DLA Piper announced today that Tony Samp has joined the firm's Government Affairs practice as a policy advisor in Washington, DC.

Samp will advise clients on public policy issues related to the defense, space, directed energy and technology sectors. He brings 12 years of experience working with members of Congress on defense and national security issues, most recently serving as senior policy advisor to Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-New Mexico), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

While working for Heinrich, Samp helped found the first-ever Congressional Directed Energy (DE) Caucus and authored bill language that created a US$100 million DE prototyping program at the Department of Defense. In his 12 years of service, he also secured major legislative provisions and significant federal funding for impacting the military space community.

He helped found and manage the Senate Artificial Intelligence Caucus and helped Sen. Heinrich author the Artificial Intelligence Initiative Act, US$2.2 billion legislation that was endorsed by 11 major associations and institutions to organize a national strategy for AI and invest in academia, national laboratories and industry. He also helped the Senator author the Armed Forces Digital Advantage Act and led a legislative strategy in the National Defense Authorization Act to create new career tracks in the Department of Defense focused on technologies like 5G, cloud computing and artificial intelligence.

"Tony has more than a decade of firsthand experience working in public policy and is regarded as one of the foremost national security authorities on transformational technologies like artificial intelligence," said Ignacio Sanchez, chair of the firm's Government Affairs practice. "His insights into the legislative process, as well as his deep connections within the federal government, will be highly valuable."

"Tony has been a true leader in the Senate on AI, directed energy, space and other key defense issues. He will be a tremendous asset to our clients. He has cultivated strong relationships with key policy-making officials, as well as industry leaders," said Steven Phillips, co-chair of DLA Piper's Federal Law and Policy practice.

Samp received his M.A. in strategic security studies from the National Defense University and his B.A. from Baylor University.