Manhattan Institute Releases Policy Recommendations for Biden Administration

MI fellows author eight memos in key policy areas for ‘Transition 2021’ series

New York, NY — As President Biden assumes office, his administration and the 117th Congress face urgent challenges. Among them: accelerating the pace of recovery from the pandemic, reopening schools and getting students back on track, and restoring safety to the many American cities afflicted by unrest and rising violence. The Manhattan Institute (MI)’s “Transition 2021” series of policy memos, released today, represents an agenda for fostering the growth and opportunity that America desperately needs in the wake of the pandemic.

Encompassing eight policy recommendations from MI experts, the series offers actionable ideas for the new government on such topics as educational pluralism, executive-branch prudence, economic revitalization, evidence-based criminal justice reform, fair and efficient health care, near-term fiscal relief, and long-term fiscal discipline. Recommendations include:

• Health care (Chris Pope): reduce Medicare out-of-pocket drug costs; auto-enroll seniors in Medicare Advantage; and require insurers to renew short-term policies for enrollers who get sick.
• Criminal justice (Rafael A. Mangual): secure funding for local police departments; revisit civil asset forfeiture; and tie the perpetuation of certain federal reforms to concrete benchmarks.
• Public education (Max Eden): show respect for state and local control over schools; refrain from imposing a “restorative justice” approach to disciplinary matters; and avoid pressuring districts to adopt divisive “critical race theory” programs.
• Administrative rulemaking (James R. Copland): exercise restraint in the use of guidance documents, third-party settlement payments, and new SEC rules governing shareholder proposals and proxy advisory firms.
• Energy (Mark P. Mills): attend to the hidden fiscal, environmental, and geopolitical costs of the administration’s sweeping infrastructure and energy proposals.
• The federal budget (Brian Riedl): pass a paid-for, short-term relief bill to combat the pandemic, then work to rein in long-term spending growth.
• Urban policy (Michael Hendrix): deliver aid to states and localities without rewarding profligacy; provide infrastructure spending only for necessary projects; and offer federal incentives to relax land-use restrictions that keep housing costs high.
• Higher education (Beth Akers): enact reforms to reduce costs for college students.

With both houses of Congress narrowly split, the Biden administration will have to forge thoughtful compromises with lawmakers across partisan and ideological divides to restore prosperity and civic health. Finding common ground where available while defending the important principles of individual responsibility and economic opportunity, MI’s Transition 2021 series is a blueprint for the nation to recover from the pandemic and to flourish in its aftermath.

Click here to read the reports.