Warner weekly wrap up: It’s still about the economy

With the media’s focus on the actions of (and the reaction to) the Trump administration’s first weeks in office, Sen. Warner continues his deep-dive on ways to get the U.S. economy working better for more people.

For more than two years, Sen. Warner has been leading a national discussion on the future of work. He has been Washington’s leading advocate of experimenting with portable benefits for the increasing number of American workers who are not attached to full-time work and find themselves  – either by necessity or choice – performing contingent, on-demand work. Sen. Warner also has been outspoken on the need to boost worker training opportunities, and he’s been critical of corporate America’s recent preoccupation with short-term profits versus longer-term investments in the workforce.

This Future of Work project, based out of the nonpartisan Aspen Institute, is co-chaired by Sen. Warner and former Indiana GOP Gov. Mitch Daniels. The two recently partnered on a joint op-ed for TIME:

“We must make benefits and protections more portable, so Americans can count on economic security in changing times as they inevitably move from job to job.

We need to reward work by giving everyone a stake in their company’s success. We propose greater ownership and profit-sharing opportunities to give workers a greater stake in the companies to which they devote their labor.

We need to reward investment in the workforce so Americans gain the skills to compete and get ahead. We propose tax policies to give companies a greater stake in training, retraining and relocating the workers in which they invest.”

Gov. Daniels and Sen. Warner

The business magazine FAST COMPANY finds a lot it likes in the Warner/Daniels proposals:

“Instead of regulations, the bipartisan report calls for less obtrusive reforms that change business incentives, improve the quality of public information about work, reengineer corporate governance, and empower workers.”   

If you’re interested in the hundred-and-one ways technology will continue to impact the American workforce and the U.S. economy, think about this: at a time when R&D into driverless vehicles is hurtling forward at breakneck speed, one of the top jobs for men involves driving. David McCabe at AXIOS wrote a great piece about the potential ramifications of that earlier this week.

NEXT WEEK

On Monday, Sen. Warner will keynote a meeting of members of the National Association of Counties, and will urge the 2,000+ local elected officials to embrace experimentation and innovation around portable benefits models for contingent workers.

On Tuesday, Sen. Warner will co-chair the Senate Intelligence Committee’s confirmation hearing for former Indiana Sen. Dan Coats’ nomination to serve as Director of National Intelligence.

Tuesday night, President Trump delivers his first address to a joint session of Congress. Sen. Warner has invited as his guest the Rev. Keary Kincannon, who ministers to the homeless and others at Alexandria’s Rising Hope Mission Church – the site of a controversial recent ICE roundup of undocumented immigrants as they left  the church’s overnight shelter program.