Alan Fram has covered Congress for The Associated Press since 1987, specializing in budget and spending issues. He has covered numerous budget summits between Congress and the first President Bush and later President Clinton. He has also covered the 1995-96 budget war between Clinton and the Newt Gingrich-led GOP that produced two federal shutdowns; and the remarkable period since the late 1990s that has seen huge deficits unexpectedly melt into surpluses, but return with a vengeance. Mr. Fram began his journalism career at the Middletown (N.Y.) Times Herald-Record in 1976, and later worked for the Albany (N.Y.) Times Union and The AP in New Jersey. He came to Washington with AP in 1983 to cover the New Jersey congressional delegation. A Bronx native, Mr. Fram graduated from The City College of New York in 1973. After an ill-advised two-month flirtation with law school, he received a masters degree in journalism from the University of California, Berkeley. Mr. Fram's wife, Eileen Putman, is a journalist and author. Their two young children, Andy and Abby, still prefer the comics.
2002 Alan Fram
Alan Fram / The Associated Press