In 2015, BPC will advocate for an agenda based on these key takeaways from 2014: Spend more time in Washington. Though it is impossible to re-create an era of members spending weekends together watching Little League, much can be done to relieve the alienation that rewards rigidity and discourages collaboration. Simple ideas such as a five-day workweek and a better alignment of the Senate and AND House calendars are a good start. PARTISANA letter from BPC President PRODUCTIVEJason Grumet Restore committees. Committees used to be a place where members made alliances and gained issue We live in an ideologically sorted and polarized expertise while crafting national policy. In recent years, partisan leadership made the decisions outside the nation. But despite deep rifts, most Americans agree: committee process. Members should serve on fewer committees, devote more time to the committees they do Washington isn’t working. To address this, the serve, and focus on developing real knowledge. Congressional leadership, meanwhile, should guarantee floor time Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) began 2014 with a for committee-passed legislation. mission: to develop actionable ideas to help Congress function better and to support policymakers with the Build bonds. Personal relationships should be allowed to flourish without constant public scrutiny. Often the fortitude and imagination necessary to tackle major imperative for deliberation trumps the need for access. Last year, the Senate met in private for a few hours and challenges. America’s greatest leaders were all fierce worked through challenging disagreements. Regular sessions away from news cameras could yield more legislative partisans who compromised out of necessity, not desire. compromises. Similarly, members forge bonds by traveling together or sharing meals. But in a culture of disdain, Nostalgia for a gentler time isn’t useful, but a return to official congressional fact-finding trips or seated lunches at policy discussions are too easily dismissed as taxpayer productive partisanship is. And while the headwinds boondoggles or “gateway graft.” If we have so little trust in Congress, how can we expect those in Congress to trust remain strong, there are promising dynamics at work: one another? a Republican-controlled Congress and Democratic administration means greater accountability; the Increase election access. Only one of five Americans participates in primaries, which further divides improving economy creates a sense of possibility and the nation. There are myriad ways to increase public engagement that, over time, will incentivize less-rigid diminishes the anger that undermines collaboration; leaders, including automatic and online registration, a national primary day, increased early voting, and allowing and exhaustion from prolonged gridlock is generating independents to vote in primaries—as well as bolder ideas, like primary experiments in California and Washington, more constructive dialogue. where candidates from all parties face off at once and the top two advance to the state’s general election. 2 It is certainly true that toxic partisanship is a cause of legislative dysfunction. But it is also true that legislative dysfunction feeds toxic partisanship. Rather than wishing for national cohesion, bemoaning the media, or aspiring to a new Constitutional Convention, BPC envisions a virtuous cycle in which small accomplishments enhance Congress’s capacity to once again be both partisan and productive. We will always live in an ideologically divided nation. Instead of lamenting the challenges, it is our responsibility to provide a place at the negotiation table both for collaboration and for partisanship. As the nation heads toward the 2016 presidential election, BPC’s continued belief in the collaborative power of partisanship will carry unique importance in 2015. Jason Grumet BPC President Howard Baker 4 Remembering Senator Howard Baker This year, BPC mourned the loss of one of its co-founders: former Senate Majority Leader Howard H. Baker, Jr. Throughout Senator Baker’s career, he was known as a staunch supporter of bipartisanship. Tom Daschle Bob Dole George Mitchell Jason Grumet BPC Co-Founder BPC Co-Founder BPC Co-Founder BPC President “Howard Baker’s distinguished career, “Howard’s reputation as the ‘Great “Senator Baker’s conciliatory style as “Senator Baker was a consummate as senator and statesman, is a product Conciliator’ was well earned. He was majority leader was legendary. statesman. He always reminded us that of his unique capacity to win the a person you could work with. In the Howard always represented the gold to make real progress, you have to build confi dence and trust of even those with Senate, he was able to accomplish so standard for working with others—not bridges that connect the best ideas from whom he fundamentally disagreed. much because he cultivated mutual against or around them. He acted on divergent ideologies.” It was a joy and privilege to work with respect and cooperation with his the belief that principled cooperation is Howard in establishing the Bipartisan opponents.” the key to progress.” Policy Center.” In his own words “I’m a lifelong and proud Republican. Unlike some, however, I don’t believe loyalty to party precludes common- Howard Baker BPC Co-Founder sense decision and policymaking. Some of our nation’s greatest triumphs have come when political leaders have not allowed partisan differences to deter their efforts to fi nd solutions that are in our nation’s best interest.” 5 Board of Directors Dennis Archer Jane Garvey Susan Story Chairman Emeritus Former Administrator President & CEO Dickinson Wright, PLLC Federal Aviation Administration American Water Former Mayor of Detroit, MI Charlestown, MA Voorhees, NJ Norm Augustine Jason Grumet Julie Sweet Chairman & CEO (ret.) President General Counsel & COO Lockheed Martin Corporation Bipartisan Policy Center Accenture Bethesda, MD Washington, DC Arlington, VA Paul Brest Mark Heising Gen. Charles Wald Professor of Law, Emeritus & Managing Director (Chair) Medley Partners Former Dean, Stanford Law School Senior Advisor San Francisco, CA Stanford, CA Deloitte & Touche, LLP Retired General, U.S. Air Force Sheila Burke Walter Isaacson Rosslyn, VA Senior Public Policy Advisor President & CEO Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Aspen Institute Mark Walsh Washington, DC Caldwell & Berkowitz, PC CEO & Chairman Former Secretary of the Senate GeniusRocket Washington, DC Frank Keating Chevy Chase, MD President & CEO Ralph Cavanagh American Bankers Association Anthony A. Williams Senior Attorney & Co-Director, Washington, DC CEO, Federal City Council Energy Program Former Mayor of Washington, DC Natural Resources Defense Council Olympia Snowe Washington, DC San Francisco, CA Former Senator from Maine Washington, DC Mortimer Zuckerman Chairman of the Board of Directors Boston Properties New York, NY 6 Senior Fellows Robert F. Bennett Dan Glickman Olympia Snowe Former Senator from Utah Former Secretary of Agriculture Former Senator from Maine Former Representative from Kansas Sherwood Boehlert Tommy G. Thompson Former Representative from New York Slade Gorton Former Secretary of Health and Former Senator from Washington Human Services John C. Danforth Former Governor of Wisconsin Former Senator from Missouri General James L. Jones, USMC (ret.) Antonio R. Villaraigosa Pete V. Domenici Former National Security Advisor Former Mayor of Los Angeles Former Senator from New Mexico Former Supreme Allied Commander Europe Byron L. Dorgan Former Senator from North Dakota Trent Lott Former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist Former Senate Majority Leader BPC Co-Chairs Kent Conrad Byron Dorgan Martin Baily Tom Daschle Former Senator from Former Senator from Former Chairman of the Former Senate Majority Leader North Dakota North Dakota and Council of Economic Advisors and BPC Co-Founder BPC Senior Fellow Pete V. Domenici Phillip Swagel Dan Glickman Former Senator from Energy Trent Lott Former Assistant Secretary for Former Secretary of Agriculture New Mexico and Former Senate Majority Leader Economy Economic Policy at the Treasury and BPC Senior Fellow BPC Senior Fellow and BPC Senior Fellow Department Governance Dirk Kempthorne James B. Lockhart III General Former Governor of Idaho Former Deputy Commissioner of the Social Security James L. Jones Administration (ret.) Trent Lott Former National Security Financial Reform Former Senate Majority Leader Advisor and BPC Senior Fellow Dr. Alice Rivlin and BPC Senior Fellow Former Director of the Office of Management and Budget and the William K. Reilly Olympia Snowe Congressional Budget Office Former Environmental Former Senator from Maine Protection Agency and BPC Senior Fellow Administrator 8 Tom Daschle Christopher S. Haley Barbour Charles Robb Former Senate Majority Leader “Kit” Bond Former Governor of Mississippi Former Senator from Virginia and BPC Co-Founder Former Senator from Missouri Henry Cisneros General Charles Bill Frist Henry Cisneros Health Former Secretary of Housing Wald, USAF (ret.) Former Senate Majority Leader Former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Former Deputy Commander, Housing and BPC Senior Fellow and Urban Development U.S. European Command Ed Rendell Dan Glickman Mel Martinez Former Governor of Pennsylvania Thomas H. Kean Immigration Former Secretary of Agriculture Former Senator from Florida Former Governor of New Jersey and BPC Senior Fellow and former Secretary and 9/11 Commission Co-Chair of Housing and Condoleezza Rice Former Secretary