President Clinton today nominated John L. Palmer, Dean of The Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs of Syracuse University and Professor of Economics and Public Administration, to be a Public Trustee of the Social Security and Medicare Trust Funds.
“There are no more important programs than Social Security and Medicare for our collective economic and social welfare,” Palmer says, “and I’m honored that the President has confidence in my ability to serve the nation in this crucial position.”
Palmer brings to the Board extensive public and private sector leadership on issues relating to economic, budgetary, and social policy. He has a longstanding professional interest in both Social Security and Medicare and wrote one of the first studies calling attention to the challenges of our aging population to retirement and health care financing. Palmer was a founding member of the National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI), a nonprofit, nonpartisan research and education organization made up of the nation’s leading experts on income security. He served as NASI president from 1997-1999 and is currently a member of its Board of Directors.
Palmer was Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation at the Department of Health and Human Services from 1979-1981 and served as the agency’s Director of Income Security Policy in the early 1970s. He was also a senior fellow at The Urban Institute and The Brookings Institution. Palmer joined The Maxwell School as Dean in 1988.
Palmer has written 12 books and more than 50 articles on a wide range of social science and public policy topics, testified before Congress on numerous occasions, and served on various committees of the National Academy of Sciences’ National Research Council and the Social Science Research Council. He is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. Palmer earned his Ph.D. in economics from Stanford University in 1971 and his B.A. in Mathematics in 1965 from Williams College.
The Board of Trustees is comprised of the Secretaries of the Treasury, Labor, and Health and Human Services, the Commissioner of Social Security, and two public members appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate. The Board is responsible for reporting annually to Congress on the financial status of the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) and Disability Insurance (DI) Trust Funds, the Hospital Insurance (HI) Trust Fund, and the Supplementary Medical Insurance (SMI) Trust Fund. The OASI and DI Trust Funds provide financing for the retirement, survivors, and disability benefits under Social Security, and the HI and SMI Trust Funds finance the Medicare program.
The Maxwell School of Syracuse University, founded in 1924, is the premier academic institution in the United States committed to civic leadership and careers in public and international affairs. It is home to Syracuse University’s graduate social science departments and to numerous nationally recognized multidisciplinary programs in public policy and finance, international studies, and conflict resolution. Maxwell’s graduate program in public administration – the first of its kind – is ranked consistently the best in the nation.