Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics hosted a recent conversation that focused on a key public policy issue: how to create policy amid legislative gridlock.
ᰭ’s Jason Furman, Aetna Professor of the Practice of Economic Policy and former chairman of the council of economics, led a conversation with , director of the Domestic Policy Council (DPC) and domestic policy advisor to President Biden. The DPC is one of three major advisory teams for the president, along with the National Economic Council, and the National Security Council.
Tanden, born to Indian immigrants, was raised in Massachusetts, and a Massachusetts housing policy played a pivotal role in her upbringing. “My entire life trajectory has been shaped by the fact that Massachusetts passed a housing law that said if you built low-income housing or had a low-income housing set aside in middle class towns like Bedford, where I grew up, they would speed the permitting process,” she said.
This policy was life-changing for Tanden whose parents divorced, leaving her mother and her without resources. “By the time I was 11, my mother was able to buy her own house in Bedford,” she recalled. “I would not have the opportunities I have today if it weren’t for the fact that the government decided to make a bunch of decisions to allow people like us, who were in that very difficult spot, to thrive.”
Her work as director of the Domestic Policy Council is her way of paying it forward.
The DPC, she explained, is responsible for health care policy as well as policies affecting criminal justice, education, and immigration. “We manage the big priorities of the president. We manage big legislative items, and we manage the big regulatory processes for the president.”
It is not an easy or speedy process and not always successful, especially during these divisive times.
“President Biden came in with an incredibly ambitious agenda, ‘Build Back Better,’ and it had two halves: the American Jobs Plan, that had things like infrastructure and climate change, and the American Families Plan, that had things like an expanded tax, child tax credit, paid leave,” she said. “Most of the first plan passed, and basically none of the second plan passed.”
“This is the hardest thing to do in government, very hard to do on either side: to make tough decisions about what you’re cutting.”
“I think the truth is,” she continued, “That when you think about what passes and what doesn’t pass, you have to think about fundamentally what the public wants.” She noted that issues like childcare credits and paid leave didn’t make it on the Inflation Reduction Act legislation while the Medicare drug negotiation and a premium tax credit did.
“Just to remind people,” she said, “This is the hardest thing to do in government, very hard to do on either side: to make tough decisions about what you’re cutting.”
As an example of how the process works, Tanden walked through the recent Medicare drug negotiation. “The Inflation Reduction Act, for the first time, granted Medicare the power to negotiate drug prices,” she said.
Her team worked with the various governmental agencies to set the parameters of the negotiations. Once a deal is negotiated, in this case lowering the cost of some drugs by 50 to 70%, her team drafted a proposal, and Tanden, as director, advised the president on it.
What is important, she said, is to give a president a wide berth to make his final decision, or not. “In the domestic sphere,” she said, “often a president can just choose not to decide.”
Turning to immigration, Furman asked how policy advisors think about this issue. “I can’t think of anything where there’s a bigger disconnect between the public, including certain factions of the public in both parties,” he said. “Economists like me get incredibly thrilled about it. The more people the better; it’s great for growth. Do you see a path forward?”
“I think this is where the economists and people are kind of talking past each other,” she said. “I think it’s not really unreasonable for people to be concerned that there's a border. We should be much more aggressive as a country on illegal immigration,” she said. “But we should dramatically expand legal immigration into the country.”
Furman asked if an approach on legal immigration policy for highly skilled workers might find Republican support.
“I think fundamentally, if you offered a big legal immigration package, they would not take it because they don’t want legal immigration either,” she said. “That is not where the leadership is, that’s not the motivating factor. That might be what people write in the Wall Street Journal or Bloomberg News, or CEOs say, people who don't actually drive the base of the Republican Party.”
, which also touched on concerns for the state of democracy, the Supreme Court and ethics, international and climate policies, is available for viewing online.
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Banner image: Jason Furman (left), Aetna Professor of the Practice of Economic Policy and former chairman of the council of economics, in conversation with Neena Tanden, director of the Domestic Policy Council (DPC).
Photos by Bethany Versoy