Giving Compass' Take:

• Here is a list and explanation of the various issues that legislatures will be addressing in 2020 and beyond. 

• Many of these issues are areas of concern for donors as well as governing bodies. How do you make decisions on which issue areas to address through charitable giving? Where would you like to see policy changes?

• Read about some of the challenges that will impact the nonprofit sector in 2020. 

Many legislatures hold short sessions in even-numbered years, their budget work largely completed and everyone eager to hit the campaign trail. The desire to put policy aside in favor of electioneering will be especially strong this year, with the vast majority of slots for legislators who will oversee the next round of redistricting up for grabs.

  • Abortion
    Abortion opponents enter 2020 having enjoyed considerable legislative success. In several states, they intend not only to restrict the procedure but to ban it entirely.
  • Climate
    Of all the problems facing government today, none seems as intractable as climate change. Back in 2018, the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that we had but a decade to hold global warming to even moderate levels, while acknowledging in its report that "there is no historic precedent" for what would need to be done to significantly reduce the world's carbon emissions.
  • Criminal Justice Reform
    There is a growing consensus that we spend too much money keeping too many of our citizens behind bars for too long.
  • Election Security
    This dramatic revelation, contained in a Senate Intelligence Committee report issued last July, showed just how far Russian interference extended during that election.
  • Health Care
    Health-care policy is on hold. In December, a federal circuit court panel upheld a lower court’s ruling that found unconstitutional the Affordable Care Act’s mandate requiring individuals buy insurance.
  • Highway Funding
    America’s roads and highways are in desperate need of attention. Every four years the American Society of Civil Engineers issues an exhaustive infrastructure report card.
  • Housing
    The costs of building, owning or renting a home keep rising, but incomes are not keeping pace. One in six American families spend more than half their income on housing.
  • Immigration
    While it may look like any effort to bring change to our current immigration program seems hopelessly stalemated, it's not for lack of trying.

Read the full article about biggest issues to watch in 2020 by Alan Greenblatt, David Kidd, and Tod Newcombe at Governing Magazine.