A 'To-Do List' For Congress: Think Tank Urges Next Congress to Embrace Free-Market Vision on Health Care, Education, Energy

Offers Reform Ideas with Potential for Bipartisan Appeal

SACRAMENTO, Calif., Oct. 6, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- With the next Congress facing serious policy questions on health care, education, and energy, the nonpartisan Pacific Research Institute today released a "Congress To-Do List," a free-market policy reform agenda with bipartisan appeal to guide the next Congress -- regardless of which party wins control. 

Read PRI's complete "Congress To-Do Lists" at www.pacificresearch.org/congresstodolist

"The new Congress faces unfinished business: they need to expand patient choice and competition in health care, including rolling back the new price controls on drugs that discourage innovation and competition, reverse the pandemic's effects on student learning, and eliminate expensive and burdensome government energy mandates," said PRI President, CEO, and Thomas W. Smith Fellow in Health Care Policy, Sally C. Pipes. "PRI's policy experts have put together a robust to-do list of market-based policy solutions that will result in better schools, more affordable health care and more reliable energy supply -- common-sense ideas that have the potential to be embraced by Democrats and Republicans alike."

Building upon PRI's more than four decades of free-market research and analysis on health care, education, environmental, and economic policy, the "Congress To-Do Lists" offer actionable reforms that the new Congress can embrace upon taking office in January to address the nation's most urgent problems on health care, education, and energy. 

"A New Vision for Health Care Reform": PRI scholars urge Congress to adopt reforms to move toward a more accessible and affordable health care system for all, by

• Lowering Taxes: Equalize the tax treatment of health care between employers and individuals.
• Encouraging Innovation: Expand telehealth services and encourage experimentation in medical care.
• Expanding Access: Expand scope of practice laws and eliminate restrictive licensure laws.

"Empowering Parents and Their Children": Building upon a pandemic-inspired grassroots parent revolution, PRI scholars urge Congress to help parents as they try to improve their children's education by

• Expanding School Choice: Ensure that charter schools can compete for grant funding without roadblocks.
• Increasing Accountability / Transparency: Require more transparency from states on how federal education funding is being spent.
• Reducing Federal Education Programs: Eliminate expensive programs that have not resulted in improved student performance.

 "A New Vision for Energy and Environmental Reform": As energy supply and affordability problems abound, PRI scholars urge Congress to embrace free market energy policies that lower costs by

• Increasing Energy Reliability: Expand production of American oil and natural gas through expanded leasing and reinstating suspended licenses.
• Boosting Use of Nuclear Energy: Streamline regulations that reflect the low risk generated by nuclear facilities.
• Curbing Electric Vehicle Subsidies: Impose a higher income eligibility standard of $75,000 / household for eligibility for electric vehicle subsidies to end "costly subsidies for the rich."

The Pacific Research Institute (www.pacificresearch.org) champions freedom, opportunity, and personal responsibility by advancing free-market policy ideas. Follow PRI on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

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SOURCE Pacific Research Institute