Scheduled activities span a period of approximately three months. Past activities have included:



Strategic Negotiation and Communication Training - Led by an expert facilitator and experienced negotiator, participants engaged in a half-day of training and skill-building exercises serving to introduce them to one another as individuals rather than partisans.







Simulated NSC Deputies Committee Meeting – Building on the skills learned in their initial training, participants focused on a three-hour simulation with each person playing the role of a key Cabinet official at a high-level meeting. In the past, former officials Ambassador Thomas Graham, Jr. and Assistant Secretary of State Lincoln Bloomfield played the role of National Security Advisor, giving participants invaluable advice based on their own personal experiences navigating the Federal interagency process.





Meetings With Former Officials – PSA Advisory Board members and other former officials met with CPP participants to discuss key foreign policy and national security issues with a particular focus on bipartisanship in policy making. In the past, participants have met with former Governor Thomas Kean (R-NJ), former National Security Advisor Tony Lake, former UN Ambassador Donald J. McHenry, former Homeland Security Advisor Frances Townsend, former National Security Advisor Robert McFarlane, and former White House Chief of Staff Kenneth Duberstein.





Meetings with NSC, White House and State Department Staff – CPP participants have previously met with NSC senior staff, including former Chief of Staff Mark Lippert, National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications Ben Rhodes, and White House Chief of Staff (formerly Deputy National Security Advisor) Denis McDonough, at the White House. They have also met with Jake Sullivan and Dr. Anne-Marie Slaughter when each was serving as Director of Policy Planning at the U.S. State Department.








Partnership Retreat – House and Senate participants have joined together for weekend retreats entailing policy breakout discussions with members of PSA's Board of Directors such as Chip Andreae, former chief of staff to Senator Richard Lugar, Graeme Bannerman, former Senate Foreign Relations Committee Staff Director, and former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Andrew Semmel. Retreats have also included briefings with policy experts such as Barbara Slavin, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and Arshad Mohammed, State Department correspondent for Reuters, as well as officials such as former Ambassador to Greece and Boznia & Herzegovina Thomas Miller, former advisor to Admiral Mike Mullen, CAPT Wayne Porter, former Representative Christopher Shays (R-CT), and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Suzanne Nossel.

Partnership Project – Working with colleagues from across the aisle, each CPP participant has completed a project that applies the consensus-building skills they acquired during the program to real problems they face in their careers. These bipartisan projects ranged from writing joint policy papers to convening a briefing on a national security topic. These briefings not only gave CPP participants an opportunity to work together, they also created opportunities for all Congressional staff from both parties to attend and participate in a bipartisan policy discussion. See examples of previous projects.