Rivlin: Community Efforts Needed

Alice M. Rivlin, appointed yesterday to the Federal Reserve Board, told an audience of 200 at the Kennedy School last night that the federal government has done almost all it can to alleviate the problems that many Americans face today.

Rivlin pointed to peace, a high level of employment, cleaner air and water, prompt federal relief for disasters and stable financial institutions. Given all these positive features of society, Rivlin said that the federal government has already fixed most of the problems that it has the power to fix.

According to Rivlin, the energy to resolve such issues as teen pregnancy and violence in the streets must come from greater community concern and involvement.

Because many Americans want to avoid aggressive intervention by the federal government, Americans must work harder to resolve social issues on their own, said Rivlin, who has served as director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for most of President Clinton's administration.

"Federal programs will make a lasting difference only if they encourage parents, teachers and schools" to make a difference, she said.

Rivlin suggested that the federal government give funding for social programs to local governments, granting communities the means to solve their own problems.

Americans "don't want Washington running their lives, but they don't want to be ignored either," Rivlin said.

Opening her address with the observation that the past week had been difficult for those involved in public policy, Rivlin gave a tribute to late Secretary of Commerce Ronald H. Brown, who died with other passengers in a plane crash last week.

They were all "dedicated young and middle-aged people who were working hard, doing what they wanted to do with public policy," Rivlin said.

Clinton yesterday named Mickey Kantor, the U.S. trade representative, as the new Commerce Secretary, and appointed Franklin Raines, vice chair of the federal housing agency Fannie Mae, as budget director to replace Rivlin.

Rivlin, who received a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard in 1958, was deputy director of the OMB, founding director of the Congressional Budget Office and director of the Economic Studies Program at the Brookings Institution before becoming director of the OMB.

Rivlin was awarded a MacArthur Foundation Prize fellowship in 1983 and served as a visiting professor in public policy and the federal budget at the Kennedy School from 1988 to 1989

Americans "don't want Washington running their lives, but they don't want to be ignored either," Rivlin said.

Opening her address with the observation that the past week had been difficult for those involved in public policy, Rivlin gave a tribute to late Secretary of Commerce Ronald H. Brown, who died with other passengers in a plane crash last week.

They were all "dedicated young and middle-aged people who were working hard, doing what they wanted to do with public policy," Rivlin said.

Clinton yesterday named Mickey Kantor, the U.S. trade representative, as the new Commerce Secretary, and appointed Franklin Raines, vice chair of the federal housing agency Fannie Mae, as budget director to replace Rivlin.

Rivlin, who received a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard in 1958, was deputy director of the OMB, founding director of the Congressional Budget Office and director of the Economic Studies Program at the Brookings Institution before becoming director of the OMB.

Rivlin was awarded a MacArthur Foundation Prize fellowship in 1983 and served as a visiting professor in public policy and the federal budget at the Kennedy School from 1988 to 1989