Our progress updates bring you the news filtered through a results-focused lens. We ask: Has the event, action, or utterance changed anything? In particular, has it contributed tangibly to resolving any of the problems that we focus on here? Our reports demonstrate progress towards a solution – or regrettably, a regression from possible resolution. If our editors do not agree that the event, action, or utterance has moved the needle of progress one way or the other, then it won’t be reported here.
Pushing for Real Policy Debate
When we interviewed Maya MacGuineas earlier this year, she made her case for real policy debate by putting serious ideas on the table and challenging others to do the same. We couldn't include them all in our profile of her, so we decided to excerpt some of her comments here.
Election Security, Voter Suppression & Voter ID: Behind the Debate
The voter ID debate pits election security concerns against worries about suppressing voter access. It is a false choice and a distraction from more dangerous threats to election integrity.
Hyperventilating Over the Debt Ceiling
Raising the debt ceiling will make Congress confront past spending decisions, but puts no limits on future spending despite claims by some congressional leaders.
Gloomy Climate Report Obscures Effective Actions
The UN’s latest warning is “code red for humanity” and cast its usual pall over the news cycle, overshadowing the many successful efforts focused on counteracting climate change.
Voting Rights Battle: Partisan Conflict or Attack on Democracy?
The battle being waged over voting rights in state legislatures and the US Congress has been too easily mischaracterized as a partisan fight. Texas Democrats walked out to avoid a floor vote and bring attention to a state-by-state attack on our democracy.
Biden’s Budget Blues or Effective Balancing Act?
President Biden has decisively answered one of the most critical early questions of his administration, making plain that increased public investment in response to the pandemic-induced economic crisis will be his priority rather than curbing the growth of the national debt.
Nurses Strike for Patient Safety
Nurses claim that limited staffing levels during the pandemic have compromised patient safety, prompting them to strike and drawing attention to hospital systems that received stimulus funding and posted substantial profits while its staff faced hazardous workplace conditions, layoffs, and furloughs.
Kentucky Expands Voting Rights, Bucks Political Polarization
Kentucky has defied a divisive political narrative on election reform and voting rights by bringing Republicans and Democrats together to make voting a little easier for state voters.
Georgia’s New Voting Law: Mostly A Step Backward
Competing partisan-driven narratives are causing broad confusion over a new voting law in Georgia that poses legitimate threats to the integrity of the electoral process.
A New Wave of Union Organizing
Despite steady decline in membership for most of the past forty years, unions may be on the verge of a comeback, spurred by stagnant wages, social issues, and the pandemic.
Reshaping the Electric Grid, Remaking the Country
As President Biden seeks to repair a divided nation, market forces and the pandemic economy may be aligned to create opportunity for his climate agenda.
Criminal Justice Reform: A Possible Path for Unity?
With a new administration in the White House committed to building greater political unity, criminal justice reform may serve as a source of common ground for Washington policymakers.
