A University of Nevada, Reno economics professor has been invited to meet in Washington, D.C., tomorrow, Nov. 2, with the Senate Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee to discuss job creation and deficit reduction.

Elliott Parker, economics department chair and professor, will be one of only about a dozen economists nationwide, and the only representative from academia, who will be participating in the discussion at the invitation of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and the chair of the committee, U.S. Sen. Mark Begich. Others expected to participate are chief economists for FedEx Corporation, the American Bankers Association, the National Association of Home Builders and the AFL-CIO.

The meeting precedes an important deadline that follows about three weeks later. Earlier this year, Congress raised the debt ceiling $1.5 trillion, but only with the understanding that they would find a way to reduce the deficit $1.5 trillion later this year. To this end, they created a Select Committee of 12 members to draft a deficit-reduction plan. The Committee must present its plan to Congress by Nov. 23, and Congress must approve it by year-end, or else the budget will be subject to automatic spending cuts.

Parker is a frequent contributor to the Las Vegas Sun, Reno Gazette-Journal and Nevada Appeal and has also provided commentary nationally on Fox Business News. He is often called upon by the media to provide analysis of economic issues, and presented to the U.S. Senate Democratic leadership in 2006 at the invitation of Sen. Reid.

Parker's research on Chinese economic reform, international financial policy, firm productivity and comparative efficiency has been published in refereed academic journals. He has taught courses at Nevada and abroad in international trade and finance, the economy of China, comparative economic systems, economic development, intermediate microeconomics, and the principles of micro- and macroeconomics.