In the summer of 2010, the Foundation established its inaugural Fiscal Internship program in Washington DC, with the goal of supporting the development of young talent in the fiscal policy world. The program pairs college and graduate students interested in the nation’s economic future with public policy organizations working on fiscal issues. Each intern worked full-time on a research project related to fiscal policy, and was mentored by a scholar from their host organization.
In 2010, five organizations participated in the Fiscal Internship program – the Brookings Institution, the Progressive Policy Institute, the Hudson Institute, the Concord Coalition and the National Governors’ Association. The host organizations selected their interns and assigned them to projects. The PGPF Fiscal Interns came from both college and graduate school at institutions such as Swarthmore College and Vanderbilt University. The projects they worked on this summer included creating projections of the economy 2035 under different policy scenarios, researching tax expenditures using original sources from the Library of Congress, and writing policy papers on the interaction between state and federal fiscal challenges.
Each host organization also planned and held at least one weekly seminar on fiscal issues, with topics ranging from Social Security to tax policy, to further educate and encourage discussion among the interns. The Concord Coalition manages the program.
The objective of the PGPF Fiscal Internship program is to create a network of young policy researchers who understand the fiscal challenges facing the nation, many of whom will return to Washington in various capacities during their professional careers. Simultaneously, the program aspires to create student “ambassadors” who will promote interest in fiscal policy at their schools, and get other youth involved in the dialogue about fiscal issues.