Carnegie
Corporation
of New York
Summer 2007
The benefits of the Congressional Program can translate
into legislation even if a bill’s sponsors weren’t present.
This was the case when the Education Program paved the way for the major
Obey-Porter School Reform act. David Obey, a powerful member of Congress
and Aspen Institute regular, found his legislative effort boosted by a
program he had not attended. Encouraged by his staff to produce a school
reform initiative, Democrat Obey mentioned the concept to Republican colleague
Jon C. Porter and received a surprising response: “Oh sure, we talked
about it at the last Aspen Institute Conference.” Because of the
Congressional Program, Porter “understood what I was trying to do,”
Obey says. Although they hadn’t attended the program together, their
Aspen Institute-aided partnership got the legislation passed “and
funded it for a number of years.” Fallon adds, “We think of
the Obey-Porter whole school reform act as a clear example of how the
latest research can positively inform the legislative process.”
The lack of political bias is a striking feature of the Aspen Institute Congressional Program discussion, according to Carnegie Corporation staff. Despite occasional partisan positions, they note remarkably nonpartisan dialogue on critical issues. One especially powerful political conversion occurred with voting day coming up, when a member of Congress made an impassioned speech not to allow election rhetoric to drive lawmakers apart and damage an historic opportunity on education reform legislation. The Congressman acknowledged to his colleagues during the education seminar that he “came in as a doubter...and really discovered common ground.” This sentiment was repeated, albeit less dramatically, during other conference sessions.
The Backstory
As a Senator, Dick Clark possessed the rare background (a Ph.D. in Russian
History) to fully digest U.S.-Soviet issues. But he was stunned to find
many of his colleagues lacked the necessary expertise to deal with these
issues of “overwhelming importance to Cold War American policy.”
With wide-ranging responsibilities in both domestic and foreign policy,
members had little opportunity to educate and inform themselves about
this subject. In 1985, under the auspices of the Aspen Institute, Clark
launched a series of conferences and breakfast meetings for Members of
Congress on U.S.-Soviet relations. The project was designed to provide
detailed information and analysis and to keep lawmakers abreast of major
issues as they developed. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union and
the end of the Cold War, the focus shifted to Russia and the other successor
republics and in the 1990s the program expanded further to include the
struggling democracies in Eastern Europe. Initially, Carnegie Corporation
provided the funding to transform Clark’s idea into reality, and
that support has continued to this day.
When first approached about Aspen Institute conferences, Representative Obey thought it was “a hare-brained idea” to try and get members of Congress to commit to two lengthy program sessions a year, but was willing to give it a try. Soon the hare-brained idea caught on, offering members of Congress a chance to escape for several days of in-depth policy discussion—bringing their spouses along as well, which made the program all the more appealing to the overscheduled lawmakers. “The presence of spouses adds to the success of the conferences,” suggests Fallon, “because members of Congress are less likely to engage in aggressive, estranging debate, and friendships among spouses easily cross party lines.”
The program’s startup happened to “coincide perfectly” Clark recalls, with the ascension of reform-minded leader Mikhail Gorbachev in Moscow. Fueled by intellectual curiousity and placed in comfortable surroundings, the program has become an institution. In a city like Washington where change is a constant, the Aspen Institute Russia Program stands out. The twenty-fourth session will take place in the summer of 2007.
Aspen Institute’s Education Program can be traced back to the Carnegie-funded project “Our Children’s Future,” initiated by Florida Senator Lawton Chiles in 1989. After being administered by the Urban Institute for several years, the program was taken over in 1993 by Aspen Institute’s Dick Clark, who had been an advisor to the program. Under Senator Clark’s direction, conferences have been held on such issues as children and violence, the challenge of parenting in the 90s and pathways to adult success for all youth. The focus eventually shifted to emphasize America’s educational system, exploring effective policies leading to successful reforms.
Vartan Gregorian was president of Carnegie Corporation when the Aspen Institute received its first Education Program grant of $400,000 in 1999. At that time, Gregorian reassessed the Corporation’s substantial investment in the Congressional Program and deemed it a highly worthwhile endeavor that, in his words, “offers national leaders an unparalleled opportunity to meet with scholars on critical international and domestic issues and to have the time to think through new policy options.” Gregorian has since attended the Aspen Institute Congressional Programs annually.