Experience
- U.S. Department of the Treasury
- Roosevelt Institute
- D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute
Expertise
- Tax and fiscal policy
- IRS
- Economic and industrial policy
Education
- New York University, J.D.
- Reed College, B.A.
Recent Coverage
SEP 13, 2023
The Hill: What to know about the August inflation spike
The Fed “can’t make homes more affordable or control oil prices by kicking workers out of their jobs. If we care about the cost of living, we need to focus on investing in people and families,” said Kitty Richards, acting executive director of the progressive nonprofit Groundwork Collaborative.
AUG 22, 2023
Spectrum News | Likely battle to avert a government shutdown in the fall becoming more clear
Kitty Richards, the acting executive director of the progressive economic think tank Groundwork Collaborative and a former U.S. Treasury Department official during the Biden administration, said the president is likely to play a less hands-on role publicly on government funding. “The president has really already played his role and that was during the debt ceiling negotiation,” she said. “I think that the message that we’re seeing from the White House is that there has already been a deal struck and now Congress needs to pass appropriations bills that are consistent with that deal.”
AUG 10, 2023
State Newsroom | Consumers seeing relief in some food prices as inflation continues to slow
“We now have two straight months of low, honestly, quite normal levels of inflation,” Kitty Richards, acting executive director of the progressive think tank Groundwork Collaborative, told States Newsroom. “That’s a huge drop from last summer’s peak. And that is something that we should be celebrating, especially given that it has happened in the context of growing real wages and a job market that is still really delivering for American workers. I’m really glad to see that in the inflation report.”
Shelter also continues to have a significant effect on inflation. It made up 90% of the increase this month according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. But there is additional context to consider for shelter data since it is a lagging indicator, Richards said. “Affordability of housing is a huge concern for Americans … The data is really telling us shelter costs in the CPI lag by up to a year and market data, which is much more current, shows that housing costs have cooled dramatically since last summer,” she said. “…What that means is that inflation right now is actually lower than the CPI headline number.”
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About Kitty
Kitty Richards is the Acting Executive Director at Groundwork Collaborative.
She is the former Director of the State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds at the U.S. Department of Treasury. Previously, she served as a Senior Strategic Advisor to the Groundwork Collaborative, a Fellow at the Roosevelt Institute, Acting Executive Director of the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute, Chief of Staff to a local legislator, and Economic Policy Advisor to then-Vice President Joseph R. Biden.
Earlier in her career, Kitty worked on tax and fiscal policy at several think tanks and on the Hill. Kitty has a J.D. from New York University.
