The National Institute for Civil Discourse (NICD) is proud to announce that CommonSense American, its flagship program, is now four-for-four. This past July, Congress passed Workforce Pell legislation, opening the door for tens of thousands more Americans each year to gain the training they need for meaningful, better-paying careers.
Through the new State Ambassador program, CommonSense American was able to expand its reach fivefold, briefing an unprecedented 320 offices and sharing the views of thousands of CommonSense Americans who completed the Career-Connected Learning (CCL) brief. The final legislation, passed through reconciliation, mirrors our recommendations, prioritizing results-based funding over administrative rules to ensure that Pell Grant money only supports programs that place graduates in higher-paying jobs.
This achievement isn’t an outlier—it’s part of a growing pattern of meaningful, bipartisan wins driven by citizen engagement. CommonSense American has played a significant role in (1) ending the surprise medical bills that were bankrupting tens-of-thousands of Americans a year, (2) making the largest investment in infrastructure since the Eisenhower Administration, (3) fortifying peaceful transitions of power for generations to come with the Electoral Count Reform Act, and now (4) making life-changing job training available to tens-of-thousands more Americans. Building on the momentum of this legislative victory, CommonSense American is already hard at work to identify the next issue. In recent weeks, CommonSense American has met with 62 congressional offices to better understand their priorities and assess where bipartisan agreement may lie. If you haven’t already, complete the Rate-Issues-Survey to help choose this year’s issue.