On January 28, 2011, 
Lisa Mensah, Executive Director of the Aspen Institute Initiative on Financial Security (Aspen IFS), was a expert panelist at the Congressional Black Caucus’s (CBC) Budget Deficit Commission in the Cannon House Office Building.
Responding to the deficit reduction proposals released by President Obama ‘s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform and other organizations, the CBC recently formed its own deficit commission composed of top African American economists , policy experts, and academics to examine deficit reduction efforts and the implications proposed policy chances might have on vulnerable populations and future economic growth.
CBC Chairman Emanuel Cleaver, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, and Congressman Bobby Scott convened three panel discussions that tackled the tough questions surrounding our Nation’s budget-deficit. Lisa Mensah, along with Jim Carr, Chief Business Officer of National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC), and Darrick Hamilton, Assistant Professor at Milano, the New School for Management and Urban Policy, spoke on a panel moderated by Jamal Simmons, Principal at the Raben Group, about areas of opportunity in the 2012 budget that can encourage savings and broader economic growth , while restoring fiscal balance to our Nation’s finances.
