NEW YORK, Jan. 19, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Almost two
years after COVID-19's initial social and economic impact on
the United States, the nation is
recovering. But challenges—some from the pandemic itself, others
revealed and exacerbated by it—remain. The Committee for Economic
Development, the public policy center of The Conference Board
(CED), has issued a new Solutions Brief, A 2022 Policy Agenda:
Restore Fiscal and Public Health, developed with its business
leader Trustees to help policymakers develop nonpartisan solutions
to put the country back on a path to a robust, more resilient,
sustainable economy providing opportunity and prosperity for all
Americans.
As detailed in the report—the latest in a series of Solutions
Briefs on Sustaining Capitalism—the pandemic's overall economic
toll is slowly easing. However, as we look toward 2022 and the
challenges ahead, several issues merit immediate bipartisan
attention and action.
CED has outlined key priorities to achieve two main objectives:
1) defeat the pandemic and restore the nation's public health; and
2) revitalize the nation's fiscal health.
"Our nation's calling at this defining moment in our history is
startlingly clear," said Dr. Lori Esposito
Murray, President of CED. "We must demonstrate that we can
work together to address serious challenges and achieve common
goals at home and provide leadership abroad—in short, to deepen
faith that democracy functions. Business leaders are essential
partners in achieving these goals."
Key recommendations from the new Solutions Brief
include:
In its new Solutions Brief, CED offers recommendations to
achieve two main objectives: restoring the nation's public health
by defeating the pandemic, and revitalizing the nation's economic
and fiscal health:
#1: Defeat the Pandemic: Restore Public Health
- Increase private/public collaboration on vaccination and the
supply of treatments, and support continued R&D to address new
variants and other challenges. The federal government will need
to cooperate closely with private employers to clarify vaccine
policy and regulation and avoid adverse, unintended consequences.
Private-sector manufacturing and delivery capacity for both
vaccines and other treatments should be expanded. Ongoing
private/public collaboration on R&D for vaccines, treatments,
and testing capacity will be required as the virus continues to
mutate and present new challenges.
- Testing. To curtail the rapid spread of COVID-19 and its
more infectious variants, testing capacity and access to testing
must be increased.
- Strengthen the healthcare workforce. Work closely
with the private sector and educational institutions to
address the critical shortages in healthcare. Urgent actions are
needed to address pandemic burnout and reverse the flight of
frontline workers from the workforce. Recruit new and retired
healthcare personnel, accelerate timelines for degree attainment,
and ready the National Guard for emergency healthcare deployment.
Rethink the organization of public health agencies at all levels of
government in light of the experience of the pandemic.
- Provide regulatory relief. Ease regulations to
facilitate separate, quarantined care of COVID-19 patients from
non-COVID-19 patients, telehealth, etc., to increase system
capacity.
- Restock and maintain the Strategic National Stockpile.
The public health system should review the Strategic National
Stockpile to determine what commodities and supplies are needed,
how they should be managed over time, and how the contents can be
supplemented through surge production in a future emergency that
might itself interrupt global and even national supply chains.
- Address the medical supply pipeline. Create
redundant sources and fix bottlenecks in the supply of essential
commodities and products such as pharmaceutical-quality glass,
stoppers, low-dead-space syringes, IV fluids and equipment, and
personal protective equipment (PPE).
- Improve data collection across different levels of
government in different states to better target the delivery of
vaccines and other treatments.
- Increase international cooperation on distribution of
vaccine and other treatments around the world. So long as
the virus continues to spread anywhere, new variants will continue
to pose a serious threat.
#2: Revive the Nation's Fiscal Health
Federal budget: Debt matters. CED has urged caution on
the omnibus budget bill which proponents and critics alike describe
as transforming the role of government in the economy. Some of the
major budget savings are speculative, and costs are significantly
understated by claiming that key provisions will be temporary even
though the clear intent is that they be permanent. The bill will
aggravate the already unsustainably rising public debt,
weakening our nation's financial health and ability to respond to
future crises. The resulting growing debt service cost will
eventually crowd out productive private investment, essential
public services, and investment in education, research,
infrastructure, and other national imperatives. Furthermore, higher
interest rates during a period of increasing inflation have the
potential to exacerbate this crisis. CED recommends that
policymakers:
- Count the full, true cost of programs intended to be
permanent;
- Add spending cuts needed to stabilize the debt;
- Remove preferential tax breaks to raise revenue;
- Segregate pandemic-caused debt and finance it with very
long-term fixed-rate bonds;
- Create a new National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and
Reform (like the Simpson-Bowles Commission) to build a consensus
for solutions to the national debt crisis; and
- Amend the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 to require that the
reconciliation process be used only for deficit reduction.
Infrastructure: Streamline the regulatory process for more
cost-effective use of federal funds. The recently approved
infrastructure spending should spur economic growth, if the funds
are disbursed wisely and cost-effectively. To this end, CED
recommends that policymakers:
- Streamline the regulatory process for our infrastructure
investment to speed implementation, including limits to time and
length of reports involved;
- Implement rigorous cost-benefit analysis so that maintenance
and renewal compete on a level field against new construction;
- Use public-private partnerships, user-pays financing, and
private leadership; and
- Aggressively bid contracts for lowest cost consistent with
quality.
Technology and innovation. The pandemic accelerated
innovation and digital transformation. To ensure that US policy
capitalizes on the accelerated momentum to increase growth and
enhance US competitiveness, CED recommends:
- Increase federal funding for basic research. Fund
basic research in fields that are incompatible with
private-sector profitability to improve national security and
public health. Invest in critical technologies such as
advanced-materials manufacturing, biotech, power-storage solutions,
semiconductors, AI, quantum computing, and advanced cyber
networking.
- High-speed internet access. Extend broadband access to
rural and low-income areas.
- Cybersecurity. Further strengthen US cybersecurity
defenses through increased public-private partnership and
communication to protect critical infrastructure businesses and the
economy generally from state-actor threats.
Economic globalization. Global supply chain backlogs
have raised significant and widespread awareness of dependencies
for critical supplies including PPE, prescription drugs, computer
chips, and goods and food generally, and revealed vulnerabilities
in critical manufacturing supply chains. To address the most
significant aspects of these problems:
- Global supply chains. The US must identify potential
vulnerabilities of supply chains, global and domestic, and
determine which critical manufacturing supply chains may need to be
reshored. We need private and public stockpiles that will protect
against adverse events and develop alternatives to scarce and
vulnerable materials. The US should examine US-China trade and
the interactions with national security through the Export Control
Act, particularly with regard to advanced technology.
- China. US leaders must
work with allies to protect intellectual property, enforce WTO
global standards, lower trade barriers, and expand economic
integration in the Indo-Pacific region.
- Reform WTO. The WTO treaty should be reformed to fix
enforcement procedures, penalties, etc., to reestablish trust and
credibility among participating nations that the WTO can meet the
challenges from countries that threaten global standards of
behavior.
- Prepare for the next major disruption. The US should
establish a National Task Force to identify and prepare the nation
for future crises.
Workforce: Getting America back to work in our next-normal
economy. The pandemic has made the need for re-skilling even
greater than before. CED suggests the following actions:
- Public/private training to develop underused talent.
Collaborative planning and funding for skills and competency-based
training programs among employers, community colleges and other
trainers, and public policy leaders is required to link skill-set
development with job opportunities. Funding should be through tax
credits or direct support to the individual or organization
providing the training, similar to Pell grants, with input from
business to target in-demand skills.
- Women and childcare. The pandemic has forced many
women throughout the economy and the workforce to leave or curtail
their work. Businesses should provide workplace flexibility and
support childcare options; local governments should prioritize
at-risk children.
- Immigration policy. The US must compete successfully in
the intense global market for talent by reforming the H1-B visa
process, stemming the illegal flow, and increasing legal
immigration.
Education: The key to equal opportunity. The
long-term prerequisite of a productive workforce, an informed
citizenry, and equal opportunity is education. CED offers the
following priorities:
- Early education: the essential start. The US
must advance quality preschool as an integral part of our systems
of education and workforce preparation.
- Reform K-12. K-12 curricula should match skillset
development and career guidance with labor market needs. A national
task force should identify lessons learned and best practices to
train teachers for remote learning and online classroom
opportunities and important curricula, such as civics education and
financial literacy. Critical attention is also needed to identify
and address the impact of remote learning on long-term student
performance, especially that of underserved and special needs
students.
- Postsecondary education should align with in-demand job
skills, which will require collaboration among business leaders,
policy leaders, and educators. Employers should upskill their
employees to provide workforce capability. Funding will be needed
to help the most adversely affected workers to afford retraining,
so they can adapt to changing markets.
Climate and Energy. Global collaboration among countries,
and between the public and private sectors, is essential.
- Rules and data tracking should be standardized, so
firms can manage climate risks.
- Managing the transition from fossil fuels must be
collaborative. Governments should limit business disruptions from
policies that mitigate climate change. The public and private
sectors must work together on R&D for new technologies to
achieve climate goals while preserving energy reliability and
affordability.
Governance. A civil and just society should be cultivated
by businesses and government to provide equal opportunity for
all.
- Elections. Secure, transparent, fair, credible, and
accessible elections are fundamental to the confidence of US
citizens in democracy, the government, and its leadership.
- Gerrymandering. Fair, competitive electoral districts
should be drawn. Redistricting should remain at the state level, by
nonpartisan, independent commissions, and not be overridden by
politicians.
The new Solutions Brief, A 2022 Policy Agenda: Restore
Fiscal and Public Health, can be accessed here.
About CED
The Committee for Economic Development (CED)
is the nonprofit, nonpartisan, business-led public policy center of
The Conference Board that delivers well-researched analysis and
reasoned solutions in the nation's interest. CED Trustees are
chief executive officers and key executives of leading US companies
who bring their unique experience to address today's pressing
policy issues. Collectively they represent 30+ industries, over a
trillion dollars in revenue, and over 4 million
employees. www.ced.org
About The Conference Board
The Conference Board is the
member-driven think tank that delivers trusted insights for what's
ahead. Founded in 1916, we are a non-partisan, not-for-profit
entity holding 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt status in the United States.
www.conference-board.org
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SOURCE Committee for Economic Development of The Conference
Board (CED)