Senator Warner, Congressman Wolf Join Experts in Release of Comprehensive Report Highlighting Challenges Facing Our Nation

Report Offers Strategic Blueprint for the Administration and the American People

WASHINGTON, March 27 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) and Representative Frank Wolf (R-VA) joined experts working with the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress (CSPC) today to release a comprehensive assessment of challenges currently facing the United States and recommendations for reform. The report, Saving America’s Future: A Challenge to the American People, reveals a stark and troubling picture of the nation’s challenges, evaluates potential responses and offers recommendations for how to successfully remedy these critical issue areas.

The ten grand challenges outlined in the report present a clear and concise review of the struggles that our leaders will confront in the coming years. Issues of concern include serious structural problems in financing our government, providing efficient energy, ensuring quality public education, competing globally for jobs, and extending health care while reducing its cost.

“Our nation is suffering through tough times, and there is no silver bullet that can solve all of these problems,” said Center President and CEO David Abshire, “Everyone needs to play a part in the recovery process. This report provides a concrete framework for getting our nation back on track, and I thank Senator Warner and Congressman Wolf for joining us to highlight the difficult but critical steps we need to take.”

To organize the government for the reforms needed to conquer these challenges, the report makes four key recommendations:

1. Develop a ten-year national strategy through a task force of government and private sector experts, which will outline where the country stands, where it needs to go, and how to get there in order to provide a road map to the American people, other countries, global businesses and markets, and the government. Based on a comprehensive assessment, the strategy should provide national purpose and align all elements of government and the allocation of resources.
2. Create a bipartisan Fiscal Future Commission to develop statutory budget controls and comprehensive tax and Social Security reform legislation as well as to reorient government spending programs and tax preferences for the future.
3. Reengineer the American health system by assembling a federal task force to review and implement mechanisms to decrease costs, improve value, and reduce waste in the federal health insurance programs. This should also include a partnership with leaders at the state and local levels and nonprofit and private sectors to design and implement a National Disease Prevention and Health Promotion Initiative.
4. Confront the educational crisis by hosting a national education summit of all governors and state education leaders as soon as possible to raise K-12 standards to meet or exceed those of the highest-performing nations in the world. Another important element is to incentivize, recruit, and train new talent into the teaching force.

The report is the product of several months of research and analysis focusing on the most pressing issues plaguing our nation. Led by Abshire and co-chaired by Norman Augustine, Roy Romer, and David Walker, this initiative was guided by a bipartisan Steering Committee of leaders from both the public and private sectors. This committee oversaw 17 specific issue teams with over 150 members, who have over 2,500 cumulative years of experience in government and the military.

Augustine, former Chairman and CEO of Lockheed Martin, former Under Secretary of the Army and a former member of the Princeton faculty, said, “With this report, we hope to present honest and thoughtful information to the American people, while sending them a message that they must be a part of the solution. Through more than 40 years working in government, business, and academia, I have not seen America at such a crossroads. It is time to call citizens to action to save our nation from a potential failure on many levels.”

“If we are to move forward, we need a roadmap to success, and we need all Americans to help follow that path,” said Romer, the Chairman of Strong American Schools, former Governor of Colorado, and former Superintendent of Schools for the Los Angeles Unified School District. “Given my background in government and education, I can tell you that without a solid foundation to build on for the future, our nation will continue or begin to fall behind our international counterparts in a myriad of areas.”

“The nation is in trouble. There is no question that the problems are severe, but we can solve them by working together to create a better nation for future generations. We need to look at the overlaps among all these issues but, first and foremost, if we do not repair our current economic and fiscal situation, we will not stand a chance of resolving our other challenges,” said Walker, current President and CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, former Comptroller General of the United States and head of the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).

This report is the first of two as part of the Strengthening America’s Future Initiative (SAFI), run by the Center. The culmination of the project will be a final report in the fall, which will integrate the different pieces of the initiative into one comprehensive document.

The Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress is a non-profit, non-partisan 501(c)3 organization that seeks to further the understanding and functioning of the American Presidency and its related institutions and, thereby, to educate, illuminate, and inspire leaders of tomorrow. More information about the organization can be found at www.thePresidency.org.

SOURCE Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress