Peterson-Pew Commission on Budget Reform

The Peterson-Pew Commission on Budget Reform met from January 2009 to December 2011. It was a collaboration of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, The Pew Charitable Trusts, and the CRFB.

In December 2009, the commission issued a report titled "Red Ink Rising: A Call to Action to Stem the Mounting Federal Debt."

Then in November 2010, the commission issued a follow-up report titled "Getting Back in the Black."

"Getting Back in the Black": Final Report, November 2010

Among other recommendations, the Peterson-Pew Commission's final report in November 2010 included the following:

"The Commission supports enacting budget limits that would be automatically enforced through broad spending cuts and tax increases—if policy makers fail to make necessary legislative changes. Specifically, the Commission recommends that Congress and the President:

• "Adopt medium-term, long-term and annual limits on the amount the government can borrow as a share of national income. The targets are intended to commit the government in advance to a path of borrowing consistent with economic stability;
• "Establish multi-year annual caps for spending and tax expenditures that are consistent with the enacted debt targets;
• "Create automatic triggers to keep budget plans on track and control the major drivers of the growing debt; and
• "Improve the timeliness, completeness and transparency of information used in the budget process to better inform policy makers and increase their accountability for all budget decisions."

Peterson-Pew Commission Members

Co-Chairs

• Bill Frenzel, former Republican congressman from Minnesota.
• Jim Nussle, former Republican congressman from Iowa and Director of the Office of Management and Budget under President George W. Bush.
• Timothy Penny, former Democratic congressman from Minnesota.
• Charlie Stenholm, former Democratic congressman from Texas.

President

• Maya MacGuineas, President of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, Director of the Fiscal Policy Program at the New America Foundation, a nonpartisan think tank.

Directors

• Barry Anderson, former deputy director and then the acting director of the Congressional Budget Office.
• Erskine Bowles, former director of the Small Business Administration, and deputy chief of staff and chief of staff under the Clinton Administration. He is also co-chair of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform AKA the Simpson-Bowles Commission.
• Charles Bowsher, former comptroller general of the General Accounting Office under Ronald Reagan .
• Dan Crippen, former director of the Congressional Budget Office from 1999 through 2003.
• Vic Fazio, former Democratic congressman from California.
• Bill Gradison, Jr., former Republican congressman from Ohio. He is also a member of the Board of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.
• William H. Gray, III, former congressman from Pennsylvania, chairman of the House Budget Committee, chairman of the Democratic Caucus, and majority whip.
• William Hoagland, Senior Vice President - Bipartisan Policy Center, former director of Budget and Appropriations in the Office of the Senate Majority Leader, former staff director of the U.S. Senate Budget Committee.
• James Jones
• Lou Kerr
• Jim Kolbe
• James T. McIntyre, Jr.
• David Minge
• June O'Neill
• Paul O'Neill
• Marne Obernauer, Jr.
• Robert Packwood
• Rudolph Penner

Advisors

• Peter G. Peterson
• Robert Reischauer
• Alice Rivlin
• Charles Robb
• Martin Sabo
• Alan K. Simpson
• John Spratt
• Eugene Steuerle
• David Stockman
• John Tanner
• Laura Tyson
• George Voinovich
• Paul Volcker
• Carol Cox Wait
• David Walker
• Joseph R. Wright, Jr.

Senior Advisors

• Robert Strauss, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee from, chairman of President Carter's election campaigns, special trade representative under President Carter, and President Carter's personal representative to the Middle East Peace Negotiations. He later served as U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union.