BIPARTISAN POLICY CENTER INC

The Bipartisan Policy Center is a mission-focused organization that helps policymakers work across party lines to craft bipartisan solutions. By connecting lawmakers across the entire political spectrum, delivering data and context, negotiating policy details, and creating space for bipartisan collaboration, BPC ensures democracy can function on behalf of everyone.

American democracy is built upon bipartisan collaboration. Without bipartisanship, democracy suffers. In a closely divided nation—in which control of the government shifts between the two major parties—bipartisanship becomes the only way to accomplish anything valuable or durable. Americans share a common ground that is deeper than the partisan disputes that divide us, and people on both sides of the aisle have good intentions. With that in mind, BPC combines the best ideas from all sides to create policy solutions that help all Americans.

We are working towards a future where political rhetoric is vigorous and pragmatic, and policymakers regularly collaborate to pass laws that improve lives.

Over the past 15 years, BPC has been on the frontlines building trust and strong relationships with policymakers across the political spectrum that has led to the advancement of significant, impactful bipartisan legislation. We conduct substantive policy deliberation across critical issues—the economy, health care, higher education, and early childhood care, among others—that sets the stage for meaningful, fact-based bipartisan cooperation. We are also unique in embracing the reality that promising ideas alone are not enough to affect policy change. Our c4 partner, BPC Action, amplifies our capacity to surge and aggressively leans into key legislative moments to drive action.

Educational Briefings/Convenings: BPC’s credibility and reputation for intellectual rigor enables us to engage decision-makers in thoughtful exploration and support interaction among traditionally antagonistic stakeholders. BPC briefings and convenings take a variety of forms from private discussions requested by decision makers, to bipartisan staff briefings, to monthly gatherings of Senate Legislative Directors, to major public events. We also regularly receive requests from policymakers on both sides of the aisle for technical input on complex questions. Our ability to help establish an agreed upon set of facts and narrow the issues in dispute is an essential aspect of our work.

Respectful Dialogue/Negotiation: A critical phase in policy development involves bringing together “proud partisans” to explore areas of possible agreement and identify core interests that must be respected to achieve consensus. BPC explores these opportunities through private interactions among policy experts, national leaders and representatives of key stakeholders and constituencies. These efforts range from large multi-year commissions to smaller task forces and congressional working groups that create the infrastructure and incentive for reaching bipartisan consensus on policy reform.

Communications and Strategic Outreach: A steady drumbeat on priority issues is key to spurring bipartisan cooperation to tackle policy challenges. Our communications strategy includes outreach to members of Congress and key staff—including one-on-one meetings and briefings for groups, frequent engagement with congressional staff, and messaging to raise public awareness of key issues.

Hill Advocacy: Our separately funded advocacy arm, BPC Action, works to turn BPC’s policy proposals into legislative wins. Their Hill-focused activities includes strategically advancing legislative proposals to members and congressional staff; providing political and technical assistance with legislation; identifying and building legislative champions; and supporting lawmakers who are driving bipartisan progress.

Currently the Bipartisan Policy Center brings together high-level decision makers, policy experts and interest group leaders to develop and advocate concrete solutions to major problems. Through our event space, we successfully hold a multitude of public events and debates to address policy issues as well as receive questions from the population. Additionally, our funding reflects the character and diversity of the organization. The majority of BPC funding comes from charitable philanthropies. The remainder of BPC's support comes from individual donors and corporate donors (a list of BPC donors can be found in our latest annual report). BPC believes that all of its donors as well as its project members have interests. BPC's consensus-based negotiation process ensures that no single interest can unduly influence consensus outcomes. Lastly, our (c)(4) affiliate, BPC Action, acts as an avenue for legislative change.

Legislative

-The end-of-year Omnibus Appropriations & Tax Extenders package included several key BPC recommendations

-The Medicare Access and Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) Reauthorization Act of 2015 contained several BPC health project recommendations

-The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015, included recommendations of BPC's Disability Insurance (DI) Working Group to streamline the program, shore up the DI trust fund, address fraud and improve work incentives

-BPC's Governors' Council spearheaded passage of an amendment offered by Senators Heller (R-NV) and Manchin (D-WV) giving governors more say in state education plans, which was included in the enacted Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015

-The Highway Bill enacted into law contained BPC energy project recommendations on securing the electric grid from cyberattacks

-The House passed 21st Century Cures Act which included recommendations proposed by the Health Innovation Initiative on health IT and medical innovation

-Several bipartisan bills were introduced that included BPC recommendations on energy innovation, including legislation by Sens Coons (D-DE) and Alexander (R-TN) calling for a Quadrennial Energy Review and the COMPETES bill

-The House and Senate passed legislation to reform the Toxic Substances Control Act, for which BPCAN strongly advocated

Regulatory

-Nine Health Project recommendations, on the subjects of cost-containment and delivery reform, were incorporated into Medicare regulations

-Recommendations proposed by the Health Innovation Initiative – both for how health IT is regulated and for improving health IT interoperability were incorporated into roadmaps published by the Department of Health and Human Services in the summer and fall of 2015

-The Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) has adopted several of BPC's Financial Regulatory Reform Initiative's recommendations

-The Federal Reserve Board announced its new requirement for Total Loss Absorbing Capital (TLAC) for the nation's largest financial institutions. The TLAC requirements broadly follow recommendations from BPC's Financial Regulatory Reform Initiative's report on Too-Big-To-Fail from 2013

Building Trust and Relationships

-Initiated at BPC's Governor's Council's request, the Senate Governor's Caucus, made up of 10 Senators who are former governors, committed to meet on a regular basis with the goal of moving forward a joint initiative.

-BPC's Senate Legislative Directors Dialogue Series increased from quarterly dinners to monthly meetings to allow legislative directors the chance to learn about a variety of topics and network with their colleagues across the aisle. So far, over 75 Senate offices have participated

-Prospect magazine honored BPC with its Think Tank of the Year Award based on the Financial Regulatory Reform Initiative's work on improving the implementation of the Dodd-Frank Act

Despite initial success, there is still much work to be done. BPC continues to enact change.