Political Science professor Robert Jay Dilger, director of West Virginia University’s Institute for Public Affairs, has been appointed Assistant Director of Government and Finance and Senior Specialist in American National Government by the Library of Congress’Congressional Research Service in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Dilger will head the Congressional Research Service’s Government and Finance Division, which includes sections on Banking, Insurance, Securities, and Macroeconomic Policy, Congress, The Executive and Judiciary, Federalism, Elections, and Economic Development Policy, and Government Finance and Taxation. The Congressional Research Service is the U.S. Congress’primary source of information on all domestic and foreign policy issues.

Dr. Dilger is the founding director of WVU ’s Institute for Public Affairs and a nationally recognized expert on intergovernmental relations and American public policy. He has authored eight books and numerous articles, book chapters, and research monographs on American transportation policy, environmental infrastructure, welfare reform, economic development and government finance. He received his doctorate from Brandeis University and a bachelor’s degree from The Johns Hopkins University Department.

Since his arrival at WVU in 1990, Dilger has served as editor of the West Virginia Public Affairs Reporter, the Institute for Public Affairs’technical reports and monograph series, and has overseen the expansion of Institute for Public Affairs’public service outreach efforts, including the creation of the”County Commissioners’Education and Training Series”with the County Commissioners’Association of West Virginia; the”Local Government Leadership Academy”with the West Virginia Association of Counties, the County Commissioners’Association of West Virginia, and the West Virginia Municipal League; the”West Virginia State and Local Government Internship Program;”and the”West Virginia On-Campus Speakers’Series.”