Two years of proselytizing abundance is beginning to pay off! We’ve been traveling coast to coast, hosting happy hours, joining podcasts, gathering on university campuses, and launching big things on Capitol Hill. Notably, Inclusive Abundance supported the launch of the bipartisan Congressional Build America Caucus!
It is the first abundance-oriented caucus of its kind, with nearly 30 Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle. More about that and much, much more below - and please read to the end for information about the successor to last year’s inaugural Abundance Conference!
Here’s the latest on what we are doing, thinking, reading, and hearing:
What We Are Doing
Inclusive Abundance worked closely with Congressman Josh Harder and a core group of House members to organize and launch the Congressional Build America Caucus. The bipartisan caucus will organize and elevate abundance policies that have broad support across the political spectrum, including energy permitting and transmission, housing, infrastructure, and innovation.
The caucus will work together to advance legislation and hold policy roundtables, in collaboration with outside organizations like Inclusive Abundance, to address some of the nation’s most pressing challenges through an abundance lens. Watch the full press conference formally launching the caucus. More information about the caucus can be found on Congressman Josh Harder’s website or our press release. Reach out if you’d like to learn more about the caucus or get involved.
Read about Congresswoman Celeste Maloy’s rationale for joining the caucus. For more about the caucus launch, see articles in NewsNation, POLITICO, NOTUS, SF Chronicle, Nexstar, and DC News Now.
We’ve also been busy:
- Hosting a conversation with Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill to discuss abundance in New Jersey and beyond.
- Discussing policy philanthropy with Robin Hood CEO Richard Buery at the Goldman Sachs Rising Leaders Forum.
- Co-hosting a huge happy hour in San Francisco with nearly ten other abundance-oriented organizations (written up in the Wall Street Journal!). At the happy hour, Derek joined Radio Abundance for a podcast recording in front of a live audience.
- Giving the opening keynote at Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research’s Policy Forum on The Abundance Agenda. Derek spoke about Inclusive Abundance’s work in Congress to promote energy abundance, innovation policy, and effective government. Watch the full conversation.
- Briefing Leadership Now on the abundance agenda with Jenny Mattingly and Marshall Kosloff. Watch the full conversation.
- Discussing the connections between good governance and democracy on a panel at Leadership Now’s Annual Meeting in New York City.
- Speaking at WelcomeFest on depolarization and the ways that the Abundance Agenda can cross party lines.
- Joining New Democrat Coalition Chair Brad Schneider, Vice Chair for Member Services Josh Harder, Abundance Co-Authors Derek Thompson and Ezra Klein, and Members of the New Democrat Coalition to discuss abundance policy in DC. (Photo below)
We’re also excited to add new members to the Inclusive Abundance team. Please join me in welcoming Will Viederman as Chief of Staff and Baillee Brown as Head of Government and External Affairs! Get to know Will and Baillee a bit more via their bios and Meet the Team questionnaires.
Clicking through our library? You may notice that the pieces listed in our primer now have short summaries written by us — see an example here.
What We Are Thinking
As Congress negotiates the current budget reconciliation bill, we’re closely monitoring the impact on our priority issue areas, particularly energy abundance. Some elements of the reconciliation bill tamp down on valuable investments in breakthrough energy technologies. The House-passed bill cuts funding for the Loan Programs Office, which Secretary of Energy Chris Wright calls “the most efficient tool we have,” and eliminates much of the value of the 48E clean energy tax credit, a crucial element for bending the cost curve on technologies like energy storage and advanced geothermal. (At the same time, the restoration of the immediate deduction for R&D investment is a meaningful improvement to promote technological innovation.) For some of our partners’ perspectives, see this letter.
We look forward to supporting bipartisan progress on permitting reform and cutting other red tape following the reconciliation process.
What We Are Reading
- The Techno-Industrial Playbook from FAI, American Compass, IFP, and NAIA Foundation
- Thomas Hochman and Pavan Venkatakrishnan on how “House Republicans are about to wreck Trump’s nuclear-powered dream”
- “Tear Down This Paper Wall” from the Abundance Institute
- Matthew Yglesias on a new plan for Northeast Corridor High-Speed Rail from the NYU Marron Center Transit Cost Project (and the report itself!)
- A summary of the SIEPR Abundance conference
- Congressman Ritchie Torres’ letter to President Trump, Governor Kathy Hochul, and Mayor of NYC Eric Adams urging them to revise environmental review policies in the wake of the Supreme Court’s new ruling on the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)
What We Are Hearing
- Our own Joshua Seawell on GovNavigators, discussing the abundance agenda
- Derek Thompson’s Megapod on the Crisis in American Science
- Santi Ruiz’s interview with Kyla Scanlon and Wally Adeyemo on How to Run the Treasury Department and the “generational crisis” of housing
SAVE THE DATE!
Save the date for the Abundance 2025 Conference in Washington, D.C. Inclusive Abundance is proud to be a co-host for the second annual conference happening Thursday, September 4, 2025 – Friday, September 5, 2025. Learn more about the conference. We will have more updates to share about the conference in the coming months!
This newsletter is a product of Inclusive Abundance Action, our affiliated 501(c)(4).