Keynote Speakers

Norman J. Ornstein is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. He also serves as an election analyst for CBS News and writes a weekly column called "Congress Inside Out" for Roll Call newspaper. He has written for the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, and other major publications, and regularly appears on television programs like The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, Nightline, and Charlie Rose.

He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and the Campaign Legal Center and of the Board of Trustees of the U.S. Capitol Historical Society. He was elected as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2004. His many books include The Permanent Campaign and Its Future; Intensive Care: How Congress Shapes Health Policy, both with Thomas E. Mann; and Debt and Taxes: How America Got Into Its Budget Mess and What to Do About It, with John H. Makin. His latest book, The Broken Branch: How Congress Is Failing America and What Can Be Done about It, co-authored with Thomas E. Mann, was published by Oxford University Press on August 1, 2006.

Ambassador Clayton Yeutter Senior Advisor, Hogan & Hartson, LLP Former United States Trade Representative Topic: Next Steps in America's Trade Agenda

Clayton Yeutter is Of Counsel to Hogan & Hartson, LLP, one of the nation's largest law firms. He brings a unique perspective to this and his many other activities, for he has had the rare privilege of serving in cabinet and subcabinet posts under four U.S. Presidents.

Between 1985 and 1988, Mr. Yeutter served as U.S. Trade Representative. While in this position, he maneuvered the 1988 Trade Bill through Congress, helped to launch the 100-nation Uruguay Round of GATT negotiations, and led the American team in negotiating the historic U.S.-Canada free trade agreement. He was involved in numerous other bilateral and multilateral trade negotiations, including some of the United States' most significant efforts with Japan, such as the original U.S.-Japan Semiconductor Arrangement. Mr. Yeutter also helped to put in place provisions to protect American intellectual property, particularly in Asia and Latin America.

In 1989 President Bush named Mr. Yeutter as Secretary of Agriculture, where he served as the Administration's point man in steering the 1990 Farm Bill through Congress. That legislation helped to move U.S. agriculture toward a more market-oriented policy structure, and laid the groundwork for a major expansion in U.S. agricultural exports.

In 1991 Mr. Yeutter was named Republican National Chairman. His efforts there, particularly on redistricting, helped lay the groundwork for the huge Republican wins in Congress and state legislatures in 1994. In 1992 he returned to the Administration to coordinate domestic policy in the Cabinet level post of Counselor to the President.

From 1978-85 Mr. Yeutter served as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Under his leadership, the "Merc" launched a host of futures and options products, which have now made it one of the largest private sector financial institutions in the world.

In the early 1970s, Mr. Yeutter held three subcabinet positions in the Nixon and Ford Administrations -- Assistant Secretary of Agriculture for Marketing and Consumer Services, Assistant Secretary of Agriculture for International Affairs and Commodity Programs, and Deputy Special Trade Representative.

Mr. Yeutter received his law degree, cum laude, from the University of Nebraska in 1963, where he was a member of the Order of the Coif and the National Moot Court team, as well as Editor of the Nebraska Law Review. He simultaneously pursued a Ph.D. program in agricultural economics, completing that degree, with highest honors, in 1966.

Mr. Yeutter is the recipient of numerous public honors, including eight honorary doctorates. He is a director of several major corporations, and he regularly addresses groups throughout the world on trade and agricultural policy.