Vice President, Economic Policy Institute
Vice president of EPI since 2003, Ross Eisenbrey is a lawyer and former commissioner of the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission. Prior to joining EPI, he worked for many years as a staff attorney and legislative director in the U.S. House of Representatives, and as a committee counsel in the U.S. Senate. He served as policy director of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration from 1999 until 2001. He has testified numerous times in the House of Representatives and the Senate, and has written scores of articles, issue briefs, and policy memos on a wide range of labor issues.
Director, Center for Energy, Climate, and Environment and The Herbert and Joyce Morgan Fellow in Energy and Environmental Policy, The Heritage Foundation
Diana Furchtgott-Roth is director of the Center for Energy, Climate, and Environment and the Herbert and Joyce Morgan Fellow in Energy and Environmental Policy at The Heritage Foundation. She is an Oxford-educated economist, a frequent guest on TV and radio shows, and a columnist for Forbes.
Diana worked in senior roles in the White House under Presidents Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush. She has served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology at the U.S. Department of Transportation; Acting Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy at the U.S. Department of Treasury; Chief Economist at the U.S. Department of Labor; Chief of Staff of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers; and Deputy Executive Secretary of the White House Domestic Policy Council.
Diana is the author or coauthor of six books and hundreds of articles on economic policy, including Regulating to Disaster: How Green Jobs Policies are Destroying America's Economy (Encounter Books, 2012). Her most recent book is United States Income, Wealth, Consumption, and Inequality (Oxford University Press, 2021). She received degrees in economics from Swarthmore College and Oxford University.
President, Harned Strategies LLC
Karen Harned is President at Harned Strategies LLC. Previously, she served as Executive Director of the National Federation of Independent Business Small Business Legal Center, a post she held from 2002-2022. Prior to joining the Legal Center, Ms. Harned was an attorney at a Washington, D.C. law firm specializing in food and drug law, where she represented several small and large businesses and their respective trade associations before Congress and federal agencies. She also served as Assistant Press Secretary to U.S. Senator Don Nickles of Oklahoma from August of 1989 to March of 1993. Ms. Harned received her B.A. from the University of Oklahoma in 1989 and her J.D. from The George Washington University National Law Center in 1995. She is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia.
As Executive Director of the NFIB Small Business Legal Center, Ms. Harned commented regularly on small business cases before federal and state courts, as well as the U.S. Supreme Court. She has appeared on Fox News, Fox Business, NBC Nightly News, CNN, CNBC and MSNBC, as well as National Public Radio, CBS Radio, and radio outlets across the country. Her opinion editorials and articles regarding healthcare, lawsuit abuse, regulation, and other issues important to small business have been published in newspapers and other publications nationwide.
Ms. Harned has testified before Congress on the small business impact of regulation and the civil justice system. Additionally, she has conducted numerous webinars and legal compliance seminars for small business owners across the country on issues relating to employment law, including unionization and immigration.
United States District Court, Eastern District of New York
William Francis Kuntz II is a United States district judge on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. The United States Senate confirmed him on October 3, 2011. He received his judicial commission on October 4, 2011.
Judge Kuntz was a commercial litigator in private practice in New York, and had been a partner at the law firm of Baker Hostetler since 2005. He has been a partner at several law firms in New York during his career, including Torys LLP from 2001 to 2004, Seward & Kissel LLP from 1994 to 2001, and Milgrim, Thomajan, Jacobs & Lee from 1986 to 1994. In addition, he worked as Counsel at Constantine Cannon from 2004 to 2005, and as an associate at Shearman & Sterling LLP from 1978 to 1986. Since 1987, Kuntz has served as a Commissioner of the New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board, supervising hundreds of investigations into allegations of abuse by members of the New York City Police Department. From 1987 to 2003, he was an adjunct associate professor of law at Brooklyn Law School, teaching a course in American legal history. He received his A.B. from Harvard College in 1972 and his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1977. Kuntz also received an M.A. and Ph.D. in American History from Harvard University in 1974 and 1979, respectively.
Administrator, Wage and Hour Division, U.S. Department of Labor
David Weil was sworn in as the Administrator of the Wage and Hour Division on April 5, 2014.
Dr. Weil is an internationally-recognized expert in public and labor market policy; regulatory performance; industrial and labor relations; transparency policy; and supply-chain restructuring and its effects.
Prior to this appointment, Dr. Weil served as a professor of economics and the Everett W. Lord Distinguished Faculty Scholar at Boston University School of Management. He also served as co-director of the Transparency Policy Project at the Ash Institute at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He has written three books on labor market policy, including the recently published, The Fissured Workplace. He has authored numerous articles and publications in a variety of refereed economics, public policy, management, and industrial relations journals and books, as well as numerous publications in non-academic outlets.
No stranger to the Department’s mission or its work, Dr. Weil has served as an advisor to both the Wage and Hour Division and to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, as well as to a number of other government agencies. He also has served as mediator and advisor in a range of labor union and labor/management settings across the globe. In addition to the Department, his research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Russell Sage Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, among others.
Dr. Weil received his B.S. at Cornell University and his M.A. and Ph.D. in public policy at Harvard University.
Vice President, Economic Policy Institute
Vice president of EPI since 2003, Ross Eisenbrey is a lawyer and former commissioner of the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission. Prior to joining EPI, he worked for many years as a staff attorney and legislative director in the U.S. House of Representatives, and as a committee counsel in the U.S. Senate. He served as policy director of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration from 1999 until 2001. He has testified numerous times in the House of Representatives and the Senate, and has written scores of articles, issue briefs, and policy memos on a wide range of labor issues.
Director, Center for Energy, Climate, and Environment and The Herbert and Joyce Morgan Fellow in Energy and Environmental Policy, The Heritage Foundation
Diana Furchtgott-Roth is director of the Center for Energy, Climate, and Environment and the Herbert and Joyce Morgan Fellow in Energy and Environmental Policy at The Heritage Foundation. She is an Oxford-educated economist, a frequent guest on TV and radio shows, and a columnist for Forbes.
Diana worked in senior roles in the White House under Presidents Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush. She has served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology at the U.S. Department of Transportation; Acting Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy at the U.S. Department of Treasury; Chief Economist at the U.S. Department of Labor; Chief of Staff of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers; and Deputy Executive Secretary of the White House Domestic Policy Council.
Diana is the author or coauthor of six books and hundreds of articles on economic policy, including Regulating to Disaster: How Green Jobs Policies are Destroying America's Economy (Encounter Books, 2012). Her most recent book is United States Income, Wealth, Consumption, and Inequality (Oxford University Press, 2021). She received degrees in economics from Swarthmore College and Oxford University.
President, Harned Strategies LLC
Karen Harned is President at Harned Strategies LLC. Previously, she served as Executive Director of the National Federation of Independent Business Small Business Legal Center, a post she held from 2002-2022. Prior to joining the Legal Center, Ms. Harned was an attorney at a Washington, D.C. law firm specializing in food and drug law, where she represented several small and large businesses and their respective trade associations before Congress and federal agencies. She also served as Assistant Press Secretary to U.S. Senator Don Nickles of Oklahoma from August of 1989 to March of 1993. Ms. Harned received her B.A. from the University of Oklahoma in 1989 and her J.D. from The George Washington University National Law Center in 1995. She is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia.
As Executive Director of the NFIB Small Business Legal Center, Ms. Harned commented regularly on small business cases before federal and state courts, as well as the U.S. Supreme Court. She has appeared on Fox News, Fox Business, NBC Nightly News, CNN, CNBC and MSNBC, as well as National Public Radio, CBS Radio, and radio outlets across the country. Her opinion editorials and articles regarding healthcare, lawsuit abuse, regulation, and other issues important to small business have been published in newspapers and other publications nationwide.
Ms. Harned has testified before Congress on the small business impact of regulation and the civil justice system. Additionally, she has conducted numerous webinars and legal compliance seminars for small business owners across the country on issues relating to employment law, including unionization and immigration.
United States District Court, Eastern District of New York
William Francis Kuntz II is a United States district judge on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. The United States Senate confirmed him on October 3, 2011. He received his judicial commission on October 4, 2011.
Judge Kuntz was a commercial litigator in private practice in New York, and had been a partner at the law firm of Baker Hostetler since 2005. He has been a partner at several law firms in New York during his career, including Torys LLP from 2001 to 2004, Seward & Kissel LLP from 1994 to 2001, and Milgrim, Thomajan, Jacobs & Lee from 1986 to 1994. In addition, he worked as Counsel at Constantine Cannon from 2004 to 2005, and as an associate at Shearman & Sterling LLP from 1978 to 1986. Since 1987, Kuntz has served as a Commissioner of the New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board, supervising hundreds of investigations into allegations of abuse by members of the New York City Police Department. From 1987 to 2003, he was an adjunct associate professor of law at Brooklyn Law School, teaching a course in American legal history. He received his A.B. from Harvard College in 1972 and his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1977. Kuntz also received an M.A. and Ph.D. in American History from Harvard University in 1974 and 1979, respectively.
Administrator, Wage and Hour Division, U.S. Department of Labor
David Weil was sworn in as the Administrator of the Wage and Hour Division on April 5, 2014.
Dr. Weil is an internationally-recognized expert in public and labor market policy; regulatory performance; industrial and labor relations; transparency policy; and supply-chain restructuring and its effects.
Prior to this appointment, Dr. Weil served as a professor of economics and the Everett W. Lord Distinguished Faculty Scholar at Boston University School of Management. He also served as co-director of the Transparency Policy Project at the Ash Institute at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He has written three books on labor market policy, including the recently published, The Fissured Workplace. He has authored numerous articles and publications in a variety of refereed economics, public policy, management, and industrial relations journals and books, as well as numerous publications in non-academic outlets.
No stranger to the Department’s mission or its work, Dr. Weil has served as an advisor to both the Wage and Hour Division and to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, as well as to a number of other government agencies. He also has served as mediator and advisor in a range of labor union and labor/management settings across the globe. In addition to the Department, his research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Russell Sage Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, among others.
Dr. Weil received his B.S. at Cornell University and his M.A. and Ph.D. in public policy at Harvard University.
The Minimum Wage
Ross Eisenbrey, Diana Furchtgott-Roth, Karen Harned, William Kuntz, David Weil
2014 National Lawyers Convention
In January 2014, in his State of the Union Address, President Obama called on Congress...
The Minimum Wage
Ross Eisenbrey, Diana Furchtgott-Roth, Karen Harned, William Kuntz, David Weil
2014 National Lawyers Convention
In January 2014, in his State of the Union Address, President Obama called on Congress...