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In The Spotlight
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Quote of the Day:
"Working through those differences is the bridge by which you can get the very best legislation. That was true of the greatest legislative achievements of the 20th century, whether it was Social Security, Medicare, the Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Act- they were all voted on a bipartisan basis and not along party lines, and that's why it's woven into the fabric of our country."
-Olympia Snowe, Former Senator(R-ME)
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| Upcoming Events |
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| Recent Events |
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Secretary George Shultz Spoke on Capitol Hill for the First Time in 20 Years! Hosted by PSA
On March 8th, Reagan former Secretary of State George Shultz (1982-89), a member of PSA's Advisory Board, spoke to a standing-room-only crowd on Capitol Hill - his first public address on Capitol Hill in 20 years. The topic of the discussion was national security, energy, and climate change. Joining PSA Executive Director, Andrew Semmel, Secretary Shultz discussed arguments for the importance of the topic and ideas to address the issue urging serious bipartisan dialogue. Read the transcript here.
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A Conversation with Ambassador Thomas Pickering
PSA and USIP held a discussion with Ambassador Thomas Pickering on Capitol Hill to discuss current events facing American foreign policy makers in an increasingly challenging world on March 8th. This was the fourth event of the PSA/USIP Congressional Briefing Series - topics on International Conflict Resolution and Prevention.
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Feb 25th - PSA Launch: Bipartisan National Security Letter on Climate Impacts
Partnership for a Secure America (PSA) rolled out its newest open letter on the national security threats of climate change, signed by 38 Republican, Democratic, and Independent security leaders, at a bipartisan panel event on Capitol Hill. R. James Woolsey, former Director of Central Intelligence, and Wayne Gilchrest, former Congressman (R-MD) and founder of the Congressional Climate Change Caucus, discussed the national security implications of climate change impacts abroad and offered expert insights on making progress to tackle the issue.
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Off-the-Record with Amb. Fred Hof and Dr. Steven Heydemann
PSA and USIP held a small round-table discussion on recent events in Syria and their effect on global security featuring Fred Hof, senior fellow with the Atlantic Council's Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East and former Special Representative on Syria, and Steven Heydemann, Senior Adviser for Middle East Initiatives at USIP, on Feb 1st.
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THE NEXT FOUR YEARS: A Media Perspective on US Foreign Policy Priorities
PSA and USIP held an interactive panel discussion about foreign policy issues on the horizon that Washington decision-makers will have to tackle over the next four years - specifically focusing on conflict resolution and prevention. The event featured Jonathan Landay, Senior National Security and Intelligence Correspondent at McClatchy Newspapers, and P.J. Crowley, former Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs. The discussion was moderated by Graeme Bannerman, member of PSA's Board of Directors, USIP Senior Advisor, and scholar at the Middle East Institute.
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Capitol Hill Pays Tribute to Senator Warren Rudman
Following the passing of Senator Warren Rudman (R-NH), PSA Co-founder, an all-star cast of Washington policymakers paid tribute to Senator Rudman on November 29th, speaking highly of his independence and statesmanship as a leader in the U.S. Senate.
The event included Vice President Joe Biden, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, former Supreme Court Justice David Souter, Senators Jeanne Shaheen, Kelly Ayotte, John McCain, Daniel Inouye, and Patrick Leahy, and former Senators Howard Baker, William Cohen, Fred Thompson, Phil Gramm, and Bill Brock.
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| Congressional Partnership Program |
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CPP Event with Senator Chuck Hagel
On May 23, PSA hosted a CPP reception with Senator Chuck Hagel, former US Senator from Nebraska and current Chair of the Atlantic Council and the President's Intelligence Advisory Board.
For information on PSA's Congressional Partnership Program, please click here.
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| Climate Change, Energy, and National Security |
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| Nuclear Issues |
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Candidates Must Tackle Issue of Nuclear Terrorism
Congressman Lee Hamilton, PSA Co-founder and Advisory Board Co-chair, penned this recent op-ed in the Miami Herald challenging Obama and Romney to lay out a platform for protecting against the threat of nuclear terrorism, a subject untouched during the presidential campaign. Its message and concerns still ring clear for the upcoming Congress, however, as Washington prepares to take on new challenges. Click Candidates must tackle issue of nuclear terrorism to read the full article.
Even in an age of intense partisanship some issues rise above the fray. Preventing nuclear terrorism is one of them and for good reason.
The prospect of nuclear terrorism is at once one of the biggest threats to American security and one of the most preventable. But, like many foreign policy issues in 2012, nuclear terrorism has been overlooked. That is both unfortunate and unacceptable. Now, as focus turns to foreign policy issues, President Obama and Gov. Romney owe it to the American people to clearly articulate their vision to prevent these materials from falling into the wrong hands.
Full article here.
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The Latest from the PSA Blog
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U.S. must adapt, prepare for future terrorist attacks
Tom Kean, former governor of New Jersey, and Lee Hamilton, a former congressman from Indiana, are co-chairs of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Homeland Security Project. Both are members of PSA’s Advisory Board. Kean was chairman and Hamilton was vice chairman of the 9/11 Commission. This article originally appeared in The Plain Dealer.
U.S. must adapt, prepare for future terrorist attacks
It’s hard to believe that more than 11 years have passed since the devastating terrorist strike to our homeland on 9/11. Overnight, homeland security became a top priority. Yet, until last month’s Boston Marathon bombings, the issue of terrorism had faded from the front pages. The terrorist threat barely surfaced in the debates leading up to last November’s presidential election. While we have long been warning of it, the tragic events in Boston have jolted others, including those running in today’s Cleveland Marathon, to realize that the threats to our homeland have not disappeared — rather, they have evolved. Our public debate needs to evolve along with them.
The killing of Osama bin Laden and many other terrorist leaders seriously damaged al-Qaida, but did not destroy it. Today, smaller al-Qaida offshoots flourish in South Asia, Yemen and North Africa, ..
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Congress’s budget process broken because it’s ignored
By Former Sens. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) and Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) Domenici is a senior fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center, and Nunn serves as a PSA Advisory Board Member and co-chairman of The Concord Coalition. This Op-Ed originally appeared in The Hill.
Congress’s budget process broken because it’s ignored
After trying private negotiations, bipartisan commissions, informal “gangs” and a supercommittee, the search for a long-term federal fiscal plan has come full circle back to where it started — regular order under the budget process in Congress.
Or has it?
We hope it has, because regular order ensures that every member of Congress gets to participate in the final form of any fiscal agreement, grand or otherwise.
Regular order simply means that the House and Senate pass budget resolutions, as they have done, go to conference on those budget plans — including any reconciliation instructions to committees — and negotiate a path forward that then sets the direction for committees to begin filling in the details of the agreement.
If reconciliation instructions to the various tax and direct spending committees emerge from conference, then the instructed committees of the House and Senate ..
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Weep for the Senate
Former Senator, and PSA Advisory Board Member Gary Hart is currently President of Hart International, Ltd. He is chair of the Threat Reduction Advisory Council at the Department of Defense, was vice-chair of the Secretary of Homeland Security’s Advisory Council, former chair of the Council for a Livable World, chair of the American Security Project, and co-chair of the US-Russia Commission. For the past five years, he was a Scholar in Residence at the University of Colorado Denver. This was originally posted on the Huffington Post website.
Weep for the Senate
Generations of United States Senators now past would view with dazed wonder at what the world’s greatest deliberative body has become. Virtually all struggled to serve their and many struggled even more to stay there. Throughout the nation’s history the prestige of such service was second only to the presidency itself, and some preferred the Senate over the White House.
By the time we reach the 2014 election, almost one-third of the current Senate will have resigned in the past three elections. Recent reports indicate that those formerly considered to be virtually automatic candidates are rejecting the opportunity to seek the vacated Senate seats.
A variety of explanations are offered for this extraordinary situation: the financial ..
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