Chiraag Bains

Chiraag Bains is a nonresident senior fellow with Brookings Metro and a senior fellow at Democracy Fund. He focuses on artificial intelligence, democracy, and government programs that advance fairness and opportunity.

Bains recently served as deputy assistant to the president and deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council. He led the implementation of President Joe Biden’s executive order on racial equity and support for underserved communities, resulting in 90 agency action plans, an equitable data strategy, and efforts to make it easier for local communities to leverage infrastructure and pandemic rescue funds. He also co-led a strategy on artificial intelligence and equity, which produced over 20 agency actions to protect workers and consumers from algorithmic bias, alongside the release of the Biden administration’s “Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights.”

Bains drove the policy processes for President Biden’s landmark executive order on police reform and public safety; the historic pardon of marijuana-possession offenses and rescheduling initiative; the national strategy to combat bias in home appraisals; increased contracting with small, disadvantaged businesses; and the United We Stand summit against hate-fueled violence. He also oversaw efforts to expand voter registration opportunities, LGBTQI+ rights, disability rights, and funding for Native American communities.

Bains previously led a team of voting rights lawyers as director of legal strategies at Demos. He was a senior fellow at Harvard Law School and a fellow in the Leadership in Government Fellowships program of the Open Society Foundations.

From 2010 to 2017, Bains served in the Justice Department as a career prosecutor and then senior counsel to the assistant attorney general for civil rights. He was awarded the Attorney General’s Award for Exceptional Service for his work to reform policing, fines, and fees in Ferguson, Mo. Bains also clerked for Judge Karen Nelson Moore on the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals and Judge Nancy Gertner in the District of Massachusetts.

Bains graduated from Harvard Law School, where he earned his juris doctor. He graduated from the University of Cambridge, where he received his master of philosophy in criminology. Bains also graduated from Yale, where he earned his bachelor of arts.