Former Clinton Chief of Staff to
Give Address at Penn State Dickinson
Carlisle, PA (January 11, 2006) —
President William J. Clinton’s former chief-of-staff
John Podesta will present “The State of the
Union” at the Penn State Dickinson School
of Law on Thursday, January 19 at 4:00 p.m. in the
Student Lounge of Trickett Hall, 150 South College
St., Carlisle. The event is open to the public free
of charge and sponsored by the school’s Speakers
Trust and Dickinson Democrats student organizations.
Podesta, a prominent leader in the
Democratic Party who now serves as president and
chief executive officer of the Center for American
Progress (CAP), chose the law school as a kickoff
for his official “State of the Union”
address that will take place at a later date in
Washington, D.C.
Podesta was appointed to his current
position with the liberal think tank CAP at its
2003 founding in Washington D.C. by the organization’s
founders George Soros and Morton H. Halperin. CAP
is a nonpartisan research and educational institute
dedicated to “promoting a strong, just and
free America that ensures opportunity for all,”
according to its mission statement.
Along with working for the CAP, Podesta
is also a visiting professor of law on the faculty
of the Georgetown University Law Center and is a
frequent guest of Sunday morning news programs.
As one of Washington’s leading experts in
technology policy, Podesta has extensively written
and lectured on the subject as well as on issues
of congressional investigations, legislation, copyright
and public interest law.
A native of Chicago and former trial
attorney in the Department of Justice’s Honor
Program in the Land and Natural Resources Division,
Podesta has served in a number of capacities on
Capitol Hill over the course of his political career.
Prior positions include counselor to Democratic
Leader Senator Thomas A. Daschle from 1995 to 1996,
chief counsel for the Senate Committee on Agriculture,
Nutrition and Forestry from 1987 to1988, and, from
1979 to 1981, as chief minority counsel to the Senate
Judiciary Committee subcommittees on Patents, Copyrights
and Trademarks; Security and Terrorism; and Regulatory
Reform.
As President Clinton’s chief-of-staff
from October 1998 to January 2001, Podesta oversaw
all policy development, Congressional relations,
daily operations and staff activities of the White
House. He was a member of the president’s
cabinet and a principal on the National Security
Council, and he coordinated the work of cabinet
agencies with a particular emphasis on the development
of federal budget and tax policy.
Before joining the Clinton administration,
Podesta was president and general counsel of Podesta
Associates, Inc., a Washington, D.C. government
relations and public affairs firm he founded with
his brother.
For additional information about John
Podesta and the CAP, visit the CAP website at www.americanprogress.org.
