The latest results from the Lugar Center’s Bipartisan Index show an unexpected finding: in the last Congress, the bipartisan scores of Republicans, especially in the Senate, showed a marked increase. In fact, more than 75 percent of Senate Republicans in the 115th Congress (2017-18) who had served in a previous Congress achieved their highest-ever Bipartisan Index scores. That means that during the past two years, these Senators acted in a more bipartisan fashion, as measured by the Index, than they had previously in their careers.... Read More

The massive corruption, especially in oil and other natural resources, in many developing countries has created, in effect, “kleptocratic states,” who threaten U.S. national security directly by breeding terrorism, and indirectly by prompting mass migrations of people and undermining democracy worldwide.... Read More

We sincerely applaud bipartisan congressional leaders for the recent enactment of the Global Food Security Act (GFSA). At the height of particular partisan rancor, this broadly supported bipartisan legislation passed with overwhelming support in the United States House of Representatives and Senate this month. We thank the bipartisan lead sponsors: Senators Robert P. Casey, Jr. (D-PA) and Johnny Isakson (R-GA); Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ); Congresswoman Betty McCollum (D-MN); Senator Bob Corker (R-TN), who is chairman of the respective committees of jurisdiction; and Congressman Ed Royce (R-CA) as well as the nearly 150 House and Senate cosponsors for their continued leadership in food security as an enduring priority in U.S. international development work. Senators Richard G. Lugar (R-IN) and Casey (D-PA) laid the foundation for this important legislation a decade ago.... Read More

A study by Britain’s Conservative pro-business government has delivered a blunt rebuttal to claims by American oil companies that complying with the Cardin-Lugar anti-corruption measure would be too costly and cause competitive harm.... Read More

President Trump’s historic meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un has stirred hopes that there may be a solution to the North Korean threat, even as it raised many questions about the actual substance of the agreement and Pyongyang’s willingness to keep its word.... Read More

Last week Republicans in the House of Representatives started a discharge petition to force a vote in the House on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.  The rare procedural move requires the organizers to gather signatures from a majority of House members.  If successful, such a petition would require the Speaker of the House to hold votes on the measure.... Read More

The latest Bipartisan Index, developed by The Lugar Center and the McCourt School for Public Policy at Georgetown University, shows that for 2017, the abrupt switch from President Obama to President Trump had only minimal impact on Congress’s bipartisanship, at least on the surface.  According to the data, which measures bipartisanship based on sponsorship and co-sponsorship of bills, last year the BPI score for the Senate was a negative .038, slightly better than the -.072 recorded in 2015-16 for the Senate in the 114^th Congress. (Scores below 0.00 are judged to be partisan.)... Read More

Recently, a coalition of organizations and individuals concerned with the future of agriculture and food security released a set of principles that should guide public investments in agriculture R&D. The Lugar Center happily took on the task of building the network and benefitted from its collective decades of experience.... Read More

Critics of the Cardin-Lugar anti-corruption amendment—which requires oil and mining companies to publicly report their payments to governments—often ask, ‘What’s it good for?’... Read More

When Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s dismissal was announced, he delivered brief farewell remarks at the Department. In the media much was made of the fact that Mr. Tillerson neither thanked President Trump nor praised him. In fact, the Secretary did not utter his boss’s name.... Read More