Jim Moody

For the actor, see Jim Moody (actor).

Jim Moody
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Wisconsin's 5th district
In office January 3, 1983 – January 3, 1993
Preceded by	Henry S. Reuss
Succeeded by	Tom Barrett
Personal details
Born	(1935-09-02) September 2, 1935 Richlands, Virginia
Political party	Democratic

James Powers "Jim" Moody (born September 2, 1935) is an American economist, and former Democratic member of the U.S. Congress. Moody represented Milwaukee, Wisconsin in Congress from 1983 to 1993.

Background

Moody was born September 2, 1935 in Richlands, Tazewell County, Virginia. He attended the Anglo-American High School in Athens, Greece. He went on to receive his B.A. from Haverford College in 1957. After two years of financial work on Wall St, he successfully applied to serve as the CARE representative in Yugoslavia, covering each republic from Slovenia in the north to Macedonia on the Greek border. After two years working with CARE throughout Yugoslavia he was then assigned by CARE to Iran to lead a special feeding program assisting hospitals and schools—and direct periodic earth quake relief.

He was recruited in the early Peace Corps period to set up its first program in both Pakistan and Bangladesh—the first two Peace Corps programs in Continental Asia. His Responsibilities included negotiating the country-PC agreements and matching arriving volunteers with their assignments in both urban and village settings.

He returned to DC for the next year as Pak desk officer then accepted the position of USAID Loan Officer for its then capital development program for SE Asia. After two years at USAID he earned an MPA at Harvard’s JFK School of Government. He then earned a Ph.D. in Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, followed by appointment as Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. He also taught occasional courses at University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Political career

While still teaching at the University of Wisconsin, Moody was elected to the Wisconsin State Assembly where he served one term before being elected to the Wisconsin State Senate. In both assignments he concentrated on economic, environmental, and humanitarian issues. Example: His highly fought bill to prevent (“de-map”) a previously approved large interstate freeway that would have cut off the city’s unique access to its Lake Michigan shoreline--and also bisect its lakefront park--was a historic reversal of a strong downtown business’ and organized labor’s joint political efforts to build the freeway. He also led bills to allow no-fault divorce and de-criminalize same-sex unions. He passed a bill to preserve historic buildings and prevent needless demolition by allowing flexible standards. And was active in supporting environmental protection bills.

After six years in the Wisconsin legislature, he was elected to the US Congress by personally visiting 20,000+ homes in a “shoe leather” campaign with minimal campaign budget. In his second Congressional term he was elected by his peers to the US House of Representative's Committee on Ways and Means which oversees legislation regarding all federal taxes, international trade, and domestic laws regarding Medicare, Social Security and public welfare. As a member of the Health Subcommittee Moody was one of two co-sponsors of the first single-payer universal health care proposed to Congress. He succeeded in passing legislation to prevent federal incentives for start-up employment to be used for breaking labor union strikes as was then happening in Wisconsin.

Moody was appointed by the Speaker to be a special observer of the US-Soviet arms negotiation then ongoing in Geneva, Switzerland as well as special discussions in Moscow.

While in Congress he also organized initial support and helped found the organization that became the National Security Archive Project that continues today as a major force for transparency in federal government actions including overseas. Also, based on his experience in Bangladesh where many village women had 6-7 children who were then extremely vulnerable to starvation and preventable illness, he co-founded the bi-partisan Congressional support coalition for International Family Planning and addressed UN conferences on the subject.

After ten years in the House, the “up or out” mantra of the Peace Corps and a belief that overseas experience in Iran, Pakistan, and Bangladesh could help improve US foreign policy, he unsuccessfully ran for US Senate in 1992.

Professional career after Congress

Between the November ’92 election and the January ’93 start of the Clinton presidency, Moody served as the deputy director of the team preparing the first Clinton budget (labeled by his group as the ”Eat Your Broccoli First’’ budget that set the basis for the first federal surplus budget two years later). In ’93-94 Moody lobbied for a single-payer federal health care system, focusing on Hillary Clinton’s initial proposal. In this period he also taught Healthcare Economics at the Medical College of Wisconsin and graduate level economics at the Maryland School of Public Policy.

In 1994 Moody was nominated and approved as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)--one of three UN development and relief agencies headquartered in Rome, Italy. IFAD’s central goal was/is raising productivity and living standards in agricultural sectors of 40+ developing economies via crop improvement, village-level microfinance, etc. As Chief Financial Officer, Moody directly managed $23 million investment assets and $2.2 billion in IFAD’s reserve fund investment portfolio. And was directly responsible for organizing and administering the agency’s annual budget of $50 million. After a required return to the US due to a serious illness of his son Brad, Moody was appointed President and CEO of InterAction, the DC-based coalition of American non-profit organizations working overseas in development, conflict resolution, humanitarian assistance, economic development, environmental improvement, disaster relief, and refugee assistance.

Moody took on a difficult effort to re-structure InterAction in several key ways to (1) make membership fees more reasonably structured based on agency size, (2) set up a Congressional district-based system structure for lobbying focused on contact and efforts within Congressional districts versus in highly competitive Washington DC, and (3) end member ability to de facto veto new membership of competing organization—then occurring in refugee assistance where competition for federal funds was intense.

These internal attempts at reorganization of course stirred controversy and Moody was asked to move on. After parting from InterAction, Moody decided to revive and sharpen his financial training and expertise and was recruited by Morgan Stanley as a financial advisor that included advising business and family clients. He did similar work at Merrill Lynch and then last year decided to accept an offer by Oppenheimer to join the firm’s DC office where his title is Associate Director—Investments.

External links

• United States Congress. "Jim Moody (id: M000881)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Jim Moody, Wisconsin Historical Society