As part of the year-long Lyndon B. Johnson Centennial Celebration, the LBJ School of Public Affairs will hold a symposium on “Policy Challenges for the New President and the LBJ Legacy,” featuring keynoters Joseph A. Califano Jr., Robert J. Portman and Robert Dallek, on Dec. 4 and 5 at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum.
On the same day, the LBJ Library plans to release the last segment of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s telephone conversations, dating from May 1968 to January 1969.
“The 100th anniversary of President Johnson’s birth and the 40th anniversary of the end of the Johnson presidency provides an occasion to reflect on how President Johnson’s remarkable public policy legacy can help us grapple with the issues facing the new administration that will take office next Jan. 20,” said LBJ School Dean James B. Steinberg. “We are fortunate to have an outstanding group of practitioners, policy experts and historians to help examine how the lessons of the Johnson era can shed light on 21st century policy challenges.”
The Honorable Joseph A. Califano Jr., chairman, National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, former Special Assistant and Senior Domestic Policy Adviser to President Johnson and Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare under President Carter, will deliver the symposium keynote address, “The Johnson Legacy: Lessons for the New President,” Dec. 4 at 6 p.m.
The Honorable Robert J. Portman, former U.S. Representative (R-OH), and former director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and U.S. Trade Representative under President George W. Bush (now of Counsel, Squire, Sanders and Dempsey, L.L.P) will deliver the lunch-time address Dec. 4 at 1:30 p.m., and Robert Dallek, American historian and President Johnson biographer, will deliver the morning keynote address on Dec. 5 at 8:30 a.m.
The LBJ Centennial Symposium will focus on four areas that were hallmarks of the Johnson administration: employment, cities and housing; health; families, children and the war on poverty; and natural resources and technology. Ten papers by policy scholars at the LBJ School have been commissioned to examine and identify President Johnson’s initiatives in particular domestic policy arenas, trace their evolution following the Johnson years, and assess the relevance of the legacy for the present.
In addition to LBJ faculty, participants on the panels will bring the perspectives of historians, policy analysts and practitioners, including City of Houston Mayor and former U.S. Deputy Secretary of Energy Bill White; former White House and Congressional Adviser on Welfare Issues Ron Haskins; former Assistant to the President for Science and Technology and former Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Neal Lane; former Commissioner of the Social Security Administration Kenneth Apfel, and Deputy Director of Congressional Research Service Angela Evans.
Media notes: The symposium is open to the public. Seating limited. Reservations required.
More symposium information, including agenda and reservation form, is online.
Members of the news media are invited to cover all symposium events. Contact Susan.Binford@austin.utexas.edu for credentials.
The LBJ Library has a fiber uplink studio (VYVX network) available for in-person interviews of symposium participants throughout the two days. For radio interviews, a permanent ISDN service has been installed.
LBJ Reunion: On the evening of Dec. 4, the LBJ Foundation will host a reunion of former LBJ staff members and friends at the LBJ Library. Members of the news media are invited to cover this event. Please RSVP to anne.wheeler@nara.gov.
