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Better Auditing for Better Contracting ReportMarch 28, 2012

Defense Contract Audit Agency recruiters Gregory Brooks and Jarolyn Snyder, second from right, talk with job fair participants during a 2009 job fair at Roosevelt University in Chicago.
<br /> (AP/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Better Auditing for Better Contracting

Pratap Chatterjee outlines the different reasons audits by the Defense Contract Audit Agency sometimes fail, what’s been done to correct these failures in the past, and what should be done in the future.

Mar 28, 2012

Pratap Chatterjee

Slow Progress Toward a Representative Federal Workforce ArticleMarch 26, 2012

Lilly Ledbetter is applauded by Vice President Joe Biden and Senior White House Advisor Valerie Jarrett at an event on solutions for families balancing the dual demands of work and caring for family in July 2010. Women have made positive strides in the federal workforce, but much still needs to be done to diversify government employment opportunities.
<br /> (AP/Charles Dharapak)

Slow Progress Toward a Representative Federal Workforce

James Hairston and Vanessa Cárdenas argue that the federal government must do more to increase the number of people of color, particularly Hispanics, throughout its workforce.

Mar 26, 2012

James Hairston, Vanessa Cárdenas

Putting Big Oil Subsidies to Work ArticleFebruary 21, 2012

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), center, accompanied by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), right, and Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), gestures during a news conference to discuss President Barack Obama's decision to halt the Keystone XL pipeline. (AP/J. Scott Applewhite)

Putting Big Oil Subsidies to Work

Donna Cooper, Richard Caperton, Kate Gordon, and Daniel J. Weiss detail a plan to redirect billions of dollars in giveaways to Big Oil toward building infrastructure to put Americans back on the job.

Feb 21, 2012

Donna Cooper, Richard W. Caperton, Kate Gordon, 1 More Daniel J. Weiss

Meeting the Infrastructure Imperative ReportFebruary 16, 2012

Investing in our freight infrastructure system would not only help American businesses remain competitive but would also immediately produce hundreds of thousands of new jobs in the construction and manufacturing industries, which are among those hardest hit by the recession. (AP/Rick Bowmer)

Meeting the Infrastructure Imperative

Donna Cooper takes a look at our nation's infrastructure spending needs, and explains how we can pay for them and put Americans back to work.

Feb 16, 2012

Donna Cooper

Washington State Shows What Works ArticleFebruary 10, 2012

The Legislative Building at the Washington State Capitol in Olympia. The Washington State Institute for Public Policy, which was created by the state legislature in 1983, provides a proven model for data-driven legislative decision-making. (AP/ Ted S. Warren)

Washington State Shows What Works

Kristina Costa explores the state’s telling investment in an institute that judges the effectiveness of programs for beneficiaries and taxpayers.

Feb 10, 2012

Kristina Costa

Finding ‘What Works’ in Education ArticleFebruary 9, 2012

Education Secretary Arne Duncan speaks in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington. There are several

Finding ‘What Works’ in Education

Kristina Costa explores “what works” platforms in education, pointing out their current limitations and also their importance in times of tight budgets.

Feb 9, 2012

Kristina Costa

Doing What Doesn’t Work ArticleFebruary 8, 2012

Research shows that Scared Straight programs, which bring at-risk teens to prisons in an effort to deter them from potential criminal behavior, have no positive effect and can actually lead to a greater likelihood of offending actions. (AP/ Ted S. Warren)

Doing What Doesn’t Work

Jitinder Kohli outlines the importance of government agencies focusing resources on programs that work, not ones like this criminal-justice program run amok.

Feb 8, 2012

Jitinder Kohli

The State of Our Tax Code Is Weak ArticleJanuary 20, 2012

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan's analysis that tax expenditures are spending—with the implication that they should be subject to the same level of scrutiny as other federal spending—is correct. (AP/Lawrence Jackson)

The State of Our Tax Code Is Weak

Seth Hanlon argues for trimming wasteful tax expenditures as Congress heads into the 2012 legislative session.

Jan 20, 2012

Seth Hanlon

Series on U.S. Science, Innovation, and Economic Competitiveness ReportJanuary 19, 2012

Giving the innovation engine a tuneup is the first step to ensuring a prosperous and broadly shared economic future for all Americans. (AP/ Charles Krupa)

Series on U.S. Science, Innovation, and Economic Competitiveness

Two CAP teams, one from Science Progress and the other from the Doing What Works project, release a series of reports focusing on different building blocks of our national competitiveness.

Jan 19, 2012

Five Canards About Job-Killing Regulations ArticleOctober 21, 2011

Among the regulations that conservatives claim are killing jobs are those on the interstate transportation of invasive foreign snakes, like the Burmese python, shown here. (Flickr/<a href=

Five Canards About Job-Killing Regulations

Kristina Costa and Michael Linden point out the absurdities in conservative arguments that regulations are holding back our economy, not lack of demand.

Oct 21, 2011

Kristina Costa, Michael Linden

Six Principles for Tax Expenditure Reform ReportOctober 20, 2011

The Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction meets on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, September 13, 2011. Under the so-called super committee’s mandate, the next round of deficit reduction can come from any source. And so it is appropriate that tax expenditures be on the table in the super committee’s deliberations and in future budget debates. (AP/J. Scott Applewhite)

Six Principles for Tax Expenditure Reform

Fixing the excessive and expensive system of tax breaks, credits, and loopholes is key to any deficit reduction plan. Seth Hanlon suggests six principles to guide Congress’s work in this area.

Oct 20, 2011

Seth Hanlon

Infographic: House Appropriations Bill Ignores the Other 99 Percent ArticleOctober 13, 2011

Infographic: House Appropriations Bill Ignores the Other 99 Percent

New appropriations bill eliminates funding for programs that struggling families need, write Donna Cooper and Melissa Boteach.

Oct 13, 2011

Donna Cooper, Melissa Boteach