Company Profile
National Institute for Civil Discourse
Company Overview
The National Institute for Civil Discourse (“NICD”) builds the nation’s capacity to engage our differences more constructively. Working with the over 50,000 members of its flagship CommonSense American (CSA) program, NICD identifies federal legislative solutions wise enough to attract grassroots support across the nation’s political divisions. CommonSense American is three-for-three in helping champion those solutions into law—ending surprise medical billing in 2020, investing in physical infrastructure in 2021, and fortifying peaceful transition of power through updating the Electoral Count Act in 2022.
NICD’s offices are located in the University of Arizona’s new DC Center for Outreach and Collaboration at 1301 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC. These offices include a state-of-the-art conference center that accommodates 100 in-person participants as well as the latest technology to engage participants across the nation virtually.
Company History
In 2011, the University of Arizona created NICD after the Tucson shooting that killed six people and wounded thirteen others, including former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. Although many people know about this incident now, fewer people know that Congresswoman Giffords was already in discussion with the University of Arizona about creating a center to study how to improve the quality of civil conversation.
The Tucson community came together to create NICD, a non-partisan organization based at the University of Arizona to promote healthy and civil political debate. NICD is devoted to the same principles that motivated Congresswoman Giffords: that people with different values and political preferences can discuss their differences in a civil and productive manner. The galvanizing power of that event brought together an impressive, bipartisan group of leaders to work on these issues.
No one knew in 2011 just how bitter and polarized our politics would become. By seriously engaging the problem early, NICD became the leading national voice for bridging through civil discourse and respect.
Notable Accomplishments / Recognition
CommonSense American is three-for-three in helping champion federal legislative solutions into law—ending surprise medical billing in 2020, investing in physical infrastructure in 2021, and fortifying peaceful transition of power through updating the Electoral Count Act in 2022.