Making the Most of the Lame Duck

By Lilah Connell and Peyton Lofton — November 29, 2022

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Policy Papers

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National Security

Brittney Griner One of Many Americans Wrongfully Detained Abroad

November 17, 2022

It’s a travesty what’s happening to Brittney Griner. The American basketball player, who was wrongfully detained earlier this year for marijuana possession in Russia, was recently sentenced to nine years in a penal colony. Unless U.S. diplomats can secure her release, Griner will be stuck in a place that by all accounts is worse than most prisons, as Russian penal colony inmates are often...

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Social Policy

What Do the Public and the Courts Say About Affirmative Action?

October 31, 2022

Earlier this year, The New Center published the following primer on affirmative action in advance of the two landmark Students For Fair Admissions cases. On October 31st, the Supreme Court heard arguments for the cases, and they will make rulings in the spring of 2023. We are now re-publishing the primer— updated with the most recent public opinion data— to provide important context for the...

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Climate and Energy

Can America Actually Build the $1 trillion-plus in Clean Energy and Infrastructure Projects Authorized by Washington?

September 22, 2022

Late last year, Democrats and Republicans in Congress came together to pass the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which was the biggest federal public works bill in six decades. And recently President Biden signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), passed with only Democratic votes, that authorizes $370 billion in clean energy investment over the next decade. Now comes the hard...

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Social Policy

Americans Want Failing Schools to Get Back to Basics

September 15, 2022

Earlier this month, the first national standardized test results since the onset of the Covid pandemic were released. They were troubling. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) — commonly known as the Nation’s Report Card — confirmed that students fell behind during the pandemic, with the lowest scores in two decades. This was the first time in NAEP’s history that...

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National Security, Technology

How China Helped the Center Come Together on the CHIPS Act

August 25, 2022

After a two-year long shortage of semiconductor chips, which are integral to almost every facet of our economy, congressional leaders from both sides of the aisle recently united to pass the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022. The almost $280 billion bill includes significant new funding for cutting edge research and new incentives to build semiconductor manufacturing plants in the U.S. Lawmakers hope...

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Social Policy

Racial Equity Reforms Are Crumbling Under Pressure From Frustrated Voters and Parents

August 16, 2022

During the last two years, some of America’s largest school districts have implemented seismic changes in the name of advancing racial equity. Under pressure from activists and some elected officials, schools have changed the criteria for how students are admitted, what classes they take, and how they are graded. The equity movement, broadly speaking, is trying to close the achievement gap...

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The Big Issues

Climate and Energy

The fight against climate change is a multi-decade challenge, and must be sustained across many presidencies and sessions of Congress. For any solution to stand a chance, it must be forged in the center.

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