Madison Smith

Senior Principal

Washington, D.C.

About Madison

Madison brings more than a decade of combined public and private sector political experience to the firm. At Cozen O’Connor Public Strategies, Madison’s advisory and consulting practice focuses on a wide-range of issues, including technology, cybersecurity, international trade, tax, appropriations, foreign affairs, and financial services. Prior to joining the firm, Madison spent three years as an in-house political adviser and lobbyist to one of the world’s largest technology companies, where he was solely responsible for managing the company’s relationships with Senate Republicans.

Before jumping to private practice, Madison spent nearly eight years combined in both the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives. His service on behalf of three Texas lawmakers has made him a trusted adviser in the powerful Texas delegation.

In the U.S. Senate, Madison served in two concurrent capacities advising then-Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas), the second-highest-ranking lawmaker in Senate Republican leadership. In Madison’s first capacity, he served as the staff director of the Senate Finance Committee’s Subcommittee on International Trade, where he was responsible for planning, managing and executing a robust oversight agenda of the executive branch’s international trade policies, including the U.S.-China trade deal, the USMCA, and Sec. 232 and 301 investigations.

In addition to serving as staff director of the Trade Subcommittee, Madison also advised the Senator Cornyn on transportation, homeland security, technology, and state and local issues. Madison played a lead role in crafting more than six major pieces of legislation now signed into law, including a crucial supplemental appropriations package totaling more than $50 billion in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, a landmark bill (FIRRMA) to modernize the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), and a bill to enhance public-private partnerships at U.S. ports of entry.

Prior to his Senate tenure, Madison spent four years in the U.S. House of Representatives. As a policy advisor to Congressman Will Hurd (Texas-23), Madison directed and oversaw the congressman’s chairmanship of the House Oversight Subcommittee on Information Technology, where his work helped position Rep. Hurd as a national thought leader on cybersecurity and emerging technology issues.

Madison was the primary staff architect in 2015 behind the MOVE IT Act, which later was enacted as the Modernizing Government Technology (MGT) Act and established the landmark Technology Modernization Fund (TMF). Since its inception, the TMF has been the principal method for addressing the U.S. government’s outdated IT posture and received a $1 billion emergency appropriation in 2021 as part of the American Rescue Plan Act. As a result of Madison’s work in this space, he was selected by his peers as one of Federal Computer Weekly’s “Federal 100” in 2017.

He began his career on Capitol Hill as an aide to Congressman Roger Williams (Texas-25).

Madison is a native of Austin, Texas and earned his bachelor’s degree in political science with a minor in communications from Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas.

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