CED -- Committee for Economic Development -- Independent, Non-Partisan, Public Policy Research

The Committee for Economic Development (CED) has named two prominent Americans to serve as co-chairs of the business-led policy group. Dr. Joseph Kasputys, chairman, president and chief executive officer, Global Insight, Inc., and Donald K. Peterson, Chairman and CEO (retired), Avaya Inc. were elected by CED’s Trustees at the 2008 CED Annual Meetings in New York City in late May. They succeed Former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Roderick M. Hills and former Deputy Assistant to the President for Economic Policy W. Bowman Cutter who served as CED’s co-chairs since November of 2005 (read the full press release).

Throughout its 65-year history, the Committee for Economic Development has addressed national priorities that promote sustained economic growth and development to benefit all Americans. These activities have quite literally helped shape the future on issues ranging from the Marshall Plan in the late 1940s, to education reform in the past two decades, and campaign finance reform since 2000. CED's Trustees not only determine what those priorities should be; but also take the time to participate in the subcommittees which produce the policy statements containing CED's findings and recommendations.

In recent years, CED's Trustees have increasingly become involved in promoting our recommendations across the country. By bringing a "business voice" and perspective to critical national issues, CED Trustees contribute substantially to the national debate and the development of sound public policy.

EDUCATION
Nowhere has CED's involvement been more critical in recent years than in our education policy work. In February 2004, we released a report on school finance entitled Investing in Learning: School Funding Policies to Foster High Performance. With major funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, CED is sponsoring four urban conferences-New York and Austin in 2004 to be followed by Los Angeles and Chicago in 2005-to discuss issues relating to the growing number of "adequacy" lawsuits around the country, and subjects such as resource allocation, teacher compensation, and decentralization.

We were honored once again in 2005 to work with the MetLife Foundation to release their 2004-2005 annual survey of the American teacher entitled "Transitions and the Role of Supportive Relationships." This annual survey provides vital information for the policy community, elected officials, and education practitioners. CED is proud to have a long standing relationship with MetLife Foundation, including CED-sponsored discussions in New York, St. Louis, and Denver for their 2003 survey.

CED's pathbreaking work in presenting the economic arguments for investing in early childhood education will continue to be driven by strong Trustee interest. The Pew Charitable Trusts made a sizeable grant to CED to conduct further research; the work of Noble Laureate in economics James Heckman at the University of Chicago was presented at a December 4, 2004, forum in Washington, DC, sponsored jointly by CED, The Pew Charitable Trusts, and PNC Financial Group; and the "Invest in Kids Working Group" meets at CED to consider and sponsor new research. The second universal pre-kindergarten sub-committee has been launched and is being co-chaired by Robert Dugger, Managing Director, Tudor Investment Corporation; James Rohr, Chairman and CEO, PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.; and Daniel Rose, Chairman, Rose Associates, Inc.

With leadership from CED Trustees John Brademas, President Emeritus, New York University; CED President Charles Kolb; and Alfred Mockett, former Chairman and CEO, CGI-AMS, Inc., CED launched a new project in November on international studies and foreign languages. Working closely with the Asia Society and with financial support from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, CED Trustees will make recommendations on ways to enhance the study of foreign languages and to expose more young Americans to the world outside our borders. This work comes at a critical time in our history when American political, economic, military, and cultural influence should be accompanied by a greater understanding of foreign cultures. The need for more speakers of foreign languages, for example, is not a cultural luxury but now a key national security imperative.

GLOBALIZATION & TRADE
CED's international program remains strong and saw the completion of a second project chaired by James D. Robinson III, General Partner and Co-Founder, RRE Ventures, on trade and outsourcing entitled, "Making Trade Work: Straight Talk on Jobs, Trade, and Adjustment." At CED's annual dinner on May 19, 2004, General Motors received our Excellence in Public Policy Award, and GM's former chairman and chief executive officer from 1992 to 2000, Jack Smith, spoke about GM's commitment to global corporate citizenship and also presented an overview of his company's activities in the Peoples Republic of China. GM's current chairman and CEO, Rick Wagoner, presented the CED award to Mr. Smith.

CED has also been working with UNESCO representatives to further that international organization's ten-year commitment to "Education for All." CED's President Charles Kolb met with UNESCO Director General Koichiro Matsuura and U.S. Ambassador to UNESCO Louise Oliver to explain ways in which CED's example of business leaders engaged in public policy might encourage similar efforts by businesses in the developing world. This work has coincided with the re-establishment of the United States as a member of UNESCO after a 19-year absence.

DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTIONS
In the area of democratic institutions, CED Trustees in 2004 participated in efforts devoted to judicial selection reform in New York, North Carolina, and Texas. A second sub-committee on campaign finance reform, co-chaired by Edward Kangas, Retired Chairman & CEO, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, and George Rupp, President, International Rescue Committee, continued CED's interest in strengthening the country's campaign finance system. This new look at the role money plays in Federal election campaigns re-emphasized the need to reform the Federal Election Commission, curb the abuse of so-called "Section 527" committees, and revive the languishing campaign finance system for presidential primary and general election campaigns. We are grateful to the Carnegie Corporation of New York for continued support of CED's campaign finance reform work.

THE ECONOMY AND THE FEDERAL BUDGET
CED's contributions to national macroeconomic policy include a major report on tax reform and tax simplification that is to be released in the second half of 2005. This subcommittee was chaired by W. Bowman Cutter, Managing Director, Warburg Pincus LLC. Efforts are also underway to combine the findings and recommendations from CED's previous work on older workers, reforming Social Security and reducing the structural federal budget deficit to prepare a report for the first half of 2005 that will highlight the country's looming demographic problems, the need to address the current structural Federal budget deficit, and the importance of Social Security reform through private accounts, reducing the rate of growth of benefits, and enacting other programmatic changes that would ensure the fiscal solvency of the program and reduce the federal budget deficit.

Two CED advisory committees saw substantial progress in 2004. The Digital Connections Council, chaired by Paul Horn, Senior Vice president, Research, IBM Corporation, released its first report, Promoting Innovation and Economic Growth: The Special Problem of Digital Intellectual Property. A second Digital Connections Council report is planned for 2005 that will address issues relating to open source software. Also, the Human Resources Advisory Council held its first meetings in 2004 and will provide advice about future CED work on health care policy and the nature of retirement in today's economy.

CED continues its public policy work with projects on corporate governance, health care reform, higher education, early education, and international issues, such as China, global financial imbalance, and global poverty. We are also continuing the effort to broaden the international network of CED counterpart business organizations to include Croatia, South Africa, and Turkey.