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Co-Chairs
Mr. Frenzel was the ranking minority member on the House Budget Committee, and was the principal Republican economic spokesperson in the House. He was a member of the House Ways and Means Committee and its Trade Subcommittee, and a Congressional representative to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. He served as special advisor to President Clinton for NAFTA; on President Bush's Social Security Commission; on the Advisory Committee on Trade Policy and Negotiations (ACTPN); and on President Bush's Tax Reform Commission. He is currently a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution. He and his wife, Ruthy, are the parents of three daughters and grandparents of two perfect grandchildren.
Penny represented Minnesota’s First Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives
from 1982-1994. Throughout his congressional career, Penny placed an emphasis on
budget issues. He chaired the Democratic Budget Group as well as the Porkbusters Coalition.
Previously, he was a member of the Minnesota State Senate from 1976-82. In 2001, he
was appointed to President Bush's bipartisan commission on Social Security. Most recently,
Penny was a senior counselor at Himle Horner, a Twin Cities-based public relations and
public affairs firm, and co-chair of the Humphrey Institute Forum at the University of Minnesota.
Currently, Penny serves as Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation’s (SMIF) president
& CEO. He is the co-author of two books, Common Cents (1995) and The 15 Biggest
Lies in Politics (1998).
Rep. Stenholm was a representative from Texas for 26 years. While in Congress, he served
on the Agriculture Committee and was founder and coordinator of the Conservative Democratic
Forum in the 1980s. Stenholm consistently advanced fiscal responsibility in the
federal budget. The balanced budget plans which Stenholm crafted in both the 104th and
105th Congresses with a group of moderate and conservative Democrats known as the "Blue
Dog Coalition" have received wide national acclaim as the most honest, pragmatic, and fair
proposals on the table. Currently, Mr. Stenholm is a senior policy advisor at Olsson Frank
Weeda, P.C.
President
Maya MacGuineas is the President of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Additionally, she is the Director of the Fiscal Policy Program at the New America Foundation, a nonpartisan think tank. Maya testifies regularly before Congress, advises the administration and has published broadly, including articles in The Atlantic Monthly, The Washington Post, The New York Times, the Financial Times and the Los Angeles Times. Once dubbed “an anti-deficit warrior” by The Wall Street Journal, Maya comments often on broadcast news and is widely cited by the national press. In the spring of 2009 Maya did a stint on The Washington Post editorial board, covering economic and fiscal policy.
Maya has worked at the Brookings Institution and on Wall Street. As a political independent, she has advised numerous candidates for office from both parties, and works regularly with members of Congress on health, economic, tax, and budget policy. She serves on the boards of a number of national, nonpartisan organizations and received her Master in Public Policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
Directors
Barry Anderson is the former head of the Budgeting and Public Expenditures Division in
the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris. Prior
to joining OECD, Mr. Anderson was a budget advisor at the International Monetary
Fund. Before joining the IMF, Mr. Anderson served in various positions dealing with
federal budgeting in the United States Federal Government, most recently as the deputy
director and then the acting director of the Congressional Budget Office. He has
also been a member of the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board, and has
taught courses on the U.S. budget process for George Washington University and the
Office of Personnel Management.
Mr. Ash is co-founder of Litton Industries. He served as its director and president until
1972. Later, he became chairman of the President's Advisory Council on Executive Organization
and served as director of the Office of Management and Budget during the
Nixon and Ford administrations.
Mr. Bowsher was the comptroller general of the General Accounting Office, appointed by
President Ronald Reagan in 1981. Prior to that, he was with Arthur Andersen & Co. for 25
years and served as assistant secretary of the Navy for Financial Management. Currently, he
sits on several corporate and advisory boards, and is a member of the Public Accounting
Oversight Board.
Steve Coll is president & CEO of New America Foundation, and a staff writer at The New
Yorker magazine. Previously he spent 20 years as a foreign correspondent and senior editor at
The Washington Post, serving as the paper’s managing editor from 1998 to 2004. He is author
of six books, including The Deal of the Century: The Break Up of AT&T; The Taking of Getty
Oil; Eagle on the Street; On the Grand Trunk Road: A Journey into South Asia, Ghost Wars: The
Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10,
2001; and The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century. Mr. Coll’s professional
awards include two Pulitzer Prizes.
Mr. Crippen served as the director of the Congressional Budget Office from 1999 through
2003. Prior to his stint at CBO, Mr. Crippen was President George H. W. Bush's adviser on
all issues relating to domestic policy, including the preparation of the federal budget. From
1981 to 1985, he served as chief counsel and economic policy adviser to Senate Majority
Leader Howard Baker of Tennessee. In the private sector, he was a principal with the Washington
Counsel, a consulting firm. He has also served as executive director of the Merrill
Lynch International Advisory Council and as senior vice president of the Duberstein Group.
Mr. Fazio is a former Democratic congressman who represented the state of California between
1979 and 1999. Congressman Fazio served on the Budget and Appropriations Committees,
among others, and was an active member of the Democratic leadership, rising to
chairman of the Democratic Caucus in 1994. Currently, Mr. Fazio is a senior advisor at the
law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld.
Mr. Gradison served nine terms in Congress as a member from Ohio, where he was the
ranking member of the House Budget Committee and the ranking member on the Health
Subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee. Prior to that, he was the assistant
to the secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, an under secretary of the Treasury, and
mayor of Cincinnati. Since leaving Congress, he has been president of the Health Insurance
Association of America, a member of the audit committee for Project HOPE, and the senior
public policy counselor at Patton Boggs. Currently, he is a member of the Board of the Public
Company Accounting Oversight Board.
From 1978-1991, Mr. Gray served as a U.S. congressman from Pennsylvania, and was the
chairman of the House Budget Committee, chairman of the Democratic Caucus, and majority
whip. After leaving Congress, Mr. Gray became president and chief executive officer of
the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) and served as special adviser to President Clinton
on developing and implementing a policy to restore democracy in Haiti. He is founder and
chairman of The Amani Group, a business advisory firm.
Mr. Hoagland, who currently works at CIGNA, served as the director of Budget and Appropriations
in the Office of the Senate Majority Leader. From 1982 until 2003, Mr. Hoagland
was a staff member of the U.S. Senate Budget Committee, serving as staff director from
1986 to 2003. He also was the administrator of the Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition
Service and as a special assistant to the secretary of Agriculture and at the Congressional
Budget Office. He currently is an affiliate professor of public policy at the George Mason
University.
Dr. Holtz-Eakin is senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and president of DHE Consulting, LLC. He also served as policy director for John McCain’s 2008 bid for president. A former director of the Congressional Budget Office, Dr. Holtz-Eakin was a member of the Council of Economic Advisers under President George H.W.Bush, and the chief economist under George W. Bush. He has also held academic appointments at Columbia, Princeton, and Syracuse Universities and was director of the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies and the Paul A. Volcker Chair in International Economics at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Mr. Jones currently serves as a co-chairman and chief executive officer of Manatt Jones
Global Strategies, a business consulting firm, and is senior counsel to the law firm of
Manatt, Phelps & Phillips. Prior to joining the firm, he served as U.S. ambassador to Mexico
from 1993 to 1997. Mr. Jones has also served as president of Warnaco International and
chairman and CEO of the American Stock Exchange. As congressman of Oklahoma from
1973 to 1987, he was chairman of the House Budget Committee and a ranking member of
the House Ways and Means Committee. When he was only 28, President Lyndon Johnson
selected him as chief of staff, making him the youngest person in history to hold this position.
Mr. Jones serves on a number of Boards including thos of Anheuser Busch and the
Kaiser Family Foundation.
Mrs. Kerr is an active leader in the community of Oklahoma City as well as the state and the
country. She is president and chair of The Kerr Foundation, Inc. Mrs. Kerr is involved in
many activities, boards and philanthropic endeavors. Ms. Kerr sits on many boards, including
the Women's Leadership Board of the John F. Kennedy School of Government-Harvard
University, University of Oklahoma International Programs Center with Ambassador Edward
Pekins and Ambassador Edwin Corr, UMB-Oklahoma Bank, Lyric Theatre, the International
Business Forum, and the Advisory Board for the Oklahoma Health Center Foundation.
She is chair of the Capitol Preservation Commission for Oklahoma, a national trustee
for the National Symphony Orchestra, and serves on the Truman Foundation Scholarship
Selection Committee. In 1995, President Clinton appointed her to the Oklahoma City
Scholarship Fund Advisory Board.
Mr. Kolbe is a former member of the US House of Representatives from the state of Arizona,
serving from 1985 through 2007. While in the House, he was a member of the Appropriations
Committee, serving as chair of the Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, Export
Financing and Related Programs. He now serves as a senior transatlantic fellow at the
German Marshall Fund think tank, in addition to being a consultant for Kissinger McLarty
Associates. He is co-chair of the Transatlantic Taskforce on Development with Gunilla
Carlsson, the Swedish Minister for International Development Cooperation. He also serves
as an adjunct professor in the College of Business at the University of Arizona.
Mr. Lynn is the retired chairman and chief executive officer of Aetna Life & Casualty, and is currently a senior adviser at Lazard Freres & Co., LLC. During the Nixon administration, he served as general counsel at the Department of Commerce, under secretary at the Department of Commerce, and secretary of Housing and Urban Development. In 1975, he was appointed by President Ford to serve as director of the Office of Management and Budget. Later, Mr. Lynn became chairman of Aetna.
Mr. McIntyre joined the Carter administration as deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, becoming director later that year. Prior to that, he was general counsel for the Georgia Municipal Association, serving until appointment as seputy state revenue commissioner in 1970. While serving as deputy state revenue commissioner, he was appointed director of the Office of Planning and Budget for the State by Governor Carter. After he left government, he established the McIntyre Law Firm. Mr. McIntyre is a trustee of Young Harris College.
Mr. Minge, a former U.S. representative from Minnesota, served on the House Agriculture
Committee, House Budget Committee, Joint Economic Committee, and the House Science
Committee. He is co-founder and past member of the Clean Up the River Environment
Board as well as co-founder and past chair of the Agricultural Law Section of the Minnesota
State Bar Association. Currently, Mr. Minge is a judge for the Minnesota Court of Appeals.
In addition, he is a scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D.C., a fellow
in the W.W. Kellogg Foundation Food and Society Policy Program, and a lecturer at the
University of Minnesota, Morris.
Mr. Nussle served as Director of the Office of Management and Budget
(2007 – 2009) under President George W. Bush. Prior to his service in
the President’s Cabinet, Nussle served for 16 years in the U.S. House
of Representatives representing the 1st District of Iowa. While serving
in the House, Nussle was selected as Chairman of the House Budget
Committee (2001 to 2007) where he guided 6 federal budgets through the
Congress. At the time of his election to Congress, Nussle was the
youngest member of the House and was recognized numerous times for his
work for fiscal responsibility and on budget process reform. Jim Nussle
is currently the president of The Nussle Group, a multi-disciplined,
strategic consulting and government affairs firm.
Dr. O'Neill served as director of the Congressional Budget Office from 1995 to 1999. Prior
to that, she held positions as director of policy and research at the U.S. Commission on
Civil Rights, senior economist on the President's Council of Economic Advisers, senior research
associate at the Urban Institute, and research associate at the Brookings Institution.
She was elected vice president of the American Economics Association in 1998. Currently,
she is the director of the Center for the Study of Business and Government at Baruch College,
CUNY. She is also an adjunct scholar of the American Enterprise Institute.
Paul H. O’Neill is a Senior Advisor and Consultant to The Blackstone Group. Mr. O’Neill served as the 72nd Secretary of the U.S. Treasury from 2001 to 2002. Previously, he was chairman and CEO of Alcoa from 1987 to 1999, retiring as chairman at the end of 2000. Prior to joining Alcoa, Mr. O’Neill was president of International Paper Company from 1985 to 1987, where he was vice president from 1977 to 1985. Mr. O’Neill was on the staff of the Office of Management and Budget from 1967 to 1977, serving as deputy director from 1974 to 1977. He worked as a computer systems analyst with the U.S. Veterans Administration from 1961 to 1966.
Mr. Obernauer is chairman of the Beverage Distributors Company. He was formerly vice
chairman and director of Applied Graphics Technologies, Inc., and chairman and CEO of
Devon Group, Inc. before the company merged with Applied Graphics. He spent nearly a
decade as an investment officer with Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette and with First National
City Bank (now Citibank). He is a founding member and director of the American
Business Conference and a trustee of the Trinity School in New York City.
Rudolph G. Penner is a senior fellow at the Urban Institute. Previously, he was a managing
director of the Barents Group, a KPMG Company. He was director of the Congressional
Budget Office from 1983 to 1987. From 1977 to 1983, he was a resident scholar at the
American Enterprise Institute. Previous posts in government include assistant director for
economic policy at the Office of Management and Budget, deputy assistant secretary for economic
affairs at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and senior staff
economist at the Council of Economic Advisors.
Mr. Peterson is the founder and chairman of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation. He is also chairman emeritus of The Blackstone Group, former chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, chairman emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, and the founding chairman of the Institute for International Economics. He is also the founding president of The Concord Coalition. Prior to this, he served as chairman and CEO of Lehman Brothers and secretary of Commerce under President Nixon.
Dr. Reischauer was the director of the Congressional Budget Office from 1989 to 1995. Before
that he served as the Urban Institute's senior vice president from 1981 to 1986. He was
the Congressional Budget Office's assistant director for human resources and its deputy director
between 1977 and 1981. After leaving government, he was a senior fellow at the
Brookings Institution. Currently, he is the president of the Urban Institute and serves on
the boards of several educational and nonprofit organizations.
Dr. Rivlin became the founding director of the Congressional Budget Office in 1975 and served until 1983. She was director of the Office of Management and Budget in the Clinton administration. Later she was a governor and vice chair of the Federal Reserve. Currently, she is the director of the Greater Washington Research Program and senior fellow of Economic Studies at The Brookings Institution. She is also a visiting professor at the Public Policy Institute of Georgetown University.
Charles S. Robb is on the faculty of George Mason University as a Distinguished Professor of Law and Public Policy in 2001. Previously he served as Lt. Governor of Virginia, from 1978 to 1982, as Virginia’s 64th Governor, from 1982 to 1986, and as a United States Senator, from 1989 to 2001. While in the Senate he became the first member ever to serve simultaneously on all three national security committees (Intelligence, Armed Services, and Foreign Relations). He also served on the Finance, Commerce, and Budget Committees. Since leaving the Senate in 2001 he has served as Chairman of the Board of Visitors at the United States Naval Academy, Co-Chairman of the President’s Commission on Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction. He has also been a member of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board, the Secretary of State’s International Security Advisory Board, the Iraq Study Group, and the Afghanistan Study Group, and was a Fellow at the Institute of Politics at Harvard and at the Marshall Wythe School of Law at William & Mary.
Mr. Sabo is a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Minnesota's fifth district, where he served for twenty-eight years. In Congress, he chaired the House Budget Committee and sat on the House Appropriations Committee. Mr. Sabo was also a presidential appointment to the National Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations, served as President of both the National Conference of State Legislatures and National Legislative Conference, and founded the Friends of Norway Caucus in the House in 1999. Prior to his tenure in Washington, Mr. Sabo served as Speaker of the House for the Minnesota House of Representatives.
Eugene Steuerle is a senior fellow at The Urban Institute, co-director of the Urban-
Brookings Tax Policy Center, and a columnist for Tax Notes Magazine. In the past, he has
served as deputy assistant secretary of the Treasury for tax analysis, president of the National
Tax Association, chair of the 1999 Technical Panel advising Social Security on its methods
and assumptions, economic coordinator and original organizer of the 1984 Treasury study
that led to the Tax Reform Act of 1986, and a columnist for the Financial Times. Dr.
Steuerle is the author, co-author, editor or co-editor of fifteen books.
Mr. Stockman is the founding partner of Heartland Industrial Partners. He was formerly a
senior managing director of The Blackstone Group. Prior to joining Blackstone, Mr. Stockman
was a managing director at Salomon Brothers, Inc. He served as the director of the Office
of Management and Budget in the Reagan administration and was the youngest Cabinet
member of the twentieth century. From 1976 to 1981, Mr. Stockman represented
Michigan in the House of Representatives.
Laura D. Tyson is professor of business administration and economics at the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley and formerly dean of London Business School and dean of the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley. Dr. Tyson served in the Clinton administration and was the chair of The Council of Economic Advisors between 1993 and 1995, and she served as the President’s National Economic Adviser between 1995 and 1996. She has published books and articles on industrial competitiveness and trade and on the economies of Central Europe and their transition to market systems. Dr. Tyson is a member of the boards of the Brookings Institution, the Peter G. Peterson Institute of International Economics, Bruegel, Eastman Kodak Company, Morgan Stanley Company, AT&T, Inc., and 24/7 Customer.
Mr. Volcker served under five presidents- from John F. Kennedy to Ronald Reagan to the current one, Barack Obama. He is currently the chairman of the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board. He
served as under secretary of the Treasury for monetary affairs from 1969 to 1974 and as
president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank for the subsequent five years. He served as
chairman of the Federal Reserve System under Presidents Carter and Reagan. He later became
chairman and CEO of Wolfensohn & Co., Inc., and a professor of international economics
at Princeton University. Since his retirement from the Federal Reserve, Mr. Volcker
has served in a variety of public-service roles, including as a volunteer chairman of the Commission
on Public Service and chair of the International Independent Committee of Eminent
Persons, which investigates the Swiss bank accounts of holocaust victims. In the wake
of the Enron scandal, he was involved in revamping Arthur Andersen.
Carol Wait is president of Boggs Realty Company, a family owned real estate company that
has done business in Bellflower, California since 1936. Previously, she served as the president
of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. President George H.W. Bush appointed
Mrs. Wait to the Glass Ceiling Commission. Mrs. Wait serves on the Board of
CIGNA Corporation and is a past president of the International Women’s Forum. Currently,
Mrs. Wait serves as resident of the International Women’s Forum Leadership Foundation.
Mr. Walker serves as president and CEO of the Peterson Foundation. Prior to joining the
Peterson Foundation, Mr. Walker served as the comptroller general of the United States and
head of the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). From 1989 to 1998, Mr.
Walker was a partner and global managing director at Arthur Andersen LLP and served as a
public trustee for Social Security and Medicare from 1990 to 1995. Before joining Arthur
Andersen, Mr. Walker was assistant secretary of Labor for pension and welfare benefit programs
and served as acting executive director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.
Mr. Walker is chairman of the Independent Audit Advisory Committee for the United Nations
and a member of the Partnership for Public Service.
Mr. Wright was director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Ronald
Reagan from 1982 to 1989. He was also deputy secretary of the Department of Commerce
from 1981 to 1982, and later was on the President's Export Council as chairman of the Export
Control Subcommittee. He served as vice-chairman and director of Terremark Worldwide
Inc., vice chairman/director of Jefferson Consulting Group, co-chairman/director of
Baker & Taylor Holdings and as a member of the AT&T Government Markets Advisory
Board. Currently, he is the president and chief executive officer of PanAmSat a provider of
global video and data broadcasting via satellite.
Senior Advisors
Senior Advisor, Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget
Mr. Staats was appointed as the comptroller general of the United States by President Johnson.
Prior to serving as comptroller general, he was appointed deputy director of the budget
under Presidents Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson. From 1984 to 1990, he was
a member of the Governmental Accounting Standards Board. He was the first chairman of
the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board from 1990 to 1997. Currently, he is a
trustee of the Committee for Economic Development and member and councilor of The
Conference Board.
Senior Advisor, Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget
Mr. Strauss is a founding partner at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, as well as chairman
of AG Global Solutions. Mr. Strauss served as chairman of the Democratic National
Committee from 1973 to 1976 and chairman of President Carter's election campaigns in
1976 and 1980. He served as special trade representative under President Carter, as well as
the President's personal representative to the Middle East Peace Negotiations. He later
served as U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union. Currently, he is with Akin Gump and
serves as chairman of the U.S.-Russia Business Council, is a member of the Council on Foreign
Affairs, and is a trustee of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.