Description
Summary : The Aspen Institute was created in 1950 “to foster enlightened leadership and open-minded dialogue.” Since 1983, the Institute’s Congressional Program has convened high-level educational conferences for Members of Congress on critical policy issues. By bringing Members together with leaders from the academy, business and government, the conferences work toward developing a well-informed, bipartisan core group of legislators who can take a leading role in designing realistic and effective policies.
With few venues for Members of Congress to engage with one another on a collegial basis, and even fewer opportunities to take time for in-depth study of issues or discussion with experts, the Program aims to promote civility and serious analysis in two formats: five-day conferences outside Washington, DC, and breakfast meetings in the U.S. Capitol. All meetings are off-the-record and structured not as debates but as dialogues. When possible, international participants are invited as experts, enriching the discussion and providing Members with perspectives they would not normally encounter.
During the next two years, the Program plans to hold seven conferences on topics related to Africa, Asia, U.S.-Russia relations, energy, and Israel and the West Bank. The topics are developed in consultation with Members to identify the most pressing policy issues.
In 1989 the Luce Foundation provided its firssupport to the Aspen Institute for an American-Vietnamese dialogue, and our subsequent grants have supported Congressional conferences on U.S.-China relations; political Islam; U.S. policy in Latin America; U.S.-Russia-Europe cooperation; and policy issues in the Middle East, South Asia and Africa.
Since the Program’s inception, 449 Members of Congress and over 1,300 political leaders and scholars have participated in 134 conferences and over 500 breakfast and dinner meetings. Recent programming has included 46 sitting Senators and 177 Representatives, or 41 percent of the current Congress. The Program also serves to develop a network of experts whom Members may use as resources on a continuing basis. Senators and Representatives are invited with a goal of broad representation and the inclusion of both senior committee members and other influential legislators with leadership potential.
Among the legislative initiatives in which conferences have played a pivotal role are the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, the normalization of relations with Vietnam, and the National Oceans Conference. More recently, a 2015 conference included a visit with Peace Corps volunteers at a school in Tanzania, which led to a bipartisan effort resulting in a $35 million increase in the annual Peace Corps budget.
Following each conference, reports are published that include the scholars’ papers and the rapporteur’s summary. The Aspen Institute distributes these to all Members of the House and Senate, senior Administration officials, and to other leading figures in the academic and policy communities. In addition, the scholars’ papers are disseminated on the Institute’s website.
Dan Glickman has been Executive Director of the Congressional Program since 2011. A former Member of Congress, where he served for 18 years, Glickman has also been Secretary of Agriculture and head of the Motion Picture Association. He meets regularly with Members of Congress, and created a new staff position to engage on a daily basis with key staff and Members to spark broader interest. This outreach has resulted in new participation: since 2015, 45 Members who attended conferences did so for the first time, and 61 Members were first-time breakfast participants.
Private foundations provide the sole source of funding for the Aspen Institute’s Congressional Program. No government, corporate or special interest funding is accepted, and honoraria are not paid to any participants.
Recommendation : That the Directors of the Henry Luce Foundation approve a two-year grant of $250,000 to The Aspen Institute for renewed support for a program to inform Members of Congress about international issues.
