NEXT AGENDA

NEXT AGENDA was held at the National Press Club, Main Ballroom, Feb. 28,2001.

At Feb. 28 Conference on NEXT AGENDA, progressive activists, Congressional leaders will unite to forge strategy for "working families" agenda -- the day after President Bush delivers his plans to joint session of Congress.

-- Calling themselves the real "democratic majority," organizers and thinkers, led by the Campaign for America's Future, to release new book outlining an agenda for changes they insist most voters endorsed in 2000 elections.

On Feb. 28, a national conference on the NEXT AGENDA, will bring together progressive activists, intellectuals and allies in the Congress for the first time since the disputed election and battles over President Bush's cabinet nominees. It will frame the next two year's debate.

Sponsored by the progressive advocacy group, the Campaign for America's Future and its sister research organization, the Institute for America's Future, the Conference on the Next Progressive Agenda has been endorsed by a who's who of prominent leaders from the labor unions, women's organizations, civil rights groups, environmentalists and individual members of the House and Senate. Their goal: to forge a progressive movement to fight for the "working family" agenda they insist was endorsed by a majority of the voters in the 2000 election.

Meeting at the National Press Club, organizers will begin with an 8:30 a.m. press conference at which key leaders will respond to President Bush's speech to a joint session of Congress the night before -- as well as explaining the economic and demographic dynamics that make for a growing progressive electorate.

Organizers of the conference would release a new book, THE NEXT AGENDA: Blueprint for a New Progressive Movement, edited by Robert Borosage and Roger Hickey and published by Westview Press.

Agenda

8:30 - 10:00 The Emerging Progressive Majority

Chair: Robert Borosage

• Stan Greenberg: The Emerging Majority
• Cong. Hilda Solis: The New Electorate
• John Sweeney, AFL-CIO President: Working Family Agenda
• Cong. Jesse Jackson, Jr.: The Moral Center
• Cong. Jan Schakowsky: Time to Build
• Robert Borosage: The Next Agenda

10:00 - 11:15 The New Economy

Chair: Cong. Jan Schakowsky*

• Jeff Faux: The New Political Economy
• Heidi Hartmann: Women Work
• William Greider: The Global Challenge
• Ken Cook: Green Growth
• Cong. Maxine Waters: The Growing Divide

11:30 - 12:15 A Time to Move: Political Reform

Chair: Cong. John Conyers, Jr.

• Hillary Shelton: Voting Rights, Voting Reform
• Ellen Miller: Campaign Finance Reform

12:30 - 2:00 Lunch Fighting for Working Families in a Bush Era

Chair: Katrina vanden Heuvel, The Nation magazine

• Cong. Dennis Kucinich
• Amy Dean, South Bay Labor Council
• Cong. Jesse Jackson, Jr.

2:15 - 3:30 Health Care for All

Chair: Robert Kuttner, The American Prospect magazine

• Sen. Paul Wellstone
• Andrew Stern, SEIU President
• Theodore Marmor, Yale University
• Cathy Hurwit, Health Care Advocate

3:45 - 5:00 Bold Initiatives

Chair: Roger Hickey

• Cong. George Miller: Get Real on Education
• Bob Chase, President, NEA
• Cong. Luis Gutierrez: Living Wage/Minimum Wage
• Katie Fitzgerald, ACORN
• Cong. Rosa DeLauro: Pay Equity
• Karen Nussbaum, AFL-CIO Working Women's Department

Sen. Paul Wellstone: Building a Movement

5:30 - 7:00 Reception

7:00 - 10:00 Dinner

MC: Cong. Barney Frank

Remarks:

• John Sweeney, President, AFL-CIO
• Sen. Dick Durbin

Special Guests

• Sen. Mark Dayton
• Sen. Jean Carnahan*
• Sen. Jon Corzine*
• Sen. Debbie Stabenow*
• Sen. Maria Cantwell
• Sen. Paul Wellstone