BEGIN:VCALENDAR METHOD:PUBLISH CALSCALE:GREGORIAN PRODID:-//EVDB//www.eventful.com//EN VERSION:2.0 X-WR-CALNAME:The Congressional Black Caucus\, the Committee System and the President in Washington DC at Ronald Reagan Building &Int. Trade Ctr. - Eventful BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART:20090112T150000 DTEND:20090112T170000 DTSTAMP:20090719T080158Z SUMMARY:The Congressional Black Caucus\, the Committee System and the President DESCRIPTION: Participants: Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.)\, chairwoman\, Congressional Black Caucus\; George A. Dalley\, chief of staff to Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.)\; Katrina Gamble\, assistant professor of pol itical science\, Brown University\; and Perry Bacon\, staff writer\, T he Washington Post“The Congressional Black Caucus is as relevan t today as it was when it was first organized back in 1971\,” s aid Congresswoman Barbara Lee\, the new chairwoman of the Caucus. â €œWhat we have to determine now is how to move our people and make t hem a part of the democratic process as President-elect Obama called f or during the campaign.” Addressing a seminar cosponsored by t he Congress Project and the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation on J anuary 12\, Lee said Obama’s election as the first African-Amer ican president “provides us a unique opportunity to enact legis lation to fill the moral gaps in our society. We have to be bold in ad dressing the issues he has raised â€" from foreclosures and jobs t o health care and education.” Lee said that while much of the d iscussion during the campaign was on the plight of the middle class\, “we must also confront the problems of poverty head-on\,† particularly the problem of joblessness among those who have histori cally not held a job.George Dalley\, chief-of-staff to Congressman Cha rles Rangel (D-N.Y.)\, said the current financial and economic crises afford us an opportunity to move this nation on a number of fronts sim ultaneously\, including housing\, infrastructure\, and creating new jo bs. “The economic crisis has had a disproportionate effect on p eople of color who were already far behind.” Any stimulus packa ge should be targeted to those in greatest need. Dalley said President -elect Obama will be good for the black community as he tackles the ec onomic challenges he has inherited\, but we should not expect a radica l transformation of our society. Dalley said many people have unrealis tic expectations of what the new president can do\, and he has wisely tamped these down and cautioned us that things could get worse before the start to get better and not to expect change to happen overnight.K atrina Gamble\, an assistant professor at Brown University\, summarize d a paper she had prepared for the seminar\, “Incorporation and Representation: Congressional Black Caucus Leadership in the Committe e System.” She noted that when the Caucus was first formed ther e were just nine African Americans in Congress and none were given imp ortant committee assignments. Today there are 41 blacks in the House o f Representatives\, and they hold five committee chairmanships (includ ing Ways and Means\, Judiciary\, Homeland Security\, and Oversight and Government Reform)\, as well as 15 subcommittee chairmanships. Gamble said her research indicates that the Black Caucus members have often been more active than their white colleagues on committees in particip ating in deliberations\, both in debate and offering amendments. Moreo ver\, they bring unique perspectives that have helped frame important debates in different ways. While many feared the Black Caucus might lo se its edge as more Members moved into party and committee leadership positions\, that has not been the case. “They are still address ing the same needs of disadvantaged blacks and others\, but have a gre ater voice in the solutions than they once did.”Perry Bacon\, a political reporter with The Washington Post\, noted that the Black Ca ucus has already asserted itself and made a difference in the new Cong ress by weighing in unanimously with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in favor of seating former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris in the U.S. Senate. Bacon had just received word that Reid had reversed his earlier refusal to seat Burris and announced the Senate would do s o later in the week. Bacon said it can be expected that there will be differences from time to time between the new President and Black Cauc us members\, just as there will be between the two branches generally. But there will be more of a tendency to give the president the benefi t of the doubt. Bacon added that with a Black Caucus member taking ove r the House Oversight committee\, it will be interesting to see how mu ch scrutiny there will be of the new Administration versus the past Ad ministration. Both the Oversight and Judiciary committees have unfinis hed investigations from the Bush presidency that they have been author ized to complete. At the same time\, Preident-elect Obama had indicate d that he is less interested in dwelling on past wrongs than he is in grappling with current challenges and facing the future. LOCATION:Ronald Reagan Building &Int. Trade Ctr. @ 1300 Pennsylvania A venue NW Washington D C 2004, Washington, District of Columbia 20004 U nited States SEQUENCE:1247990518 UID:E0-001-014480075-6 URL:http://eventful.com/E0-001-014480075-6 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR