How Do Federal Changes to SNAP and TANF Affect the District?

Kate Coventry is a Policy Analyst at the DC Fiscal Policy Institute, focusing on a range of issues affecting low-income residents of DC, particularly TANF, Interim Disability Assistance (IDA), and homelessness. Her professional background is rooted in working with community-based organizations in the Washington area. She received a BA in sociology from Randolph-Macon Woman’s College and a Master of Public Policy degree from George Washington University.

Kate will discuss how recent federal changes to the SNAP program (commonly known as food stamps) have affected DC residents, in addition to legislative proposals currently being considered by Congress. She will also examine how federal Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) policies intersect with the District’s recent TANF redesign effort.

The lunch is 12:00 noon to 1:30pm at Chinatown Garden, 618 H St NW Washington, DC. Metro stop: Gallery Place. The cost is $16 for members and affiliates, and $25 for non-members. This luncheon is a joint event with the National Economists Club.

To register for the lunch, please go to the National Economists Club.

Press: Please email info@national-economists.org with your attendance status and the date of attendance. It will be assumed that lunch is NOT requested. If lunch is requested, please contact in advance, prior to the date of the event, for registration and payment instructions at the member rate.

We hope to see you at lunch!

Net Worth Impacts of the Great Recession

Richard Fry and Paul Taylor examined the impact of the Great Recession on household net worth and discovered a recovery period characterized by uneven impacts. Using the Census Bureau’s Survey of Income and Program Participation and net worth data from the Federal Reserve, the research suggests that the net worth for the wealthiest Americans has grown substantially, while the rest of the country experienced notable declines in the 2009-2011 period. Dr. Fry will address the impact of the recession on household wealth. The basis for this talk is a report he authored in April of this year: http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2013/04/23/a-rise-in-wealth-for-the-wealthydeclines-for-the-lower-93/

Richard Fry is a senior economist at the Pew Research Center’s Hispanic Trends Project. He is an expert on school and college enrollment in the United States, as well as the returns to education in the labor market, marriage market, and its connection to household economic well-being such as net worth. Fry’s analyses are largely empirical, as he has extensive expertise analyzing U.S. Census Bureau and other federal data collections. Before joining the Pew Research Center in 2002, he was a senior economist at the Educational Testing Service (ETS). Fry received his doctorate in economics from The University of Michigan. Fry regularly documents U.S. educational and enrollment milestones, analyzes the role of student debt in financing college education, and examines the changing relationship between education and marriage and cohabitation. He has also contributed to the Pew Research Center’s analyses of the economic well-being of the nation’s young adults.

The lunch is 12:00 noon to 1:30pm at Chinatown Garden, 618 H St NW Washington, DC. Metro stop: Gallery Place. The cost is $16 for members and affiliates, and $25 for non-members. This luncheon is a joint event with the National Economists Club.

To register for the lunch, please go to the National Economists Club.

Press: Please email info@national-economists.org with your attendance status and the date of attendance. It will be assumed that lunch is NOT requested. If lunch is requested, please contact in advance, prior to the date of the event, for registration and payment instructions at the member rate.

We hope to see you at lunch!

The Hidden STEM Economy: Redefining High-Skilled Work

Jonathan Rothwell is a senior research associate and associate fellow at the Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings. His research covers a variety of topics on the sources of regional and national economic growth and prosperity with a focus on human capital and innovation. He has written Brookings reports on the labor market for education and skills, the economic consequences of patents and science and technical knowledge, the cleantech industry, and how land regulations create income segregation and unequal access to high-performing public schools. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Penn State, a master’s degree in economics from the New School, and a doctorate in policy from Princeton University. Read the rest of this entry »

Note: this replaces the previously-scheduled lunch with John Schmitt.

Heidi Shierholz joined the Economic Policy Institute in 2007. Her areas of research include trends in employment, unemployment, and compensation, income and wealth inequality, the low-wage labor market, the minimum wage, and the gender wage gap. Shierholz is a frequent contributor to broadcast and radio news outlets, including: ABC, CBS, CNN and NPR, and is regularly quoted in print and online media outlets, including the New York Times, Washington Post and the Huffington Post. She has repeatedly been called to testify in Congress on labor market issues. She is also a member of the board of directors of the DC Employment Justice Center. She previously worked as an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Toronto. Read the rest of this entry »

Sarah Bloom Raskin is a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve. Prior to her appointment to the Board, Ms. Raskin was the Commissioner of Financial Regulation for the State of Maryland. In this capacity, Ms. Raskin and her agency were responsible for regulating a vast array of interconnected financial institutions, including banks, credit unions, mortgage lenders, mortgage servicers, and trust companies, among others. Under her leadership, the Commissioner’s Office played an early and multi-faceted role in the state’s response to the financial crisis, including reforming through legislation, regulation, examination and supervision, the foreclosure process, combating foreclosure rescue and loan modification scams and elevating licensing, lending, and servicing standards.

Read the rest of this entry »

Jerry Taylor is among the most widely cited and influential critics of federal energy and environmental policy in the nation. Taylor is a frequent contributor to the Wall Street Journal and National Review and appears regularly on CNBC, NPR, Bloomberg Radio, the BBC, and Fox News. His op-eds on public policy have appeared in the pages of The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and most other major dailies. His extended essays on energy policy have appeared in The Georgetown Journal of Law & Public Policy, The Columbia Journal of International Affairs, Limes: The Italian Journal of Geopolitics, The Milken Institute Review, and Regulation magazine. Taylor has served on several congressional advisory bodies and has testified frequently on Capitol Hill regarding various energy and environmental policy matters. He is the author or coauthor of numerous Cato policy studies addressing energy taxes, the oil market, electricity regulation, energy efficiency, renewable energy, sustainable development, and trade and the environment. He has also contributed to several anthologies, including The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics (2007), Energy & American Society undefined 13 Myths (2007), The Republican Revolution 10 Years Later (2005), Earth Report 2000 (2000), China as a Global Economic Power (1997), and Market Liberalism (1993). Taylor is a member of the International Association for Energy Economics and has refereed articles for their publication, The Energy Journal. Read the rest of this entry »