As the Trump administration gets underway, AEI scholars are identifying and proposing solutions to the most pressing policy issues facing our country. In a new AEI report, AEI education expert Nat Malkus identifies surprising links between declines in US student test scores and those of adults.

There are significant opportunities to save money and reduce government dependency by reforming federal safety-net programs. In a new report, Angela Rachidi and Erik Randolph propose changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to eliminate benefit cliffs, improve employment outcomes, and potentially save $30 billion.

Medicaid and Medicare are both in desperate need of cost cutting and structural changes to end unsustainable spending. In a podcast interview, AEI health care expert James C. Capretta talks with AEI President Robert Doar about actions the executive branch and Congress can take. For more, read Capretta’s latest report on budgetary dysfunction and reform.

Throughout his campaign and early days in office, Donald Trump has made tariffs a centerpiece of his policy agenda. In a joint letter with former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers in The Wall Street Journal, AEI scholar and former Senator Phil Gramm warns of the severe economic consequences of increasing trade barriers.

Beyond these discrete policy issues, AEI scholars are studying broader social and cultural trends that are reshaping the fabric of American life. In new public opinion research, Director of AEI’s Survey Center on American Life Daniel A. Cox and Kelsey Eyre Hammond document Americans’ increasing and troubling failure to find long-term romantic partners.