RIT Business Dean to Participate in Economic Forum with President Bush

Thomas Hopkins, dean of Rochester Institute of Technology’s College of Business, will participate in a strategy session being convened by President George W. Bush. The President’s Economic Forum will take place at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, on Tuesday, Aug. 13.

Hopkins has been invited by the White House to participate on the panel discussion, "Small Business and Smarter Regulation," chaired by Mitch Daniels, director of the Office of Management and Budget.

In 2001, Hopkins co-authored a report on the impact of regulatory costs on small firms, commissioned by the Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy. The report concluded that, in 2000, Americans spent $843 billion to comply with federal regulations, which equals 8 percent of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product. These undocumented costs to Americans are on top of the costs reflected in the president’s budget.

Last March, Hopkins addressed members of the U.S. House of Representatives concerning regulatory accounting. He appeared before the Subcommittee on Energy Policy, Natural Resources and Regulatory Affairs in Washington, D.C. Since 1978, Hopkins has made more than a dozen appearances before federal officials in the United States and Canada to discuss issues related to regulatory costs and reform.

Prior to joining RIT, Hopkins held senior management positions in the Ford, Carter and Reagan Administrations, including deputy administrator for information and regulatory affairs in the Office of Management and Budget.

Hopkins became dean of the College of Business at RIT in 1999. Previously he served for 10 years as the Arthur J. Gosnell Professor of Economics in RIT’s College of Liberal Arts.