• House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas (R-CA) presented his healthcare agenda for 2004 at an NCPA Congressional briefing, “Vision for Healthcare,” on February 12 at the National Press Club. In a very rare public appearance, Thomas said the best way to reduce costs and improve quality and access to health and medical services is to let the market work. A full transcript of Chairman Thomas’s remarks are posted online at http://www.ncpa.org/prs/tst/20040331bttst.htm .
  
• Trustee of Social Security and Medicare and NCPA Senior Fellow Thomas R. Saving was featured speaker at an NCPA Capitol Hill briefing on the 2004 Social Security and Medicare Annual Report on March 23. This briefing took place only minutes after the annual trustees report was released. Deputy Commissioner of the Social Security Administration James Lockhart also spoke, and Rep. Jim DeMint (R-SC) delivered opening remarks. http://www.ncpa.org/evn/washington/20040317wash.htm
  
• The NCPA and U.S. Department of Labor co-sponsored a worker training briefing in Washington, D.C. on January 30. Former chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers R. Glenn Hubbard, DOL Chief Economist Diana Furchtgott-Roth, Chief Economist for the Joint Economic Committee Donald Marron and Assistant Secretary of the Employment and Training Administration Mason Bishop were featured speakers.

• NCPA President John C. Goodman testified before a hearing of the Congressional Special Committee on Aging on “Retirement Planning: Do We Have a Crisis?” The hearing was held on January 27 on Capitol Hill.
  
• Goodman briefed reporters on Health Savings Accounts and how they work at the National Press Club on March 15.
  
• NCPA Senior Policy Analyst Matt Moore participated in a panel discussion at a U.S. Census Bureau Symposium, “ America’s Scorecard,” on March 5. Moore spoke about how aging in America is the driving force behind problems with Social Security and Medicare. Moore’s remarks appeared in the Washington Times on March 24.
  
• NCPA Washington representative Jack Strayer was one of the few healthcare experts invited to attend the President’s press conference on health at the White House the last week of January. The President’s new health initiatives rely heavily on Health Savings Accounts and other reforms long advocated in NCPA studies and other research reports.
  

• Treasury officials met with Goodman, Strayer and others on January 22 in Washington , D.C. to receive input on new regulations for Health Savings Accounts.

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