Alan Simpson served in the U.S. Senate (R-Wyoming) from January 1979 to 1997, where he was the Assistant Republican Leader, 1984-1994; Chairman of the Subcommittee of Immigration and Refugee Policy of the Senate Judiciary Committee, 1980-1984; Nuclear Regulation Subcommittee of Environmental and Public Works, 1980-1984; Chairman of the Subcommittee on Social Security and member of the Committee on Aging; Chairman of the Veterans Affairs Committee, 1980-1984. From 1994-1996, he was a member of the Finance Committee; 1965-1977, Wyoming State Legislature, 1965-1978, Assistant Majority Leader, Majority Leader, and Speaker Pro Tem.
Mr. Simpson served as Assistant Attorney General, State of Wyoming in 1959, and was City Attorney of Cody, Wyoming, from 1959-1969. Partner: Simpson & Simpson (with father Milward L. Simpson who also served as Governor and U.S. Senator for Wyoming ); Simpson Kepler & Simpson, 1960-1978. Additionally, Mr. Simpson served in the U.S. Army, 1st Lieutenant, 2nd Armored Division “Hell on the Wheels” and the 5th Division, U.S. Armed Forces, Germany.
Alan Simpson is currently with the Washington Speakers Bureau in Washington, D.C. He is a very popular speaker and travels the country and abroad to speak to a wide variety of groups and associations regarding current affairs and politics in remarks entitled “Politics is a Contact Sport”.
Mr. Alan Simpson is Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Trustees of the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming.
Mr. Simpson was a member of the Board of Visitors for the Folger-Shakespeare Library and the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. 1994-1996. From 1998 to 2000 Mr. Simpson was the Director of the Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University; and he was a Visiting Lecturer at the Shorenstein Center on Press, Politics and Public Policy, 1997-2000.
Mr. Simpson served on the Board of Trustees of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 1996 and he has been a member of the Screen Actor’s Guild since 1994. He served on the Board of Directors for the Biogen Corporation (now BiogenIDEC Corporation), Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1997-2004 and he was a member of the Board of Directors of American Express Funds, now RiverSource Funds, a subsidiary of Ameriprise Financial, Minneapolis, Minnesota from 1997 through 2006.
Mr. Simpson was also a member of the External Advisory Council for BP America Inc.
Alan Simpson is an Emeritus Trustee of the Grand Teton Music Festival, Jackson, Wyoming and was formerly a member of the Board for Pacificorp from 1997-2000.
In March 2010, Mr. Simpson was appointed by the President as the Co-Chairman of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform and he also served on the ten-member Iraq Study Group formed under the auspices of the congressionally chartered U.S. Institute of Peace in 2006.
Honors & Accolades
Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming
Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree, Notre Dame University, South Bend, Indiana
Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree, American University, Washington, D.C.
Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree, The Colorado College, Colorado Springs
Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree, California Western School of Law, San Diego
Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree, Rocky Mountain College, Billings, Montana
Thomas Jefferson Award in Law at University of Virginia, Charlottesville. (The U. Va. equivalent of an Honorary Degree)
AV Preeminent Rating, Martindale-Hubbell
Publications & Media
Simpson, Alan K. Listen to a Podcast with Former U.S. Senator Alan Simpson. www.burgsimpson.com, May 6, 2019
4/21/16: A Ring of Fire first! Host Farron Cousins talks to former Senator Alan Simpson in a unique opportunity on Ring of Fire to speak with a Republican about the current state of the Republican Party.
Fox News: Alan Simpson Gives Neil Cavuto Intimacy Tips, May 9, 2014
TV Ad: In Support of Freedom To Marry, April 7, 2014
Fox Business: Neil Cavuto, February 20, 2014
850 KOA Radio: Mike and the Mayor, February 20, 2014
Political Junkie Podcast: (Al’s spot is from 12:54-19:37), January 7, 2014
VIEW FROM THE FRONT PORCH: The wisdom of Alan Simpson, November 27, 2013
Christian Science Monitor: Government shutdown? A leap of trust can seal a budget deal, September 16, 2013
Christian Science Monitor: 4 ways you can influence the debt debate, September 16, 2013
Black Hills Pioneer: Do you know who Alan Simpson is?
Time: Alan Simpson and Grover Norquist Go to the Zoo
Washington Post: Immigration: The Path to Now
Wyoming PBS: Nothing Else Matters, March 14, 2013
CNBC: Interview with John Harwood, live at 10:00am PT / 1:20pm ET, February 1, 2013
ourColoradonews.com: Alan Simpson targets national debt in local stop, January 22, 2013
Fox Business: Cavuto by phone, January 10, 2013
MSNBC: Meet the Press, January 6, 2013
NPR: All Things Considered
Simpson-Bowles’ National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform
Bloomberg: Bloomberg Markets’ 50 Most Influential
The TODAY Show: Ex-senator goes ‘gangnam’ for fiscal cliff action
Huffington Post: Alan Simpson Dances ‘Gangnam Style’
NPR: Alan Simpson Goes ‘Gangnam Style’
CNN Money: Alan Simpson paints dire market outlook
Face the Nation on CBS: Face in the News: Simpson, Bowles and Booker talk Fiscal Cliff
“Shooting From the Lip, The Life of Senator Al Simpson” by Donald Loren Hardy (biography). University of Oklahoma Press, 2011
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart: Senator Alan Simpson on his bipartisan budget proposal (Part 1)
Part 2 of Jon Stewart's In-Depth Interview with Alan Simpson
The New York Times: Alan K. Simpson
Patriocracy: A clip from the film
“Right in the Old Gazoo: A Lifetime of Scrapping with the Press,” William Morrow and Co., New York City, 1996
