Tax Panel Announces Witness List for Fourth Meeting in Chicago On March 16th

WASHINGTON, DC - Senators Connie Mack and John Breaux, Chairman and Vice -Chairman of the President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform, today announced the witness list for the Panel's fourth meeting, on Wednesday, March 16, 2005, at 10:00 am CST at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business Gleacher Center. The witnesses will provide the panel additional perspectives on the impact of the tax laws on important taxpayer decisions and how the tax system treats investment alternatives. Biographical information for each witness is attached.

WITNESS LIST

The meeting will be held on Wednesday, March 16, 2005, at 10:00 AM at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, Gleacher Center, 450 North Cityfront Plaza Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60611.

About the Tax Reform Panel:

The President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform was established by President Bush on January 7, 2005. President Bush has charged the bipartisan panel with recommending reforms to the tax code that will make the U.S. tax system simpler, fairer and more growth oriented.

Connie Mack III (Chairman), former U.S. Senator. Senator Mack served as Chairman of the Joint Economic Committee and was a member of the Finance and Banking committees.

John Breaux (Vice-Chairman), former U.S. Senator. Senator Breaux served on the Finance Committee and the sub-committee on Taxation and IRS Oversight.

William Eldridge Frenzel, former Member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Mr. Frenzel served on the Budget Committee and the Ways and Means Committee. Mr. Frenzel is a Guest Scholar at the Brookings Institution.

Elizabeth Garrett, Sydney M. Irmas Professor of Public Interest Law, Legal Ethics and Political Science, University of Southern California. Ms. Garrett served as Legislative Director and Tax and Budget Counsel to former U.S. Senator David L. Boren.

Edward P. Lazear, Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution and Professor of Human Resources, Management and Economics, Stanford University's Graduate School of Business. Mr. Lazear is the founding editor of the Journal of Labor Economics.

Timothy J. Muris, Foundation Professor, George Mason School of Law and Of Counsel, O'Melveny & Myers LLP. Mr. Muris served as Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission from 2001 to 2004.

James Michael Poterba, Department of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Mr. Poterba serves as Associate Department Head. He has taught at MIT since 1982.

Charles O. Rossotti, Senior Advisor, The Carlyle Group. Mr. Rossotti served from 1997 to 2002 as Commissioner of Internal Revenue. He formerly served as the President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of American Management Systems.

Liz Ann Sonders, Chief Investment Strategist, Charles Schwab. Ms. Sonders joined U.S. Trust, a division of Charles Schwab, in 1999 as a Managing Director and member of its Investment Policy Committees.

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Biographical Information for Witnesses Scheduled to Participate in the Fourth Meeting of The President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform on March 16, 2005

James J. Heckman is the Henry Schultz Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago. Professor Heckman is also the Director of the Economics Research Center of the Department of Economics and the Director of the Center for Social Program Evaluation of the Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies. He is a Senior Research Fellow at the American Bar Foundation and is affiliated with the Economics Department of University College London. In 2000, Professor Heckman was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. He was also the winner of the 1983 John Bates Clark Medal of the American Economic Association.

Brian S. Wesbury is Chief Investment Strategist and Chairman of the Investment Committee at Claymore Securities, Inc., a financial services firm in Lisle, Illinois. Wesbury, the author of The New Era of Wealth, is a member of the Academic Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and an Adjunct Professor of Economics at Wheaton College. Mr. Wesbury has served as Chief Economist for the Joint Economic Committee of the US Congress, Vice President and Economist for The Chicago Corporation, and as Chief Economist at Griffin, Kubik, Stephens & Thompson, Inc. The Wall Street Journal ranked Wesbury the nation's #1 U.S. economic forecaster in 2001 and USA Today ranked him as one of the nation's Top 10 Forecasters in 2004. Wesbury received an M.B.A. from Northwestern University's Kellogg Graduate School of Management, and a B.A. in Economics from the University of Montana.

Kathryn J. Kennedy is an Associate Professor of Law at The John Marshall Law School and Director of the Center for Tax Law and Employee Benefits. She practiced employee benefits law with McDermott, Will & Emery in Chicago and was an actuary with Towers Perrin. She is a member of the DOL's EBSA Advisory Council. She serves on several editorial boards related to employee benefits and employment law. Professor Kennedy received a B.S. from Drake University and a law degree from Northwestern University School of Law. She is also a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries (FSA).

Susan Dynarski is an Assistant Professor of Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where she studies and teaches education policy, tax policy, economics and statistical methods. Susan Dynarski holds a Ph.D. in economics from MIT, a Masters in Public Policy from Harvard University, and a B.A. from Harvard College. She has published numerous articles on the economics of education and tax incentives in scholarly journals, with her most recent research focusing on the intersection of tax policy and education policy. She is a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Armond A. Dinverno is a Principal and Co-President of Balasa Dinverno & Foltz LLC, a financial management firm in Itasca, Illinois. Worth magazine named Armond one of the "Best Financial Advisors" in America, and Mutual Funds magazine included Armond in their list of "Top 100 Planners in the Country." Armond, who is also a partner in the law firm of Dinverno & Foltz LLP, is a certified public accountant (CPA) and a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER (CFP)(r) certificant. Armond received his B.S. in accounting from the University of Southern California and a law degree from John Marshall Law School.

David Weisbach received his B.S. in mathematics from the University of Michigan in 1985; a Certificate for Advanced Studies in Mathematics from Wolfson College, Cambridge, in 1986; and a law degree from Harvard Law School in 1989. Professor Weisbach clerked for Judge Joel M. Flaum of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and was an associate in the law firm of Miller & Chevalier. In 1992, Professor Weisbach joined the Department of Treasury where he was an attorney-advisor in the Office of the Tax Legislative Counsel and, subsequently, associate tax legislative counsel. In 1996, Professor Weisbach was appointed associate professor of law at Georgetown Law Center and joined the Chicago faculty in 1998.

Robert McDonald is Erwin P. Nemmers Distinguished Professor of Finance at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, where he has been a faculty member at since 1984. Professor McDonald is an editor of the Review of Financial Studies and author of the book Derivatives Markets. Professor McDonald received a B.A. in Economics from the University of North Carolina in 1975 and a Ph.D. in Economics from MIT in 1982.

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