The National Priorities Project (NPP) is a

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

non-partisan Nonpartisanship, also known as nonpartisanism, is a lack of affiliation with a political party and a lack of political bias. While an ''Oxford English Dictionary'' definition of ''partisan'' includes adherents of a party, cause, person, etc., ...

research organization A research institute, research centre, or research organization is an establishment founded for doing research. Research institutes may specialize in basic research or may be oriented to applied research. Although the term often implies natural sc ...

established in 1983 with the mission of educating the American public on the US federal budget, federal spending, and federal revenue. It was founded in 1983 by Greg Speeter with the initial goal of helping community groups understand and respond to federal budget cuts in

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

communities. During the

Reagan administration Ronald Reagan's tenure as the 40th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1981, and ended on January 20, 1989. Reagan, a Republican from California, took office following his landslide victory over ...

, Greg Speeter and his friends – Brenda Loew, Ricky Fogel, Alwin Schmidt – found that federal funding for their city Springfield among others had plummeted, adversely impacting their local economies, job opportunities, education, and healthcare. They were later able to successfully convince their district's representative, Silvio Conte, then the ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee, to change his stance on federal spending, making him become a strong supporter of more federal spending for community-based programs with him coming out against a

balanced budget amendment A balanced budget amendment or debt brake is a constitutional rule requiring that a state cannot spend more than its income. It requires a balance between the projected receipts and expenditures of the government. Balanced-budget provisions ha ...

that slashed the federal safety net.

Activities

NPP currently focuses its efforts toward public education about the federal budget using their online tool, Federal Budget 101, and their book, The People's Guide to the Federal Budget, featuring a foreword by noted author

Barbara Ehrenreich Barbara Ehrenreich (, ; ; August 26, 1941 – September 1, 2022) was an American author and political activist. During the 1980s and early 1990s, she was a prominent figure in the Democratic Socialists of America. She was a widely read and aw ...

. The group also focuses on issues such as taxation, government debt, and the openness of governmental actions. Moreover, it examines federal expenditures on defense, education, healthcare, and various other social initiatives.

References

External links

* {{authority control Community organizing Economic advocacy groups in the United States Non-profit organizations based in Massachusetts Organizations established in 1983