Making An Historic Difference: Presidential Poverty Summit Part II
Trump needs to get started on this...
In this space was proposed a Presidential Poverty Summit, devoting unprecedented focus from a variety of disciplines to articulating a comprehensive plan to attack the suffering that poverty brings to so many. President-Elect Donald Trump has an opportunity to inclusively bring together a non-partisan array of experts to reach across communities and impact an historic tragedy that could change lives for decades. The proposal is centered on a week-long gathering to be led by soon-to-be former Vice-President Joe Biden, whose across-the-aisle advocacy on issues of access to justice is long acknowledged, and lawyers whose ability to use the judicial system on behalf of the voiceless are key to this battle.
In addition to the lawyers previously identified, and with apologies to all those both suggested and not, these (and other) representatives of a wide diversity of movements can be invited to assemble, drawing on their collective expertise in a variety of critical subject matters. Our new President can tackle an issue that reaches deep into the country’s psyche, bolstered by a well of rarely-gathered knowledge, experience and commitment:
* Advocates who have devoted their lives to issues of poverty such as Marion Wright Edelman, the founder of the Children’s Defense Fund, Mary Brosnahan of the New York Coalition for the Homeless, former California Supreme Court Justice Cruz Reynoso, and Maria Foscaranis of the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty.
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* Economists who have dedicated much of their analytical energies to combating poverty such as Nobel Laureates Joseph Stiglitz and Muhammad Yunis, the founder of the Grameen Foundation, Katherine Newman who has written about the effect of tax structures on the causes of poverty, governors who have devoted their efforts to using state tax plans to alleviate poverty such as Jerry Brown of California.
* While no national politician has brought poverty issues into our national discourse as effectively as Robert Kennedy once did, political leaders such as House Speaker Paul Ryan, Mayor of Albuquerque Richard Berry, former governor of Washington Mike Lowry, Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer, and the President’s appointments to serve as Secretaries of HUD and Education — who will be charged with implementing many of the policies that directly touch work on the plight of the impoverished — would be key participants in the Summit.
* Homelessness advocates such as the much-admired Sister Mary Scullion of Project HOPE, Nan Roman of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, and Judge Harry Pregerson who has tirelessly worked to ensure housing for military veterans.
* Business and philanthropic leaders such as Mitt Romney, Michael Bloomberg, Tom Steyer, and other experts including Julius Gaudio, the managing director of the D.E. Shaw Group and a member of the board of directors of the Robin Hood Foundation, Paul Tudor Jones of the Tudor Investment Corp. and the founder of the Robin Hood Foundation, and Larry Robbins of Glenview Captal Management and a board member of Teach for America.
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* From the faith communities, so devoted to helping the underserved, leaders from Catholic Charities, the Jewish Federations of North America, and Islamic Relief are among the most effective private social safety networks in the country.
* Bringing to the Summit the voice of the more than 42 million people in the U.S. who live in households that are food insecure, Feeding America CEO Vicki Escarra, MAZON CEO Abby Leibman, as well as leaders from Meals on Wheels and No Kid Hungry.
* Those whose literary works have explored the nexus between race and poverty as well as the effects of life on the edge, including Michelle Alexander, the author of The New Jim Crow, Matthew Desmond, the author of Evicted (a devastating look at those living on the precipice of homelessness), and Paul Polak and Mal Warwick who authored The Business Solution to Poverty.
* Understanding that education is the single most important weapon in breaking through an historical, cyclical morass of lost hope, the President’s new Secretary of Education, former Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Mitch Daniels, the former governor of Indiana and current president of Purdue University, Geoffrey Canada of the Harlem Children’s Zone, CEOs at Teach for America and KIPP respectively, Elisa Villanueva Beard and Richard Barth, and Laurene Powell Jobs of The Xq Institute which is promoting creative educational programming with unprecedented private funding.
* Community experts such as Stewart Kwoh of Asian Americans Advancing Justice, former Florida Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart, and Ana Navarro, a prominent political commentator on ABC and CNN.
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The leaders of each of these groups would invite others from their communities to join the discussion at the Summit. Additionally, there are many other disciplines whose participation and experience would be valuable additions. Union leaders, job creation organizations, local governments, housing departments, builders, welfare advocates, mental health professionals, environmentalists, medical personnel, and community health organizations will be important contributors. After an opening plenary session, and address by the Vice-President, each group of distinguished expert leaders would meet together for two days, spend an additional day drafting a subject-matter specific ten-point plan or position paper, after which all would reconvene together for the greatest think tank session ever imagined. Lawyers involved in each discipline must help guide each discussion, bringing the power of our democracy’s justice system, the single most historically effective venue for dealing with inequities, to each table and each set of recommendations.
The new President has the opportunity to assemble a mass of expertise, fueled by Presidential will, to address issues of poverty as never before. With the right people in the room, one week of uninterrupted focus is all we ask. It could change our country forever.
David A. Lash is the Managing Counsel of Pro Bono and Public Interest Services at O’Melveny & Myers LLP. The opinions expressed are his alone.
