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On March 25th, I attended the “Making AI Work for the People” panel hosted by Georgetown University’s Initiative on Artificial Intelligence and Democratic Citizenship (AIDC) and the Georgetown Democracy Initiative. The recent discourse from many universities about technology and ethics and governance were front and center at the popular Tech & Society week. I walked into the auditorium with a simple question: how can we move from theoretical…

A century ago, the world was about to plunge into a global depression that would empower fascist leaders bent on expansionist war that would leave more than 70 million people killed in nearly every region of the world.  That devastation is becoming a distant memory, in large part because of the work of national governments, non-governmental…

It’s no secret that Congress isn’t functioning as the founders envisioned, one where there is a constant building and reshaping of coalitions to create the nation’s laws. Instead of fostering deliberation, the modern House of Representatives has become a place where power is monopolized in the majority party leadership.  Even when legislation attracts broad bipartisan…

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Technology Leadership Summit on March 11, 2026 offered a useful opportunity to consider how questions of technology leadership increasingly cut across domestic and global policy. In this joint reflection, Nikki Hinshaw, Global Policy Programs Coordinator, and Sasha Nicholas, Domestic Policy Programs Coordinator, offer their respective perspectives on the summit and on the role the University of Pennsylvania is playing in…

To mark International Women’s Day this Sunday, Penn Washington is proud to highlight the women who make up our team, bringing their experience and insight to the policy challenges facing the United States, which the University of Pennsylvania helps to address through our research and through Penn Washington’s Policy Impact Programs. Reflecting on IWD 2026,…

Penn Washington Senior Fellow Steven Pearlstein contends that Congress has become so consumed by partisan gamesmanship that it’s ceding power to an overreaching president and activist Supreme Court. The result, he argues, is a fundamental breakdown of the constitutional framework of shared power and checks and balances that has served the country for over two…

Penn Washington Senior Fellow Steven Pearlstein‘s latest piece in Roll Call examines the congressional dysfunction preventing consensus on health care premiums. Twenty-four million Americans face big premium hikes in January when ACA tax credits expire—a bipartisan fix should be straightforward, but both parties would rather have a campaign issue than a legislative win. This is…

Penn Washington was honored to host Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Washington Post reporter Maegan Vazquez for an engaging dialogue on protecting democracy and bringing passion to public service. The conversation was a partnership with Penn’s Andrea Mitchell Center for Democracy, the NYU John Brademas Center, and the Association of Marshall Scholars. As…

Penn Washington Senior Fellow Steve Pearlstein’s new piece in Roll Call on the compromise that ended the government shutdown, part of our continuing “Fixing Congress” series. Pearlstein argues that the eight Senate Democrats who broke ranks to end the federal shutdown should be celebrated for choosing bipartisan compromise over party unity. He contends that rigid…

Penn Washington Director of Domestic Policy Programs, Elizabeth Klein, writing for Kleinman Center for Energy Policy on the need for greater regulation in deep-sea mining. “The federal government is rushing into deep-sea critical mineral development, which could prove disastrous for communities, industry, and the environment.”