U.S. economic policymakers face the extraordinary challenge of restoring a recession-ravaged economy while simultaneously re-engineering it to thrive in a world of unprecedented global competition. The path forward toward both ends requires unrelenting focus on what then-Senator Obama called in 2008: "...new policies that create the jobs and opportunities of the future—a competitiveness agenda built upon education and energy, innovation and infrastructure, fair trade, and reform."

But are the executive and legislative branches organized well to produce and execute on a coherent strategy? How do America's competitors get the job done? How might the President structure policymaking to ensure a coherent and coordinated strategy for long-term, broadly shared prosperity and drive its effective implementation?

On December 1, the Center for American Progress will release a paper urging the federal government to rethink how it develops and coordinates competitiveness policy. We hope you will join us for what promises to be a lively and provocative discussion with those who have held key roles in government and those who seek to influence them on competitiveness policy.

EVENT FULL: This event is now full and we can no longer accept RSVPs. Please watch the live webcast here.

Military-to-military dialogue between the United States and China has resumed once again after a series of disagreements in 2010 that demonstrated the volatile, “start-stop-restart” nature of the U.S.-China military relationship. Ahead lay the continued challenges of the North Korean nuclear program, international sanctions on Iran, and freedom of navigation in the South China Seas that stress the need for sustained and reliable dialogue that can bring the U.S.-China military relationship to levels consistent with other areas of U.S.-China relations.

Please join the Center for American Progress as it hosts distinguished guest Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who will offer his perspectives on the future of U.S.-China military relations. The event will be moderated by Rudy deLeon, Senior Vice President of the Center for American Progress, and David Finkelstein, vice president and director of China studies at CNA.

There is much agreement about the need to rethink the way decisions are made about the teacher workforce. Currently many decisions such as granting tenure, laying off teachers, and determining compensation are made with little regard to a teacher’s impact on student learning. So these actions, instead of rewarding effective teachers and enhancing the profession, do little to improve the quality of the teaching force.

Yet, spurred in part by competitive federal programs such as the Race to the Top initiative, a growing number of states and districts are beginning to incorporate measures of student performance into human capital policies. What kinds of measures of student performance could be used and are being used and what do we know about them? How can these measures inform workforce decisions about teachers in ways that encourage effective instruction? Join us for a conversation with expert researchers and practitioners that addresses these questions and others. We will be releasing two papers to launch our discussion. One paper, by Dan Goldhaber, examines the potential for using value added measures to inform teacher workforce decisions. The other paper, by Jennifer Steele, Laura Hamilton, and Brian Stecher, examines how a variety of measures of student performance are being incorporated into teacher evaluations.

With more than 15 million Americans still unemployed, job creation remains the central economic issue facing U.S. policymakers. Beyond these near-term cyclical challenges, however, lie deeper structural issues in the labor market that have been developing over the last three decades and were reaching urgent levels even before the Great Recession. As the economy begins to recover, policymakers must also turn their attention to the long-term goal of remaining economically competitive in a rapidly changing global economy.

On December 3, The Hamilton Project and the Center for American Progress will host the second of two conferences addressing the long-term challenges of creating quality jobs in the United States and preparing American workers for those jobs of the future. As part of the event, The Hamilton Project and the Center for American Progress will release three targeted policy proposals by outside scholars to deal with the long-term challenges associated with the new global economy. Following each panel discussion, the conversation will be open to audience questions.

Abortion policy in this country does not treat all women equally. The Hyde Amendment prohibits Medicaid, the federal health care program for the poor and indigent, from covering abortion care in almost all circumstances. Most people think of abortion as a “woman’s issue,” which of course it is. But the Hyde Amendment intentionally discriminates against poor women, who are disproportionately women of color. In this way, it is also an issue of basic civil rights and economic justice. Anyone who cares about fighting racism and poverty must realize that attacks on abortion, and especially on abortion funding, are first and foremost attacks on poor and low-income women of color.

Please join CAP’s Women’s Health & Rights and Progress 2050 programs for an engaging conversation about the impacts of the Hyde Amendment on women of color and a discussion of why progressives committed to economic and racial justice should be part of the fight to repeal it, as we release a new report on this topic.

EVENT FULL: This event is now full and we can no longer accept RSVPs. Please watch the live webcast here.

In advance of Chinese President Hu Jintao’s upcoming visit to Washington, please join the Center for American Progress as it hosts Deputy Secretary of State James B. Steinberg, who will offer his perspectives on the critical relationship between the United States and China. The event will be moderated by John Podesta, president of the Center for American Progress.

EVENT FULL: This event is now full and we can no longer accept RSVPs. Please watch the live webcast here.

The United States and China are engaged in a critical economic and strategic exchange that will have wide-reaching implications for the American people and for the world. How can the two countries work together in partnership to tackle future global challenges while addressing important concerns at home? What are the prospects for future collaboration? What are the major challenges?

Please join the Center for American Progress as it hosts Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), who will offer his perspectives on the strategic relationship between the United States and China. The event will be moderated by Rudy deLeon, Senior Vice President at the Center.

Luis Argueta, critically acclaimed director of The Silence of Neto, presents abUSed: The Postville Raid, the full-length documentary that tells the story of the most brutal, most expensive, and one of the largest Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE raids in the history of the United States. By weaving together the personal stories of the individuals, the families, and the town directly affected by the events of May 12, 2008, the film presents the human face of the issue of immigration reform and serves as a cautionary tale against abuses of constitutional human rights.

Please join the Center for American Progress for a provocative discussion immediately following the film.

The global economy today is inexorably intertwined—for better or for worse. This fact is driven home to workers worldwide by the recent global financial crisis, the ensuing global economic slump, and the subsequent efforts by governments to recharge their economies. But facing political pressures to "do something" about the widespread job losses, governments are tending to insular policies that impede economic integration and trade. This is cause for deep concern because economic globalization has come with a significant legacy of growth that can promote broadly shared prosperity and contribute to economic development. The Just Jobs Program at the Center for American Progress explores how to extend the benefits of globalization to all workers who power the global economy.

As part of the Just Jobs Program, the Center for American Progress is initiating a network of international think tanks and institutions that will undertake a periodic analysis of global employment policies and labor markets. The Just Jobs Network will be a platform for members to share knowledge and experiences and to strategize collectively to garner attention and international momentum behind the creation of just jobs as a necessary means to make economic integration and trade work better for more people.

In fall 2009, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation launched the Measures of Effective Teaching, or MET, project to develop and test multiple measures of teacher effectiveness. The goal of the MET project is to improve the quality of information about teaching effectiveness available to education professionals within states and districts—information that will help them build fair and reliable systems for teacher evaluation and address teacher recruitment, training, professional development, and compensation challenges.

Please note: This was a private event.

How can the integration of health care financing and health care delivery across Medicare and Medicaid improve care and reduce costs for this important population? Under what circumstances should these new opportunities move forward to implementation? What are some of the other ways states can improve care for this population? Please join us for a discussion of these and other questions related to improving care for dual eligibles.
 

The Affordable Care Act makes Medicare the engine for achieving systemwide reform through initiation of and experimentation with alternative payment designs—in particular, Accountable Care Organizations and, through the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, complementary initiatives to integrate health care.  The success of health care reform will depend heavily on the choices made in defining the law's new policy tools. Will payment reforms be designed around hospital systems or will they encourage new forms of integration among physicians and other health care providers? Will payment incentives limit payment for costs above expectations in addition to rewarding costs that are below expectations? What rights and responsibilities will consumers have in a system where providers are paid on a bundled-care basis and rewarded for more efficient care?

Please join us for a discussion of these and other questions related to implementing the Affordable Care Act's new mechanisms for promoting better care at lower costs.