National Priorities Project

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The National Priorities Project (NPP) is a non-profit, non-partisan federal budget research organization established in 1983 with the mission of educating the American public on the US federal budget, federal spending, and federal revenue.^[1] It was founded in 1983 by Greg Speeter with the initial goal of helping community groups understand and respond to federal budget cuts in Massachusetts communities.^[2][3][1]

During the Reagan administration, Greg Speeter and his friends - Brenda Loew, Ricky Fogel, Alwin Schmidt - found that federal funding for their city Springfield among others had plummeted, adversely impacting their local economies, job opportunities, education, and healthcare.^[2] They were later able to successfully convince their district's representative, Silvio Conte, then the ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee, to change his stance on federal spending,^[2] making him become a strong supporter of more federal spending for community-based programs with him coming out against a balanced budget amendment that slashed the federal safety net.^[4]