Congressional Progressive Caucus

Congressional Progressive Caucus
Co-Chairs Keith Ellison and Raúl Grijalva
First Vice Chair Mark Pocan
Executive Director Mike Darner
Founded 1991
Ideology Progressivism[1]
Social democracy
Social liberalism[2]
Political position Left-wing[3]
National affiliation Democratic Party
Colors Blue
Seats in the Senate
1 / 100
Seats in the House
68 / 435

The Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) is the largest membership organization within the Democratic congressional caucus in the United States Congress with 71 members.[4] The CPC is a left-leaning organization that works to advance progressive and liberal issues and positions.[5][6][7]

The CPC is currently co-chaired by U.S. Representatives Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) and Keith Ellison (D-MN). It was founded in 1991 and has grown steadily since then, having more recently added 20 members since 2005 and having hired its first full-time Executive Director, Bill Goold, in May of that year. Subsequent Executive Directors have included Andrea Miller (2009–2011) and Brad Bauman (2011–2014). The current Executive Director is Mike Darner. Of the 20 standing committees of the House in the 111th Congress, 10 were chaired by members of the CPC. Those chairmen were replaced when the Republicans took control of the House in the 112th Congress.

Background

The CPC is committed to government of the people, by the people, and for the people. Their policy agenda is rooted in four core principles: (1) fighting for economic justice and security in the U.S. and global economies; (2) protecting and preserving civil rights and civil liberties; (3) promoting global peace and security; and (4) strengthening environmental protection and energy independence. Their fundamental fairness plan reflects national priorities that are consistent with the values, needs, and hopes of all Americans, not just the powerful and the privileged. Accordingly, the CPC also advocates "universal access to affordable, high quality healthcare", fair trade agreements, living wage laws, the right of all workers to organize into labor unions and engage in collective bargaining, the abolition of the USA PATRIOT Act, the legalization of same-sex marriage, US participation in international treaties such as the climate change related Kyoto Accords, strict campaign finance reform laws, a crackdown on corporate welfare and influence, an increase in income tax rates on upper-middle and upper class households, tax cuts for the poor, and an increase in welfare spending by the federal government.[8]

Legislative history

The Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) was established in 1991 by six members of the United States House of Representatives: U.S. Representatives Ron Dellums (D-CA), Lane Evans (D-IL), Thomas Andrews (D-ME), Peter DeFazio (D-OR), Maxine Waters (D-CA), and Bernie Sanders (I-VT). Additional House Members joined soon thereafter, including Major Owens (D-NY), Nydia Velázquez (D-NY), David Bonior (D-MI), Bob Filner (D-CA), Barney Frank (D-MA), Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), Jim McDermott (D-WA), Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Patsy Mink (D-HI), George Miller (D-CA), Pete Stark (D-CA), John Olver (D-MA), Lynn Woolsey (D-CA), and Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). Then-U.S. Representative Bernie Sanders was the convener and first CPC Chairman. Bill Goold served as Staff Coordinator for the Progressive Caucus in its early years until 1998.

The founding CPC members were concerned about the economic hardship imposed by the deepening recession, and the growing inequality brought about by the timidity of the Democratic Party response in the early 1990s. More importantly, on January 3, 1995 at a standing room only news conference on Capitol Hill, they were the first group inside Congress to chart a detailed, comprehensive legislative alternative to U.S. Speaker Newt Gingrich and the Republican Contract with America, which they termed "the most regressive tax proposals and reactionary social legislation the Congress had before it in 70 years." The CPC's ambitious agenda was framed as "The Progressive Promise: Fairness."

Job Creation and Invest in America Act

The first in a legislative package of more than a dozen separate bills that were offered was the Job Creation and Invest in America Act of 1995 to stimulate economic growth in the American economy. It would have provided $63.6 billion/year and created at least one million new jobs/year in each of the first two years that the bill would have been in effect. Roughly 2/3 of that total would have gone for new federal outlays and the remaining 1/3 would have provided tax relief to middle and low-income working families. The prescribed $41.6 billion in federal outlays would have been spent for a combination of new investments in physical infrastructure and to help targeted Americans in need as follows:

The prescribed tax relief for working families would have included:

All of the new spending and tax relief would have been fully paid for by eliminating tax loopholes that reward U.S.-based transnational corporations for investing abroad and exporting U.S. jobs and through carefully targeted tax increases that would have been levied on the unearned income of upper-income Americans. These revenue raisers of $85.3 - $95.3 billion/year would have kicked in the third year after enactment and would have remained in effect thereafter. They broke down as follows:

Additional path-breaking bills in the package included:

The CPC also made a splash and stretched public debate in its early development by hosting a day-long Capitol Hill Forum on Globalization, Economic Justice, and Human Rights, during which Noam Chomsky, distinguished linguist and social commentator, was the keynote speaker—his only public testimony ever presented before Congress.

Past CPC Chairmen have also included U.S. Representative Peter Defazio (D-OR), and former U.S. Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-OH). In an unprecedented move at the outset of the 109th Congress (2005-2006), U.S. Representative Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) approached U.S. Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA), who had served as Vice-Chair in the prior Congress, to ask to run with her as proposed Co-Chairs. U.S. Representative Lee assented and they were subsequently elected to serve as Co-Chairs throughout the 109th Congress and the 110th Congress, leadership positions from which they spearheaded congressional opposition to the U.S. military invasion and occupation of Iraq and built subsequent bipartisan support for the complete withdrawal of all U.S. troops from that country. Both announced plans to step down at the end of the 110th Congress, but U.S. Representative Woolsey subsequently changed her mind and decided to continue as a Co-Chair for an additional term that expired at the end of the 111th Congress.[11]

The CPC's founding statement of purpose states that it was "organized around the principles of social and economic justice, a non-discriminatory society, and national priorities which represent the interests of all people, not just the wealthy and powerful". The founding members underscored that the Cold War was over, and that the nation's budget and overall priorities should show that. They called for cuts in outdated and unnecessary military spending, a more progressive tax system which places a larger portion of the tax burden on corporations and those with higher earnings, a substantial increase in federal funding for social programs designed to meet the needs of low and middle-income American families, and trade policies that increase the exports of more American products and encourage the creation of well-paying jobs and sound investment in America. They also expressed their belief that those policy goals could be achieved in concert with a commitment to long-term fiscal responsibility.

Budget proposal for 2012

In April 2011, the Congressional Progressive Caucus released a proposed "People's Budget" for fiscal year 2012.[12] Two of its proponents stated: "By implementing a fair tax code, by building a resilient American economy, and by bringing our troops home, we achieve a budget surplus of over $30 billion by 2021 and we end up with a debt that is less than 65% of our GDP. This is what sustainability looks like."[13]

Supporting organizations

The non-profit organization most closely associated with the Congressional Progressive Caucus is ProgressiveCongress.org which works to connect the caucus to progressives outside the Congress.

In addition, an array of national liberal organizations work to support the efforts of the progressive caucus, including the Institute for Policy Studies, The Nation magazine, MoveOn.org, National Priorities Project, Jobs with Justice, Peace Action, Americans for Democratic Action,and Progressive Democrats of America. Also co-sponsoring the kickoff event were the NAACP, ACLU, Progressive Majority, League of United Latin American Citizens, Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, National Council of La Raza, Hip Hop Caucus, Human Rights Campaign, Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs, and the National Hip Hop Political Convention.

House members

All members are members of the Democratic Party or caucus with the Democratic Party. In the 114th Congress there are currently 70 declared Progressives, including 68 voting Representatives, one non-voting Delegate, and one Senator.

Arizona

California

Colorado

Connecticut

Florida

Georgia

Hawaii

Illinois

Indiana

Iowa

Maine

Maryland

Massachusetts
Map of districts of House caucus members during the 113th Congress

Michigan

Minnesota

Mississippi

New Jersey

New York

North Carolina

Ohio

Oregon

Pennsylvania

Rhode Island

Tennessee

Texas

Vermont

Virginia

Washington

Wisconsin

Non-voting

Senate members

Former members

See also

References

  1. ↑ "What is CPC?". Retrieved July 23, 2014.
  2. ↑ Lillis, Mike (September 12, 2012). "House Democrats pushing hard from the left on budget as 'fiscal cliff' nears". The Hill. Retrieved July 23, 2014.
  3. ↑ "Liberals’ Stealth Budget Solution Raises Taxes on Rich, Saves Social Security". The Daily Beast.
  4. ↑ "Congressional Progressive Caucus : Caucus Members". house.gov.
  5. ↑ About the CPC, CPC Website, accessed Oct 8, 2009
  6. ↑ Hardisty, Jean (2000). Mobilizing Resentment: Conservative Resurgence From The John Birch Society To The Promise Keepers. Boston, MA.: Beacon Press. p. 221. ISBN 978-0807043172.
  7. ↑ "Two congressmen endorse Carl Sciortino in race to replace Markey in Congress". Boston.com. September 13, 2013. Retrieved July 23, 2014. "the Congressional Progressive Caucus, the umbrella group for left-leaning Democratic members of Congress"
  8. ↑ CPC (2012). The Progressive Promise. Retrieved on 2012-04-14 from http://cpc.grijalva.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=63&sectiontree=2,63.
  9. ↑ National news release from the Congressional Progressive Caucus on January 3, 1995
  10. ↑ National news release from Congressional Progressive Caucus on January 3, 1995
  11. ↑ Caucus archives
  12. ↑ "The People's Budget" (PDF). Congressional Progressive Caucus. Retrieved 2011-04-24.
  13. ↑ Honda, Michael; Grijalva, Raul (April 11, 2011), "The only real Democratic budget", The Hill

External links

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