Disclaimer
The views expressed on this blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Bipartisan Policy Center, its founders, or its board of directors.
This fall, New Jersey voters will need to navigate a confusing calendar of deadlines and voting periods
By Matthew Weil
Elections do not just happen on Election Day. While procedures vary from state to state, every election cycle includes at least the start of absentee voting, the voter registration deadline, the absentee ballot request deadline, Election Day, post-election canvassing and auditing, and the certification of the election.
When multiple elections hit near the same time—as will happen in New Jersey this fall following Governor Chris Christie’s decision to hold an October special election to fill the U.S. Senate seat left vacant following the passing of long time Senator Frank Lautenberg—the result can be a lot of voter confusion and administrative difficulties.
The tool underscores relatively simple and often common sense solutions to the issues facing Social Security
By Shai Akabas and Brian Collins
Peter Huff contributed to this post.
Due to changing demographics within the United States, Social Security’s trust funds – for Old-age and Survivors’ Insurance (OASI) and Disability Insurance (DI) – are facing serious sustainability issues. Combined, they are on track for insolvency in 2033, at which point payroll tax revenues would only be able to finance 77 percent of scheduled benefits. The aging and retirement of the Baby Boom generation is the primary factor behind the impending solvency crisis, causing outlays to elderly beneficiaries to significantly exceed receipts from the working age population.
A monthly roundup of events featuring Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) founders, senior fellows, project leaders and staff.
Wednesday, June 5
1:00PM
Who: Rob Couch, Member of BPC’s Housing Commission
What: RiskSpan Symposium on the Future of Housing Finance: The event will provide an update on BPC’s report on the future of housing finance. More details here.
Where: New York, NY
The discussion focused on demographics, entitlements, and lessons learned from past legislation
By Matt Graham
Demarquin Johnson contributed to this post.
Costs and benefits are central to the debate over immigration reform and specifically S. 744, the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act. Last week, the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) held an event, “The Bottom Line: Exploring the Costs and Benefits of Immigration Reform,” sponsored by Walmart. The balanced expert panel discussed a wide range of issues related to immigration’s costs and benefits for both the government and the wider economy, including the impact on low-wage workers, entitlements and public benefits, and S. 744’s responsiveness to economic needs.
Welcome to the BPC Housing Commission expert forum! This forum is intended to foster interactive and substantive discussion about pressing housing issues. Each month contributors from different parts of the housing sector will be invited to respond to a discussion topic.
Have a pressing question you’d like us to consider? Please leave it in the comments section. We encourage you and our expert bloggers to add comments, contributing to the national dialogue on solutions for the future of the housing sector.
Expert bloggers are not members of the BPC Housing Commission. Any views expressed on this forum do not necessarily represent the views of the Housing Commission, its Co-Chairs, or the Bipartisan Policy Center.
Education and Counseling Help Many Achieve and Sustain Homeownership
By Joseph Ventrone
"In the real estate world, there was one word that used to be the cardinal rule: location, location, location. That was then, before the Great Recession. This is now, and the new cardinal rule of real estate is information, information, information."
– Michelle Singletary, The Washington Post, August 7, 2010.
Buying a home can be a complex process. Homeownership education offers many benefits to consumers, including improving financial health and money management skills and reducing loan delinquencies and defaults. The more information homebuyers and homeowners have, the more prepared they will be for these responsibilities.
The Social Security Disability program will only be able to pay 80 percent of claims in 2016
Loren Adler and Shai Akabas contributed to this post.
On Friday, the trustees of Social Security released their annual report, which includes an assessment of the program’s financial health. The Social Security actuaries estimate that the Old Age and Survivor’s Insurance (OASI) Trust Fund will be depleted in 2035 and the Disability Insurance (DI) Trust Fund will be depleted in 2016, unchanged from the projections made one year ago. Recent news of falling deficits must not lull policymakers into a false sense of security. The nation’s long term fiscal problems remain challenging.
The Senate and House budgets are $91 billion apart on FY 2014 appropriations
By Loren Adler and Shai Akabas
Whereas the sequester for Fiscal Year (FY) 2013 cut across-the-board with an axe, the 2014 sequester gives Congress an opportunity to use a scalpel to make most of the mandated spending reductions. To achieve the magnitude of reductions necessary, though, it’ll have to be a pretty sharp scalpel.
Nathan Deal is the Republican Governor of Georgia. Kasim Reed is the Democratic Mayor of Atlanta, Georgia’s largest city. Thankfully for the citizens of Georgia and Atlanta, Deal and Reed have created their own model for achieving positive results for their constituents by working together.
View highlights from BPC's Twitter chat on the impact of the scheduled interest rate hike on subsidized Stafford loans.
We are fast approaching June 30—the date on which the current 3.4% interest rate for subsidized Stafford loans is once again set to expire. If Congress does not act, this rate will double to 6.8% for new loans, affecting millions of student borrowers. Numerous proposals are currently being considered regarding how to approach the impending expiration date. Substantive, yet bridgeable differences exist between Democrats and Republicans.
Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Rob Portman join forces to author the Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act of 2013
By Laura Hall
Our first profile focuses on a bipartisan duo that has been working to move energy efficiency legislation forward in the Senate. Authored by Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Senator Rob Portman (R-OH), S.761, the Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act of 2013, was designed to increase the use of energy efficient technology across all sectors of our economy, including residential, commercial, and industrial.
Texas was one of the few states in the country that required defendants to show ‘good cause’ before getting access to evidence that might prove their innocence. Enter Michael Morton, a man who spent 25 years in prison for the murder of his wife because prosecutors were not required to share with the defense evidence that likely would have exonerated him. Struck by the horrible injustice of what happened to Morton, Democratic State Senator Rodney Ellis and Republican State Senator Robert Duncan introduced the Michael Morton Act to create a uniform, statutory "open file" criminal discovery policy for the State of Texas. Governor Rick Perry (R) signed the bill into law on May 16, 2013.
Americans have always been eager to serve their country and communities. Many times throughout history, our nation’s leaders have called on ordinary citizens to seek out opportunities to serve. In his 2002 State of the Union address, President George W. Bush called on “every American to commit at least two years—4,000 hours—over the rest of your lifetime to the service of your neighbors and your nation.” After establishing a domestic service corps, President Bill Clinton remarked, “When I ask our country’s young people to give something back to our country through grassroots service, they responded by the thousands.”
A bipartisan bill provides hope that Congress can come together on grid reliability and energy policy
In an era of tense partisanship, we should celebrate those occasions where members of both parties work together to craft legislation aimed at solving problems in a balanced way. On May 15, 2013, the House Energy and Commerce Committee unanimously approved H.R. 271, the Resolving Environmental and Grid Reliability Conflicts Act of 2013, which aims to protect electric reliability. It passed on the House floor by a voice vote on May 22 and is awaiting consideration by the Senate. The bill amends the Federal Power Act to protect a regulated electricity generator from liability for violating an environmental law or regulation in the, thus far, rare circumstance where the Department of Energy is authorized to order emergency operation for electric grid reliability.
Last week, BPC responded to a request for comments from Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus and Ranking member Orrin Hatch on ways to improve Medicare’s physician payment system and, specifically, suggestions on how to repeal the flawed sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula, which dictates annual provider payment updates and is threatening a 25 percent reduction in physician reimbursements in 2014. The text of the letter, submitted to the Committee and outlining several recent BPC recommendations to improve quality and reduce costs across the health system, is below.
By Katherine Hayes and G. William Hoagland
The Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) recently released A Bipartisan Rx for Patient-Centered Care and System-Wide Cost Containment, which included a multitude of recommendations to spur improvement in system-wide health care quality and efficiency. This effort, led by former senators Tom Daschle, Bill Frist, Pete Domenici, and former OMB and CBO Director Dr. Alice Rivlin, focused extensively on reforms to Medicare that would result in higher quality care and reduce cost growth for beneficiaries and taxpayers. A central aim of our recommendations, which incorporate an SGR fix, is to create strong incentives for the full range of providers to transition from the volume-based payment methods that predominate in Medicare today to advanced payment and delivery models that promote accountability for quality outcomes, patient satisfaction and value.
A new study found that lower-calorie products drove 82% of the sales growth among member companies
By Laura Zatz
Today at the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC), a coalition of 16 food and beverage companies announced that it exceeded its goal of eliminating 1.5 trillion calories from the U.S. marketplace. The Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation (HWCF) met its 2010 commitment to the Partnership for a Healthier America two years ahead of schedule. Lisa Gable, president of the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation, was joined at the announcement by Tracy Orleans, Senior Scientist at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), and Hank Cardello, Director of the Hudson Institute’s Obesity Solutions Initiative. Dan Glickman, former Secretary of Agriculture and co-chair of the BPC’s Nutrition and Physical Activity Initiative (NPAI), welcomed the group and moderated the question and answer session.
High and rising health care costs consume a large and rapidly growing portion of the federal budget, crowding out investments in other crucial priorities such as education, defense and infrastructure and putting pressure on other priorities of households, businesses and governments.
Health Care Cost Containment Report
A Bipartisan Rx for Patient-Centered Care and System-wide Cost Containment
Washington Post Op-Ed
Daschle, Domenici, Frist & Rivlin: How to build a better health-care system
To solicit public opinion from around the country, the Commission on Political Reform will propose a series of questions in the weeks leading up to each of the national conversations. The best responses will be incorporated into the town hall programs in real time.
Latest Questions
How do we attract the best candidates to run for public office?
Should there be a mandatory service requirement for young people today?
How do we attract the top talent to serve in government and elected office?
Is civility in Washington important to you?
The President’s Budget: Now What?
Paul Ryan’s FY 2014 Budget
Patty Murray’s FY 2014 Budget
Automatic, across-the-board spending cuts known as sequestration took effect on March 1, 2013.
Latest Updates
A Guide to the 2014 Sequester
How $85 Billion Became $80 Billion: The Story of the Shrinking 2013 Sequester
Thinking About A Second Sequester, Fiscal Year 2014, and Congress
The Continuing Resolution and What It Means for Sequestration
Mandatory Spending and Sequestration
Origins of the Sequester
