WASHINGTON, D.C.—A prominent group of CEOs and policy innovators from across a variety of sectors met today with U.S. Senators and staff members from both parties to present their policy recommendations for the economic challenges they call “unprecedented in scope.”

Leo Hindery, Jr., Managing Partner of InterMedia Partners, convened the Horizon Project after discussions with Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), Chair, Senate Democratic Policy Committee, about America’s eroding competitive position. Project members investigated and deliberated how Congress should respond now in order to ensure that America continues to be the preeminent economic power in the world in an era of globalization.

“The 110^th Congress must pay attention to the four-headed economic monster confronting America’s competitiveness,” says Mr. Hindery. “Our recommendations provide roadmaps to much more balanced trade, improved education quality and accessibility, addressing the healthcare crisis, and more globally competitive public infrastructure. We believe this report reflects ideas of the sort CEOs can and should contribute to the national debate on economic issues, when they look beyond their companies’ earnings.”

“The rigorous work of the Horizon Project has been very helpful to our efforts at the Senate Democratic Policy Committee to develop cutting edge policy ideas through our New Idea Network,” says Sen. Dorgan. “In that effort, we are working with concerned citizens, labor leaders, business leaders, and policy experts across the country. Leo Hindery and the Horizon Project he chairs have made a particularly strong argument about the state of our nation’s economy, and policies needed to promote economic growth and create high wage jobs.”

Highlights of the report, which may be found at www.horizonproject.us, include:

Trade/Economic Growth: ‘The nation’s record and still growing trade deficit.’

• The U.S. must find ways to strongly encourage companies to create high value-added jobs, invest in workers skills, and develop advanced research-based products and services. To accomplish these goals, the U.S. should implement responsive changes in the corporate income tax.

• The U.S. should separate trade negotiations from trade agreements enforcement.

• The U.S. must act to balance its trade account, and should consider adopting a trade deficit cap.

• Well-tested technologies that can steadily raise the skills and education levels of the entire domestic workforce need to be implemented.

Education: ‘Underperforming not only in K –12 but in higher education as well.’

• Through federal income tax relief and refundable tax credits, the U.S. can better attract quality teachers generally and into critical specialties, and retain them. In return, teachers should be held more accountable for the performance of their students, as measured against international competitive standards.

• There should be significant expansion of government support for high-performing students from low- and middle-income families so they may attend college.

Healthcare: ‘Healthcare costs are not well distributed, and the system does not properly reward good or penalize poor healthcare delivery.’

• Basic healthcare coverage must be extended, and through tax penalties, it should be made hard to avoid becoming uninsured.

• The healthcare deduction should be capped and the tax savings should be applied to expanded coverage for low- and middle-income individuals and families.

• Reimbursements to Medicare and Medicaid providers for services should be based on the extent to which they adhere to best practices.

Public Infrastructure: ‘New capital spending needed for the nation to compete globally.’

· Regions, states and municipalities needing federal assistance to finance vital infrastructure projects should receive it through a newly-formed “National Investment Corporation”.

· The federal tax code should allow for much-accelerated depreciation of investments in the key areas of alternative energy, energy savings, and broadband access deployment.

· Measures should be put into place to encourage timely, near-universal deployment of the high-speed broadband access networks which are vital to the functioning of the nation’s future economy and to helping reduce income inequality.

In addition to Mr. Hindery, who is Chair, members of the Horizon Project are:

Robert Atkinson

President, Information Technology & Innovation Foundation

Alfred Berkeley III

Chairman, Pipeline Trading Systems. Former President of NASDAQ.

Donald Gogel

Chief Executive Officer, Clayton, Dubilier & Rice.

Ralph Gomory

President, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Former Senior VP for Science and Technology of IBM.

Geraldine Laybourne

Chair and Chief Executive Officer, Oxygen Media.

Susan Lee

Vice President for Economic Policy, Center for American Progress.

Michael Osheowitz

Chief Executive Officer, Edwin Gould Foundation for Children.

Marc Nathanson

Chairman, Mapleton Investments and Falcon Waterfree Technologies. Former CEO of Falcon Communications.

Leonard Schaeffer

Founding Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, WellPoint Foundation. Former CEO of WellPoint Health Networks.

Bernard Schwartz

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, BLS Investments. Former CEO of Loral Space & Communications.

The Horizon Project is registered as a 501(c)4.

www.horizonproject.us

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