Bill Halter

President Bill Clinton appointed (and the U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed) Bill Halter as Deputy Commissioner of Social Security in 1999. As the agency’s Chief Operating Officer, he was responsible for the delivery of more than $500 billion in benefits to 48 million-plus Americans, including nearly 540,000 Arkansans. He later served as Acting Commissioner of Social Security, managing 65,000 employees in 1,500 offices. Bill Halter first joined the Clinton administration in 1993, working to help trim bureaucratic waste with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in the Executive Office of the President. During his six years at OMB, the government’s $290 billion budget deficit was transformed into a $125 billion surplus. The United States enjoyed its first balanced budget in 40 years. Previously, Bill Halter served the U.S. Congress as an economist for the Joint Economic Committee and as Chief Economist for the Senate Finance Committee. The Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas is a Rhodes Scholar, receiving an M.Phil. degree in economics from Oxford University in England in 1986. He studied economics and political science as a National Merit Scholar and Harry S. Truman Scholar at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, where he earned an A.B. degree with honors and distinction and graduated as a member of Phi Beta Kappa in 1983. Raised in North Little Rock, Bill Halter was valedictorian of the Little Rock Catholic High School graduating class of 1979. He is a fourth-generation Arkansan. His father ran a small business; his mother was a nurse.