June 19: A double Book Forumhonored publication of Prescription for Failure: Race Relationsin the Age of Social Science by Byron Roth and AntidiscriminationLaw and Minority Employment by Farrell Bloch. Roth said thatmisguided policies on welfare, crime, and education have led tomassive increases in crime, illegitimacy, and education failureamong black Americans in the inner cities. Bloch argued that affirmativeaction has not helped most poor black Americans.
June 20: APolicy Forum titled “After the Crusade: America’s Role in aNew World” featured authors of two recent books. JonathanClarke, Cato adjunct scholar and coauthor of After the Crusade: AmericanForeign Policy for the Post-Superpower Age, argued that theUnited States should pursue a strategy of defending only itsvital interests. Robert B. Oakley, coauthor of Somalia andOperation Restore Hope: Reflections on Peacekeeping andPeacemaking, replied that U.S. policy should include allianceleadership and UN participation.
June 20: FormerMinnesota congressman and Cato fellow in fiscal policy studiesTimothy J. Penny, coauthor with Major Garrett of Common Cents: ARetiring Six-Term Congressman Reveals How Congress ReallyWorks — and What We Must Do to Fix It, spoke about congressionaldefects and the need for federal fiscal integrity at a Book Forumin the House Budget Committee hearing room.
June 22: Rep. HenryHyde, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, discussed thetheme of his new Cato book, Forfeiting Our Property Rights: IsYour Property Safe from Seizure? at a Capitol Hill pressconference. Hyde called for reform of the civil forfeiture lawsto, among other things, restore the presumption of innocence forproperty owners.
June 22: Catosponsored a Press Conference at which chairman William Niskanenand representatives from four other Washington organizationsvoiced opposition to the Clinton administration’s auto trade policytoward the Japanese. Also participating were Joe Cobb of the HeritageFoundation; Robert Crandall of the Brookings Institution;Christopher DeMuth, president of the American Enterprise Institute;and James C. Miller III, chairman of Citizens for a Sound Economy.
June 27: Mexico’sambassador to Washington, Jesus Silva-Herzog, spoke about hiscountry’s economic problems with Cato staff members and guests ata Roundtable Luncheon.
July 12: A seminarentitled “Toward an American Renaissance,” held inPhiladelphia, featured keynote speaker Bret Schundler, mayor ofJersey City, New Jersey, and Cato’s Edward Crane, Roger Pilon, andStephen Moore.
July 18: “SchoolChoice: Where Do We Go from Here?” was the title of a BookForum marking publication of David Harmer’s Cato book, SchoolChoice: Why You Need It — How You Get It. Harmer talked about hisexperience with the unsuccessful school choice initiative inCalifornia. Jeanne Allen, president of the Center for EducationReform, discussed the prospects for choice in 1995–96.
July 18: LeeEdwards spoke about “Barry Goldwater: The Once and FutureLibertarian” at a Book Forum honoring publication of his newbook, Goldwater: The Man Who Made a Revolution. Edwards pointedout that Goldwater’s 1964 presidential platform, which included acall for a flat tax, privatization, elimination of farmsubsidies, and voluntary Social Security, is today at the centerof the public policy debate.
July 19: A CatoInstitute and Media Institute Telecommunications Colloquiumaddressed “Censoring Cyberspace.” Rep. Christopher Cox(R‑Calif.), an opponent of the Exon-Coats amendment to prohibit “indecency“on the Internet, discussed his bill (H.R. 1978) to protect freespeech and facilitate private-sector solutions for people whowish to filter out material they deem offensive. Also speaking wereRobert Corn-Revere, an attorney specializing in the FirstAmendment; Jerry Berman of the Center for Democracy andTechnology, who warned of the dangers of censorship; and Cathy Cleaverof the Family Research Council, who argued for governmentmeasures to protect children from indecency.
August 2: Sen.Pete Domenici’s (R‑N.Mex.) Livestock Grazing Act came under fireat a Cato Policy Forum titled “Grazing at the Public Trough:Rangeland Reform in the 104th Congress.” Karl Hess Jr., environmentalauthor and Cato senior fellow in environmental studies, arguedthat Domenici’s bill would exacerbate the existing tangled web ofranching subsidies. Bill Myers, director of the Federal Lands Councilat the National Cattlemen’s Association, argued that the billsimply provides for the fair use of public land and resources.