The United States economy is a powerful engine of wealth and prosperity driven by free enterprise and innovation. Despite this, millions of hard-working Americans struggle to get ahead or save for the future, and the federal government’s poor fiscal health leaves us ill equipped to protect those left behind. BPC works to find solutions to these problems, from strengthening retirement security, to securing economic opportunities for the future, and dealing with our nation’s exploding debt. Our goal is to help policymakers remove obstacles to economic growth and improve shared prosperity for all.
Communities across the United States face a severe shortage of affordable homes and a growing need to repair, replace, and modernize their critical infrastructure—roads, rails, bridges, drinking water and wastewater systems, ports, airports, civic buildings, broadband, and more. Both issues weigh heavily on struggling families, government budgets, and the economy broadly. BPC is committed to helping policymakers respond with bipartisan and consensus-driven solutions, working to ensure every family has a decent, affordable home and access to jobs and opportunities. With trillions in unmet infrastructure needs, more must also be done to ensure that every neighborhood is safe, healthy, and connected.
Our nation’s immigration system is broken. It’s complex, inflexible, and outdated. It doesn’t make us safer or enhance our economic growth. BPC’s immigration work focuses on practical legislative solutions that address the system as a whole, enhancing flexibility, promoting fairness, and aligning with America’s needs and values.
It is critical to America’s future to understand and bolster the current state of our democracy, strengthen the capacity of its governing institutions, and build a Congress that is responsive to a diverse nation. We examine trends and advance ideas for reform in areas from election administration, campaigning, and voting to the inner workings of our government.
BPC’s health team strives to develop bipartisan policies that improve the nation’s health outcomes and reduce preventable health care costs. The policy areas we focus on span public health and prevention; coverage, payment, and delivery of health services and long-term care; biomedical research; and innovative technologies. Our recommendations are geared towards the public and private sectors to improve the health and health care of all Americans and their communities. Experts such as former Senate Majority Leaders Tom Daschle and Bill Frist, M.D., and Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman provide leadership for many of our health initiatives.
On both ends of the education spectrum, Americans are getting squeezed, whether from the challenge of finding quality, affordable child care or managing the burden of student debt from higher education. BPC believes that every child deserves a quality foundation that will prepare them to grow, learn, and succeed, and every American deserves access to an affordable higher education system that promotes upward mobility and meets the diverse needs of students and the modern workforce.
Universities are losing the argument over the value of free expression: too many believe that an inclusive campus culture can only come at the expense of viewpoint diversity and free expression. BPC’s Campus Free Expression Project, which believes a free and open society depends upon the free and open exchange of ideas, promotes campus policies and programs that foster a safe and welcoming environment for robust intellectual exchange.
The national conversation around energy is changing rapidly. As the United States has dramatically increased its production of hydrocarbons, the costs of renewable energy technologies have also declined sharply. We must now decide how to responsibly drive a transition toward a cleaner low-carbon energy mix while maintaining economic growth. The BPC Energy Team is focused on generating and advocating pragmatic clean energy policies through engagement with a broad set of stakeholders and experts from diverse political perspectives.