ACCF Programs

The ACCF and the ACCF Center for Policy Research cosponsor two highly regarded meetings series as well as two popular programs for supporters. These programs help shape ACCF and Center endeavors throughout the year.

ACCF Capital Formation Forums

For more than two decades, ACCF Capital Formation Forums have featured prominent economic policymakers from Congress and the Administration, experts from the private sector and academia and other opinion shapers who meet with American Council for Capital Formation and ACCF Center for Policy Research supporters and their guests to engage in off-the-record discussions of timely economic and environmental policy issues.

Recent speakers at ACCF Capital Formation Forums include the Honorable John Bruton, EU Ambassador to the United States; David S. Broder, national political correspondent and political columnist for the Washington Post; Michael Barone, senior writer, U.S. News and World Report; Senate Finance Committee Ranking Democratic Member Max Baucus; Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley; Senator Chuck Hagel; House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer; House Ways and Means Committee Ranking Democratic Member Charles B. Rangel; Treasury Secretary John B. Snow; and Dr. Alejo Vidal-Quadras Roca, First Vice President of the European Parliament.

ACCF Association Council

The ACCF Association Council plays an important role in shaping ACCF’s policy agenda. The Association Council meets several times each year for offthe- record forums on timely economic and environmental issues of concern to ACCF members. These forums feature a roundtable session with a key economic policymaker from Congress or the Administration. Associations representing all sectors of the economy — including financial services, manufacturing, high tech, small business, venture capital, real estate, agriculture, and others — are welcome to participate in the ACCF Association Council.

Red Cavaney, president, American Petroleum Institute, and Marc E. Lackritz, president, Securities Industry Association, co-chair the ACCF Association Council. Both are members of the board of directors of the American Council for Capital Formation.

ACCF Economic/Environmental Policy Evenings

For nearly 25 years, policymakers, business leaders, members of the Washington diplomatic community, and journalists have participated in ACCF Economic/Environmental Policy Evenings hosted by the ACCF and the Center. These off-the-record sessions – 139 at the end of 2005 – provide a unique opportunity for high-ranking Administration officials, prominent members of Congress, influential journalists and editorial writers, leaders from the business community, and senior diplomats to discuss economic and energy/climate policies in a current and topical context. The sessions always attract a good cross-section of members of Congress – conservatives and liberals, freshmen and seasoned legislators. Ambassadors from countries as diverse as Nigeria, Denmark, and Australia have been guests. Private sector participants run the gamut from venture capitalists to CEOs, senior management of Fortune 500 companies and heads of major U.S. trade associations. Journalists include conservatives and liberals, Washington bureau chiefs of national and international publications, reporters from all the major networks, and editorial page writers and editors.

ACCF recently launched a second policy evening series limited to principals in business, primarily CEOs and their equivalent, policymakers and journalists. Topics for the ACCF CEO Roundtable evenings focus on public policy issues of concern to business leaders. For example, the May 10, 2005 CEO Roundtable addressed the impact of the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation on business. Invited participants included high-ranking individuals from the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, members of congressional committees concerned with the legislation, financial media, and business leaders.

ACCF Benefactors Program

The ACCF Benefactors Program encourages individual supporters to participate in and help develop economic policy research projects sponsored by the Center that are of particular interest to investors and entrepreneurs. The Center’s projects focus on the economic impact of the death tax and issues in fundamental tax reform. Benefactors also participate in ACCF-sponsored forums and ACCF Economic/Environmental Policy Evenings. Membership in the program is limited to enable each Benefactor to be closely involved in the Center’s work.