Brookings launched the Blueprints for American Renewal & Prosperity in December 2020 to provide Congress and the new presidential administration with innovative ideas to meet the many challenges facing the country. The Blueprints were released at a time when the nation was struggling with the still-surging global pandemic and its resulting recession, and at the same time it was confronting its history of racial injustice and inequality. The scale and scope of these issues require big ideas for the nation and world to emerge from crisis stronger, more equitable, and more resilient. Through the Blueprints, Brookings delivered innovative solutions to meet the gravity of the moment, just as we have for more than 100 years.

Published to coincide with key inflection points during the presidential transition and early in the Biden administration, Brookings published over 40 signature policy briefs on economic growth and dynamism, racial justice and worker mobility, domestic and international governance, international security, and climate and resilience. Through corresponding events and podcasts, amplified across all Brookings communication channels, the Blueprints informed policy discussions on the most critical issues affecting lives and livelihoods.

The effects of the pandemic were felt unevenly across populations, throwing into stark relief a number of acute and chronic problems facing our nation’s vulnerable workers and communities of color. Brookings published seven Blueprints proposing federal policies to help workers navigate a turbulent economy, narrow wealth gaps, and promote better health for all Americans.

• Desegregating work and learning through ‘earn-and-learn’ models
• National service can connect America’s young people to opportunity and community—and promote work of real social value
• Achieving an equitable national health system for America
• Promote health equity by taxing sugary drinks and doubling support for community health centers
• Rethinking homeownership incentives to improve household financial security and shrink the racial wealth gap
• How a new Minority Business Accelerator grant program can close the racial entrepreneurship gap
• Closing the racial wealth gap requires heavy, progressive taxation of wealth

The pandemic set off a recession that demanded swift and decisive action to generate economic growth and dynamism. Brookings put forth policy solutions in six Blueprints aimed at countering the pandemic, reviving the economy, increasing opportunity, and reducing inequality to promote resilience and recovery.

• How to boost long-run growth after COVID-19
• Democratizing innovation: Putting technology to work for inclusive growth
• Enhancing the liquidity of U.S. Treasury markets under stress
• Economic relief and stimulus: Good progress but more work to do
• Using automatic stabilization programs to fight recessions and speed recoveries
• A post-COVID plan for the middle class: Tax wealth not work and provide scholarships for service

In addition to the many challenges posed by the pandemic at home, the United States faces a volatile and uncertain international environment. Brookings published eight Blueprints offering concrete ideas for managing the challenges posed by China’s rise, retooling U.S. alliances in Europe and Asia, rightsizing America’s role in the Middle East, and addressing a range of transnational threats, including pandemic prevention, nonproliferation, and countering extremism through education, as well as bolstering democracy around the world.

• The other 4+1: Biological, nuclear, climatic, digital, and internal dangers
• Getting the China challenge right
• Preventing pandemics through biodiversity conservation and smart wildlife trade regulation
• What to do—and what not to do—in the Middle East
• Retooling America’s alliances to manage the China challenge
• Revitalizing nonproliferation cooperation with Russia and China
• Bolstering democracies in a changing international order: The case for democratic multilateralism
• A global effort to counter extremism through education

The federal response to the pandemic underscored the importance of well-functioning, responsive governing institutions. In a series of eleven Blueprints, Brookings advanced innovative ideas for making government work better and more efficiently to manage current problems and those yet to come.

• Building an agile government for an era of megachange
• How a new National Recovery Investment Corps can drive a bottom-up, inclusive economic recovery
• America’s crisis of despair: A federal task force for economic recovery and societal well-being
• Harnessing private capital and tying funding to results to build back better
• A blueprint for technology governance in the post-pandemic world
• Strengthening international cooperation on artificial intelligence
• Making Congress a better place to work
• It is time to restore the US Office of Technology Assessment
• A focused federal agency is necessary to oversee Big Tech
• Partnership among cities, states, and the federal government: Creating an office of subnational diplomacy at the US Department of State
• Making USAID a premier development agency

The climate crisis represents one of the greatest threats to the world, and addressing its causes and mitigating its effects are urgent. Brookings’s five climate and resilience Blueprints proposed innovative ideas for reducing risk, incentivizing resilience, and engaging with the global community through actionable domestic and international policies.

• How Biden and Congress can use COVID-related corporate stimulus to boost climate resilience
• Empowering the U.S Global Change Research Program to further climate education and training
• How a federal Climate Planning Unit can manage built environment risks and costs
• Small Business Green Recovery Fund to power U.S climate transition
• How the United States can return to credible climate leadership