Melody Barnes - Co-Director of Agency Review : Obama-Biden Transition Project

Barnes was a domestic policy advisor to Obama's presidential campaign. Previously, she was executive vice president for policy at the Center for American Progress. Barnes served as chief counsel to Senator Edward M. Kennedy on the Senate Judiciary Committee from 1995 until 2003. Barnes has also worked as director of legislative affairs for the U. S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and as assistant counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights.

In 2007, Barnes wrote an article exploring possible initiatives by a "progressive president." She suggested that such a president would eventually withdraw all troops from Iraq, push for a higher minimum wage, and overturn the federal embryonic stem-cell research ban.

In 2003 and 2004, Barnes lobbied for clients including the American Constitution Society, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and the Center for Reproductive Rights, among other clients.