Day One 2025

Investing in interventions behind the walls is not just a matter of improving conditions for incarcerated individuals—it is a public safety and economic imperative. By reducing recidivism through education and family contact, we can improve reentry outcomes and save billions in taxpayer dollars.

The U.S. government should establish a public-private National Exposome Project (NEP) to generate benchmark human exposure levels for the ~80,000 chemicals to which Americans are regularly exposed.

To respond and maintain U.S. global leadership, USAID should transition to heavily favor a Fixed-Price model to enhance the United States’ ability to compete globally and deliver impact at scale.

State, local, tribal, and territorial governments along with Critical Infrastructure Owners face escalating cyber threats but struggle with limited cybersecurity staff and complex technology management.

As cyber threats grow more complex and sophisticated, the nation’s ability to defend itself depends on developing a robust, adaptable, and highly skilled cybersecurity workforce.

For the United States to continue to be a competitive global power in technology and innovation, we need a workforce that understands how to use, apply, and develop new innovations using AI and Data Science.

Employee ownership is a powerful solution that preserves local business ownership, protects supply chains, creates quality jobs, and grows the household balance sheets of American workers and their families.

Congress should create a new Science and Technology Hub within the Government Accountability Office to support an understaffed and overwhelmed Congress in addressing pressing science and technology policy questions.

Federally financed debt can help fill critical funding gaps and complement ongoing federal grants, contracts, reimbursement, and regulatory policies and catalyze private-sector investment in innovation.

The Department of Education must provide guidance for education decision-makers to evaluate AI solutions during procurement, to support EdTech developers to mitigate bias in their applications, and to develop new fairness methods.

The challenges facing our country require a robust pipeline of talented and representative rising leaders across federal agencies. The Presidential Management Fellows program has historically been a leading source of such talent. 

In the nascent yet exponentially expanding world of AI in medical imaging, a well-defined standards and metrology framework is required to establish robust imaging datasets for true precision medicine, thereby improving patient outcomes and reducing spiraling healthcare costs.

The incoming presidential administration of 2025 should champion a policy position calling for strengthening of the connection between K-12 schools and community workplaces.

With tensions and aggressive rhetoric on the rise, the next administration needs to prioritize and reaffirm the necessity of regular communication with China on military and nuclear weapons issues to reduce the risk of misunderstandings.

By acting now, the Administration can create clear career pathways for workers and better equip federal agencies with critical workforce insights to optimize national investments.

Congress and the incoming Trump Administration should work together to reinforce the U.S. position in the regions, recognizing the role Antarctica in particular may have in a changing global order and its significance for sea-level rise.

Small, fast grant programs are vital to supporting transformative research. By adopting a more flexible, decentralized model, we can significantly enhance their impact.

Congress should ensure that no amendments dictating the size of the ICBM force are included in future NDAAs.

New solutions are needed to target diseases before they are life-threatening or debilitating, moving from retroactive sick-care towards preventative healthcare.  

To help all American workers and strengthen the national economy, the next administration should establish a Sector-Focused Employment Training Initiative to coordinate and expand evidence-based sectoral employment training programs across the U.S. workforce

Adopting and transforming to a government-wide shared service business model can save money, improve customer experience, improved decision-making power, and more.

The federal government can leverage existing authorities and hiring mechanisms to respond to staffing needs for emerging policies, technologies, and crises in near-real time.

The federal government should designate “Receiving Cities” to which it will allocate funds and tax incentives aimed at producing and preserving affordable housing, in anticipation of population inflows.

BLM’s right-of-way application materials should require applicants to address how solar arrays will be planned, designed, and operated to support traditional ranching practices and surrounding rural economies.

Life-extending the existing Minuteman III missiles is the best way to field an ICBM force without sacrificing funding for other priorities.

To improve program outcomes, federal evaluation officers should conduct “unmet desire surveys” to advance federal learning agendas and built agency buy-in.

A federal agency takes over 100 days on average to hire a new employee — with significantly longer time frames for some positions — compared to 36 days in the private sector.

At least 40% of Medicare beneficiaries do not have a documented AHCD. In the absence of one, medical professionals may perform major and costly interventions unknowingly against a patient’s wishes. 

AI has transformative potential in the public health space, but innovation driven primarily by the private sector today may be exacerbating existing disparities by training models.

With targeted policy interventions, we can efficiently and effectively support the U.S. innovation economy through the translation of breakthrough scientific research from the lab to the market.