Wednesday, April 29, 2015
Hilton Garden Inn, 1225 First Street NE

6:30 PM – 8:30 PM Asset Builder Champion (ABC) Awards Reception
The reception will highlight and acknowledge the efforts of champions in the asset-building field. These include researchers, business leaders, and practitioners who have contributed greatly to national progress in addressing racial wealth disparities.

Awardees:

  • Congressman Luis V. Gutierrez, U.S. House of Representatives
  • Tanya Fiddler, Executive Director, Four Bands Community Fund
  • Lisa Hasegawa,Executive Director, National CAPACD
  • john a. powell, Director, Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society, University of California at Berkeley

Thursday, April 30, 2015
U.S. Capitol Visitors Center, Congressional Auditorium
First Street and East Capitol Street NE

8:45 AM  –  9:15 AM Welcome and opening remarks:
Maya Rockeymoore, Ph.D.
President & CEO, Center for Global Policy Solutions
Henry A.J. Ramos
President & CEO, Insight Center for Community Economic DevelopmentCongressional welcome:

Congressman G.K. Butterfield
Chair, Congressional Black Caucus

Congresswoman Judy Chu
Chair, Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus
9:15 AM  –  9:30 AM Featured speaker:
Senator Mazie Hirono
U.S. Senate
9:30 AM  –  10:45 AM The Great Inequality Debate: Economic Equity and the Potential for Policy Action
Economic inequality in the United States is the highest it has been since the Great Depression. Within the inequality policy debate, the issue of the racial wealth gap is attracting growing attention because of its magnitude and likely effects on the nation’s economy. What is the potential for achieving policy solutions aimed at closing the racial wealth gap? This panel will explore the extent to which public policy can address economic inequality and the racial wealth gap, as well as actions that can be undertaken to fill the gaps that policy cannot address.Featured speaker:
Congressman John Conyers
Dean, U.S. House of Representatives

Moderator:
Michael Fletcher, National Economics Correspondent, The Washington Post

Panelists:

  • Deepak Bhargava, Executive Director, Center for Community Change
  • Rakesh Kochhar, Associate Director for Research, Pew Research Center
  • Jacqueline Johnson Pata, Executive Director, National Congress of American Indians
  • Anne Price, Managing Program Director and Chief Asset Building Officer, Insight Center for Community Economic Development
10:45 AM  –  11:00 AM Featured Speaker:
J.C. Watts
Chairman, J.C. Watts Companies
11:00 AM  –  12:00 PM Future Shock: The Macroeconomic Effects of Racial Wealth Inequality
Given the projected demographic explosion of racial and ethnic groups that have been historically marginalized in the United States, the issue of the racial wealth gap should be of great interest to economists, policymakers, and business leaders. How will the overall economy fare if there is no substantial change in the economic condition of the rising majority? National economic prosperity depends on having an educated and thriving workforce. This panel of leading economists will discuss historical tendencies, contemporary trends, and projections of wealth accumulation as part of an examination of how the racial wealth gap is likely to affect the future of the U.S. economy.Featured Speaker:
Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney
U.S. House of Representatives

Moderator:
Judy Woodruff, Co-Anchor & Managing Editor, PBS NewsHour

Panelists:

  • Dean Baker, Co-Director, Center for Economic and Policy Research
  • Heather Boushey, Executive Director and Chief Economist, Washington Center for Equitable Growth
  • William R. Emmons, Assistant Vice President and Economist, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
  • William Spriggs, Chief Economist, AFL-CIO
12:00 PM  –  1:00 PM Lunch
1:00 PM  –  1:30 PM The Power of Opportunity: An Armchair ConversationRobert F. Smith
Founder, Chairman, and CEO Vista Equity Partners
1:30 PM  –  2:45 PM What’s the Code Got to Do With It? Tax Fairness and the Racial Wealth Gap
Out of the world’s top 22 industrialized countries, the United States has the highest level of wealth inequality after taxes and transfers. Despite such redistributive measures as the Earned Income Tax Credit, the U.S. tax code and other transfers do less to address wealth inequality than has been commonly understood. How does the current tax system work to increase U.S. wealth inequality? This session will discuss how the U.S. tax code could be changed to level wealth disparities, particularly for communities of color that have been historically marginalized in the U.S. economy.Moderator:
Julianne Malveaux, President Emerita, Bennett College for Women

Panelists:

  • Dorothy A. Brown, Vice Provost, Professor of Law, Emory University School of Law
  • Frank Clemente, Executive Director, Americans for Tax Fairness
  • Jeremie Greer, Vice President of Policy & Research, CFED
  • Ida Rademacher, Executive Director, Initiative on Financial Security, The Aspen Institute
3:00 PM  –  4:15 PM Making Equity Work: Designing and Implementing Policies to Close the Racial Wealth Gap
For policy to be effective in achieving desired goals, close attention must be paid to decisions made during the design and implementation stages. But how do we ensure that public policies are designed and implemented in a way to ensure that all Americans have the opportunity to achieve economic security? This panel will explore policy design and implementation strategies that can help to meet the economic needs of communities of color.Featured Speaker:
Congressman Emanuel Cleaver
U.S. House of Representatives

Moderator:
Lawrence Parks
Senior Vice President, Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco

Panelists:

  • Angela Glover Blackwell, Founder and CEO, PolicyLink
  • James Carr, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress
  • Susan Gooden, Executive Director, Grace E. Harris Leadership Institute, L. Douglas Wilder, School of Government and Public Affairs, Virginia Commonwealth University
  • john a. powell, Director, Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society, University of California at Berkeley

Featured Speaker:
Congresswoman Maxine Waters
U.S. House of Representatives
4:15 PM  –  4:30 PM Closing Remarks