing markets for continued reliable and affordable base load generation, renewable energy and agency oversight. In many cases, this work focused on the cumulative effects of regulations at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in an effort to right size the agencies to the benefit of both our environment and economy.

Chris’s work in health care started while working for House leadership during the passage and implementation of Medicare Part D. Since then, he has spent over a decade on Capitol Hill helping various stakeholders and constituencies navigate through challenges they faced with payment and policy issues at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This specifically included work on the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act law that repealed the Sustainable Growth Rate formula, other Children’s Health Insurance Program reauthorizations as well as work on the creation and reauthorization of several User Fee programs at FDA. During his tenure, legislative achievements included several medical device titles of the 21st Century Cures Act, the ADAPT and GAIN Acts aimed at addressing emerging threats from antibiotic resistance and reauthorization of the Animal Drug User Fee Act (ADUFA) vital to the safety of our livestock and agriculture communities.

On Energy & Commerce, Chris’s work focused on policy and oversight efforts aimed at improving and modernizing environment policy. This included work with the Department of Homeland Security on risk-based security standards for chemical facilities. In other instances, his work centered on trying to focus scarce federal resources away from administrative costs and toward actual clean up and improvements in programs like Superfund, Brownfields and the safe drinking water act. Maybe most significantly, he served as a primary House negotiator during the first major rewrite of a U.S. environmental statute in over two decades and facilitated passage of the Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act, which amends the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), the nation’s primary chemical regulation law. A bipartisan effort signed into law by President Obama in 2016.

An Illinois native, Chris receive his B.A. from Roosevelt University.

Services

Expertise

Education

BA, Roosevelt University