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Subject: Clinton Sets Economic Summit; Reassuring Business, Discussing Council Among
Date: Mon, 9 Nov 92 05:41:19 EST
Message-ID: <30.1992Nov9.054120@AmeriCast.com>

Clinton Sets Economic Summit; Reassuring Business, Discussing
Council Among Objectives<By Al Kamen<Washington Post Staff Writ-
er=

LITTLE ROCK, Ark., Nov.  8 - President-elect Clinton will convene
an economic summit of business leaders and experts soon here to
discuss economic policy and his proposal for a White House
economic security council, his top transition advisers said to-
day.

The economic summit, while "still very much in the planning
stage," according to transition director and former deputy secre-
tary of state Warren M. Christopher, is meant to signal Clinton's
resolve to move quickly on economic policy and to reach out to
reassure the business community, which traditionally has been
wary of a Democrat in the White House.

Washington lawyer Vernon E. Jordan Jr., chairman of the transi-
tion, said, "I think it's fair to say that sometime very soon,
that the governor will convene in Little Rock business leaders,
economists and a variety of people with expertise in the economy
and international economy, to come and have a conversation with
the governor and with  Senator Gore about priorities" and about
Clinton's planned economic security council.

The new council, a Clinton campaign pledge, would "give higher
visibility, more importance to domestic economic issues," Chris-
topher said. It would be modeled on the National Security Coun-
cil, which pulls together the disparate elements of the govern-
ment involved in security issues, including the State and Defense
departments.  Both Jordan and Christopher, appearing separately
on television talk shows, said they were well aware that the new
council would have to be carefully structured to avoid the kind
of bitter turf battles often waged between the national security
adviser and the department heads, especially the secretary of
state.

The transition leaders said some of that infighting might be
avoided by looking at the selection of key officials to make sure
they could work together as a team. "That's a key factor in
Governor Clinton's mind," Christopher said.

Clinton received a briefing book on Wednesday that outlined pos-
sible structures for the council, sources said. The book raised -
but did not resolve - key questions on the membership of the
council, how it would relate to the Cabinet agencies, how it
would function, and whether the economic security adviser would
be considered an "economic czar" or a coordinator.

Jordan said Clinton would preside over the council and the
economic security adviser "will in fact coordinate" economic pol-
icy. But he said he could not "promise" the administration would
be successful in avoiding turf battles.

In describing the economic summit, Christopher said Clinton hoped
"to assemble a group of the top business and economic leaders in
the country to advise him" during the transition. The summit,
Christopher said, would be "an attempt to make an audit of where
we stand now, to get advice from those individuals who run big
companies or who are well-known in the economic field."

Clinton would not be the first new president to convene an
economic summit. President Gerald R. Ford, soon after becoming
chief executive in August 1974, held a series of "mini-summits"
around the country culminating in a major two-day gathering in
Washington to examine the twin threats of inflation and reces-
sion.

But the 1974 summit - which brought together 2,000 economists,
business leaders, labor officials, farmers and consumers - did
little to focus on the root of the economy's problems, and
developed virtually no consensus as the interest groups in atten-
dance portrayed themselves as victims of "stagflation" and sought
government help.

Christopher and Jordan both attempted to dampen speculation that
any key appointments would be made in the next week. "There might
be some appointments next week of other members of the transition
team," but not of Cabinet members, Christopher said. Jordan said
he hoped they could begin making announcements on appointments
perhaps around the first of December, although some might come
sooner.

The transition team's desire to assess various Cabinet prospects
as part of economic or national security or domestic policy
"teams" might serve to delay nominations until entire teams are
assembled.

Clinton advisers said that by creating an economic security coun-
cil, Clinton is signaling that economic issues will be as impor-
tant to his administration as traditional security issues. One
adviser said that Clinton is motivated partly by his concern that
U.S. industries have fallen behind in a number of areas of com-
petition with Japan and other leading industrial nations. Clinton
contends that the United States has been working at a disadvan-
tage because it does not pursue a coordinated strategy aimed at
winning the competition.

C. Fred Bergsten, chairman of the bipartisan Competitiveness Pol-
icy Council, a federal advisory committee, said the new council
would "formulate, coordinate, and direct a comprehensive competi-
tiveness strategy." Bergsten said that much of the strategy could
be implemented through a revitalized Commerce Department that
would place its prime focus on competitiveness issues.

But Herbert Stein of the American Enterprise Institute, who was
chairman of President Richard M.  Nixon's Council of Economic
Advisers, said an emphasis on "security" and competitiveness in
the proposed economic security council would be wrong because the
main challenge is to make the domestic economy work well.

Like the idea of an economic summit, the notion of coordinating
economic policy within the White House is not new. For more than
two decades, every president has made some attempt to do this,
including Ford, who established a 14-member economic policy
board. The Bush administration had an economic policy council
under Treasury Secretary Nicholas F. Brady, but Brady did not
play a strong coordinating role. And Bush does not believe in
strategic planning as much as Clinton does.

Clinton, who has been recuperating from the grueling campaign at
his mansion here, also suggested that no major appointments were
imminent.  During a morning jog here, Clinton told reporters he
was not going to rush the process. Answering reporters' questions
in conversation for the first time since his election, Clinton
said: "I'm going to work hard, but not rush decisions."<04:53
11-09C9999-----

Copyright 1992, The Washington Post.  This story is from the
Washington Post's Capitol Edition On-Line and is not to be ar-
chived or redistributed.

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