A Brookings press release says that he will "participate in a wide range of events, activities, research projects, and conferences."
Here is what Brookings has to say on the title of Distinguished Fellow:
Brookings’s distinguished fellows are individuals of particularly noteworthy distinction whose work across several fields of public policy puts them at the pinnacle of worldwide research and policy impact. Distinguished fellows are actively engaged in the life of the Institution, often with more than one of Brookings’s five research programs. In assuming the title, Congressman Dreier joins Jean-David Levitte, former French ambassador to the United States; Sadako Ogata, former president of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and United Nations high commissioner for refugees; Jon Huntsman, former ambassador to China and Singapore and governor of Utah; Donna Shalala, president of the University of Miami and former U.S. secretary of health and human services; Itamar Rabinovich, an Israeli diplomat, scholar, and university president; Ed Rendell, former governor of Pennsylvania; Thomas Pickering, a career U.S. ambassador and former under secretary of state for political affairs; and Javier Solana, former secretary general of NATO and the European Union’s high representative for foreign and security policy.
Rep. Dreier has already penned a piece for Brookings with Joshua Meltzer on the Internet economy and the free flow of data across borders.
As someone already noted, "bringing on David Dreier to Brookings is one step closer to challenging American Enterprise Institute (AEI) for best-dressed think tank." Rep. Dreier was often ranked as among the best dressed Members of Congress.
Rep. Dreier is not a think tank neophyte. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), and he has served on the Center for Strategic and International Studies' (CSIS) Advisory Board.
Here is a previous Think Tank Watch post (which is updated periodically) on Members of Congress who are connected to think tanks.
The Brookings Institution was recently ranked as the best think tank in the world by the annual University of Pennsylvania think tank rankings.
