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"There will be an intense amount of lobbying. It's just going to be a huge fight," said Stephen Burd, a senior fellow for education policy at the nonprofit New America Foundation. Original article

Underscoring the adage that politics makes strange bedfellows, AT&T, Cisco, Free Press, Google, New America Foundation, National Cable and ...

Google CEO Eric Schmidt spoke to a crowd convened by the New America Foundation in Washington on Tuesday about the ways technology can help Barack Obama's administration and Congress address two of the biggest challenges ahead: generating short- and long-term economic and job growth that can help pull the nation out of financial turmoil, and restoring public trust in government. Schmidt, who chairs the foundation's board and is a member of Obama's transition team, said America "has the intellectual foundation,… more

...Combined sovereign wealth reached $3.5 trillion in 2007 -- the largest generator being China, according to the firm. Russia and Kuwait are next. And, according to recent news reports, two other countries with substantial population and/or wealth -- Saudi Arabia and India --are considering setting up sovereign wealth funds.

Douglas Rediker, co-director of the New America Foundation's Global Strategic Finance Initiative, noted that sovereign funds derive their assets from oil or trade imbalances that generate current reserves.

"Traditionally over the years, we and the IMF have been advocating that… more

Senate Budget Would Boost Advance Approps By $4 Billion (CongressDaily PM, subscription only)

. . . "There's no reason to do it other than to increase spending," said Jason Delisle, an education analyst at the New America Foundation. Backers "want the money by any means necessary, but the trade-off is the debate gets confused and the budget lacks transparency." Advance funding for education grew out of a timing quirk whereby the academic year… more

If the New America Foundation had hoped to umpire a snarled dispute between Democrats and Republicans on fixing the alternative minimum tax, its hopes were not advanced at a seminar today featuring advocates for both sides. The two parties are at swords' points over whether to hike other taxes in order to offset an estimated $50 billion revenue loss if Congress decides to prevent the AMT from biting some 23 million additional income taxpayers this calendar year.

A panel of… more

Senate Budget Chairman Conrad and ranking member Judd Gregg, R-N.H., recently proposed to "create a task force to recommend comprehensive legislation addressing expected shortfalls in the major entitlement programs," such as Medicare and Social Security.

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget endorses the Conrad-Gregg proposal and is listed as a supporter in Congressional Quarterly Today (September 18, 2007) and in National Journal's CongressDaily (September 19, 2007). The Concord Coalition and GAO Comptroller General David Walker have also given praise… more

Congressional Democrats are using the budget process to express their longstanding legislative priorities. But they are not guaranteeing all of them will make it into law.Roughly $150 billion to $160 billion over five years in new spending initiatives are outlined in the House and Senate budget resolutions that conferees will seek to iron out this month.That is on top of expensive tax breaks assumed in the budget such as a fix for the alternative minimum tax,… more

Banks and other private student loan providers are gearing up for battles on several fronts, including a fight against a possible congressional overhaul of a major loan program that would force companies to compete for business, and likely shrink their profit margins.Already reeling from the Bush administration's FY08 budget proposal last month, which cuts lender subsidies by $11.2 billion to pay for a Pell Grant increase, private companies are also facing a threat from Senate Health, Education, Labor… more

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget is a pretty low-key group. But with a board of directors as diverse as former OMB Director David Stockman and former House Budget Chairman Bill Gray, D-Pa., when the group talks, it's probably worthwhile listening to them a bit. Maybe more than a bit.

So budget writers might want to pay some attention to the committee's evaluation of Senate Budget Chairman Gregg's "Stop Over Spending Act of 2006," released last week. The title of… more