Addressing America’s Poverty Crisis: A Two-Day Hamilton Project Forum Featuring Special Guest President Bill Clinton

WHAT: Addressing America’s Poverty Crisis: A Two-Day Hamilton Project Forum Featuring Special Guest President Bill Clinton

WHEN: Thursday, June 19, 2014, 9:00 a.m.– 4:00 p.m. and Friday, June 20, 2014, 9:30 a.m.– 12:30 p.m.

WHERE: Washington Court Hotel Ballroom, 525 New Jersey Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C. 20001

CONTACT: Karen Anderson, kanderson@brookings.edu or 202-797-6023

BACKGROUND:

Day one of the event will begin with a CEO-level conversation between Klaus Kleinfeld of Alcoa and Mike Petters of Huntington Ingalls Industries, and will offer private-sector perspectives on the demand for high-skill training and apprenticeship programs. A roundtable of scholars and practitioners, including Rhandi Berth of the Wisconsin Regional Training Partnership and Michael Monroe of North America’s Building Trades Union, will discuss new workforce training proposals. Following President Clinton's keynote address, the program will feature two roundtable discussions on new proposals aimed at promoting early childhood development and strategies for supporting disadvantaged youth. Cecilia Rouse, Dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton, and Linda Gibbs, former Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services in New York City, will join the discussion.

Day two of the event will focus on new policies to improve safety net and work support. MDRC President Gordon Berlin and Center on Budget and Policy Priorities President Robert Greenstein will discuss new proposals for a refundable child-care credit, an expansion to the Earned Income Tax Credit, and opportunities to harness innovative capacities to improve the administration of social services. The agenda will conclude with a roundtable on opportunities to strengthen work-share and minimum wage policies to benefit low-wage workers, featuring Greg Mankiw of Harvard University and Jared Bernstein of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

THURSDAY, JUNE 19, 2014:

8:15 A.M. REGISTRATION OPENS – CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST

9:15 A.M. WELCOME AND OVERVIEW– Robert E. Rubin, Co-Chair, Council on Foreign Relations; Former U.S. Treasury Secretary

9:25 A.M. FRAMING REMARKS – Melissa Kearney, Director, The Hamilton Project

9:35 – 10: 30 A.M. ROUNDTABLE: VIEW FROM THE PRIVATE SECTOR ON HIGH-SKILL TRAINING AND APPRENTICESHIP

• Mike Petters, President and CEO, Huntington Ingalls Industries @HIIndustries
• Klaus Kleinfeld, Chairman and CEO, Alcoa @Alcoa
• Facilitator: Sudeep Reddy, Economics Editor, Wall Street Journal @Reddy

10:30 – 11:45 A.M. ROUNDTABLE: NEW APPROACHES TO BUILDING SKILLS

• Sheena McConnell, Vice President and Director, Human Services Research, Mathematica Policy Research @MathPolResearch
• Harry Holzer, Professor of Public Policy, McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown @GUPublicPolicy
• Robert Lerman, Professor, Department of Economics, American University @AmericanU
• Discussant: Rhandi Berth, Vice President, Wisconsin Regional Training Partnership @wrtpbigstep
• Discussant: Michael Monroe, Chief of Staff, North America’s Building Trades Unions
• Moderator: Ralph Schlosstein, President and CEO, Evercore

11:45 A.M. – 12:15 P.M. LUNCH BREAK (boxed lunches will be provided)

12:15 – 1:15 P.M. KEYNOTE ADDRESS:

The Honorable Bill Clinton, Founder of the Clinton Foundation and 42nd President of the United States

1:15 – 2:30 P.M. ROUNDTABLE: SUPPORTING DISADVANTAGED YOUTH

• Phillip Levine, Katharine Coman and A. Barton Hepburn Professor of Economics, Wellesley College @Wellesley
• Amy Schwartz, Professor of Public Policy, Education, and Economics; Director, Institute for Education and Social Policy, New York University @nyusteinhardt
• Bridget Terry Long, Academic Dean and Xander Professor of Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education Discussant: Linda Gibbs, Former Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services, City of New York @lindagibbs
• Moderator/Discussant: Cecilia Rouse, Dean; Lawrence and Shirley Katzman and Lewis and Anna Ernst Professor in the Economics of Education, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University

2:30 – 2:45 P.M. BREAK

2:45 – 4:00 P.M. ROUNDTABLE: PROMOTING EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT

• Ariel Kalil, Professor, The Harris School of Public Policy; Director, Center for Human Potential and Public Policy, University of Chicago @UChicagoHarris
• Isabel Sawhill, Co-Director, Center on Children and Families; Co-Director, Budgeting for National Priorities; Senior Fellow, Economic Studies, Brookings Institution @isawhill
• Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach, Associate Professor, School of Education and Social Policy, Northwestern University @dwschanz
• Discussant: Linda Gibbs, Former Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services, City of New York @lindagibbs
• Discussant: JoAnn Hsueh, Deputy Director, Family Well-Being and Children’s Development Policy, MDRC
• Moderator: Glenn Hutchins, Co-Founder, Silver Lake; Founder, the Hutchins Center for Fiscal and Monetary Policy, Brookings Institution

FRIDAY, JUNE 20, 2014:

8:30 A.M. REGISTRATION OPENS – CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST

9:30 – 9:45 A.M. OPENING REMARKS – Roger C. Altman, Founder and Chairman, Evercore

9:45 – 11:00 A.M. ROUNDTABLE: IMPROVING SOCIAL-PROGRAM DESIGN AND DELIVERY

• Scott Cody, Vice President and Director, Cambridge Human Services Research, Mathematica Policy Research @MathPolResearch
• Hilary Hoynes, Professor of Public Policy and Economics, Haas Distinguished Chair in Economic Disparities, University of California, Berkeley @GoldmanSchool
• James Ziliak, Gatton Endowed Chair in Microeconomics, Department of Economics; Director, Center for Poverty Research, University of Kentucky @UKGattonCollege
• Discussant: Gordon Berlin, President, MDRC @MDRC_News
• Discussant: Robert Greenstein, President, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities @GreensteinCBPP
• Moderator: Melissa Kearney, Director, The Hamilton Project

11:00 – 11:15 A.M. BREAK

11:15 – 12:30 P.M. ROUNDTABLE: THE ROLE OF WORK-SHARING AND MINIMUM WAGE POLICY IN SUPPORTING WORKERS

• Katharine Abraham, Professor, Department of Economics and Joint Program in Survey Methodology, University of Maryland @UofMaryland
• Arindrajit Dube, Associate Professor of Economics, University of Massachusetts Amherst @arindube
• Discussant: Jared Bernstein, Senior Fellow, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities @econjared
• Discussant: Gregory Mankiw, Robert M. Beren Professor of Economics, Harvard University @Harvard
• Moderator: Christopher Edley, Jr., The Honorable William H. Orrick, Jr. Distinguished Professor; Faculty Director, Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Law and Social Policy, Boalt School of Law, University of California, Berkeley @profedley