Our Program is now available as a PDF

Thursday, October 24

Friday, October 25

Progressive Caucus Action Fund Morning Sessions (Closed to Press)

6:30-7:30 AM

Yoga with Reggie

Instructor:
Reggie Hubbard, MoveOn

NOTE: Breakfast will be available beginning at 7:30 AM and will end promptly at 8:30 AM.

8:00-8:05 AM

Welcome Remarks
Regency A Ballroom
Liz Watson, CPC Center Executive Director

8:45-8:55 AM

Stop Apologizing & Start Winning
Regency A Ballroom
Insights from Rachel Bitecofer, Ph.D., Wason Center for Public Policy, Christopher Newport University, the pollster who most accurately predicted the 2018 election.

8:55-9:05 AM

Break

9:05-10:10 AM

Wake Up, Shake Up! Ten Big Ideas
Regency A Ballroom
A rapid-fire series of presentations from leading progressive thinkers, leaders and activists. This session features innovative policies that can make a real difference for millions across the nation and the world.

Introduction:
Bob Borosage, CPC Center Board Chair

Moderator:
Sarah Anderson, Institute for Policy Studies

Speakers include:
Afua Atta-Mensah, Community Voices Heard
Frank Clemente, Americans for Tax Fairness
Sakira Cook, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
Indivar Dutta-Gupta, Georgetown Center on Poverty & Inequality
David Madland, Center for American Progress
Ashik Saddique, Institute for Policy Studies
Heidi Shierholz, Economic Policy Institute
Saket Soni, Guestworkers Alliance
Amy Traub, Demos
Todd Tucker, Roosevelt Institute

10:10-10:50 Am

Panel: Victories & Lessons from the 116th Congress
Regency A Ballroom
Congressional, grassroots, labor, and policy leaders reflect on the 116th Congress, the change we’re fighting for, and the battles ahead.

Moderator:
Emily Chatterjee, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

Speakers include:
Rep. Mark Pocan, CPC Co-Chair
Fatima Goss Graves, National Women’s Law Center
Liz Shuler, AFL-CIO

10:50-11:00 AM

Winning True Climate Justice
Regency A Ballroom
Dr. Mustafa Santiago Ali addresses the climate crisis, its roots in environmental racism, and the path forward.

11:00-11:10 AM

Break

11:10-11:15 AM

Reining in Private Equity
Regency A Ballroom
Hear a first hand account of how private equity profits by bankrupting companies and destroying jobs and how laws like the Stop Wall Street Looting Act can change that.

Speakers include:
Lisa Donner, Americans for Financial Reform
Teria Moore-Berry, United for Respect

11:15 AM-12:05 PM

Panel: Building Worker Power
Regency A Ballroom
Journalist Steven Greenhouse, author of Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past, Present and Future of American Labor, shares his insights and moderates a discussion among union leaders on the American labor movement.

Moderator:
Steven Greenhouse, Journalist and Author

Speakers include:
Attorney General Keith Ellison, Minnesota
Thea Lee, Economic Policy Institute
President Christopher M. Shelton, Communications Workers of America
President Randi Weingarten, American Federation of Teachers

12:05-12:35 PM

Lunch served
Regency A Foyer

12:35-12:40 PM

Women Organizing, Women Winning
Regency A Ballroom
Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, Executive Director/CEO & Co-Founder of MomsRising, on the rise of women advocating for change, winning, and running for office.

12:40-1:25 PM

Panel: Building Progressive Power in Hard Places
Regency A Ballroom
From organizing in the South, to the rise of new indigenous-led movements, to rebuilding in red districts, we will share strategies for developing a multiracial, powerful progressive movement everywhere.

Moderator:
Liz Watson, PCAF Executive Director

Speakers include:
President Lily Eskelsen Garcia, National Education Association
Judith LeBlanc, Native Organizers Alliance
Kate Hess Pace, Hoosier Action

1:25-1:35 PM

Building a Progressive Agenda from the Ground Up: Organizing in the Halls of Congress
Ai-jen Poo, Director, National Domestic Workers Alliance, on bringing the demands of a grassroots movement to Congress and the first-ever national Domestic Workers Bill of Rights.

1:35-2:05 PM

Panel: Centering Black Communities in the Progressive Movement
Regency A Ballroom
LaTosha Brown, co-founder of Black Voters Matter Fund, leads a conversation on the importance of black leadership in the progressive movement, building black power and winning black-led policy change.

Moderator:
LaTosha Brown, Black Voters Matter

Speakers include:
Rahna Epting, MoveOn
Rev. Starsky Wilson, Deaconess Foundation
Nse Ufot, New Georgia Project

2:05-2:15 PM

Fighting for Our Democracy
Regency A Ballroom
Join Rep. Jamie Raskin and Ezra Levin, co-founder of Indivisible and author of the forthcoming book We Are Indivisible: A Blueprint for Democracy After Trump, as they discuss corruption, impeachment and making the structural and systemic reforms that make our democracy work for everyone.

2:20-2:30 PM

Break

2:30-4:00 PM

Work Session Breakouts

Health Care and Reproductive Justice: From Defending Access to Guaranteeing Care
Progressives have successfully shifted the debate around health care over the last decade. More Americans see health care as a basic right, support a woman’s right to choose, and oppose Big Pharma profits at the expense of patients. The challenge now is to translate general support for our values into legislative victories on Medicare for All, reproductive rights, and prescription drug affordability. In this session, we will talk across campaigns to strategize on how we work effectively and cohesively as a progressive movement to guarantee quality, comprehensive health care for every American.

Moderator:
Jennifer Epps-Addison, Center for Popular Democracy

Featuring:
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, CPC Co-Chair
Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman
Gretchen Borchelt, National Women’s Law Center
Kristy Fogle, MMS, PA-C, Maryland Progressive Healthcare Coalition
Kristin Ford, NARAL Pro-Choice America
Ysie Garcia, Planned Parenthood Federation of America
Heather Irons, Planned Parenthood Federation of America
Jen Kimmich, Business for Medicare for All
Sameena Mustafa, Jane Addams Senior Caucus
Destiny Lopez, All* Above All
Sara Outterson, Center for Reproductive Rights
Jessi Leigh Swenson, National Partnership for Women & Families
Amirah Sequeira, National Nurses United
Shaunna Thomas, UltraViolet
Sanjeev Sriram, MD, MPH, Social Security Works
Robert Weissman, Public Citizen
Jennifer Wells, West Virginia Healthy Kids and Families Coalition

From the Shop Floor to the House Floor: Bringing Lessons from the Picket Lines into Policy Debates
A hallmark of the progressive movement is a belief that the experiences and needs of working people should animate our policy and politics. This session will bring together organizers, policy makers, labor leaders, advocates, and activists to discuss our shared goals of rebalancing our economy to achieve racial, gender, and economic justice. Bank workers from Santander and Wells Fargo, women working at Walmart, warehouse workers at Amazon, and striking UAW workers will describe their campaign goals. Special guest members of Congress and national policy leaders will describe the change they're fighting for in Washington and recent progress building worker power through legislative campaigns.

Some of the questions that may be addressed include: How do we achieve better alignment between policy in Washington and people organizing on the front lines? What are the gaps in existing legislation that need to be filled to support working people in a rapidly changing economy? What are the steps we need to take to rein in corporate power, beyond traditional labor legislation? How does the legislation currently on offer build worker power and achieve racial, economic, and gender justice?

Moderator:
Dorian Warren, Community Change

Featuring:
Rep. Donald Norcross
Rep. Mark Pocan, CPC Co-Chair
Rep. Mark Takano
Randy Bryce
Emily Chatterjee, Leadership Conference on Civil & Human Rights
Jaya Chatterjee, Service Employees International Union
Judy Conti, National Employment Law Project
Andrea Dehlendorf, United for Respect
Vasudha Desikan United for Respect
Jasmine Dixon, Walmart, United for Respect
Richard Eidlin, American Sustainable Business Council
Joseph Geevarghese, OUR Revolution
Terrysa Guerra, United for Respect
Desiree Hoffman, United Automobile Workers
Shane Larson, Communications Workers of America
David Madland, Center for American Progress
Emily Martin, National Women’s Law Center
Michelle McGrain, National Partnership from Women & Families
Guled Mohamad, United for Respect;
Josh Nassar, United Automobile Workers
Jackie Parncutt, Member, United Automobile Workers, General Motors Worker
Dania Rajendra, United for Respect
Larriese Reeves, Customer Service Representative, Santander Bank
Alex Ross, Bankruptcy Specialist, Wells Fargo
Bill Samuel, American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations
Heidi Shierholz, Economic Policy Institute
Tamela Worthen, security officer at the National Museum of African-American History & Culture, Washington, D.C. and SEIU member

Build Better: Climate Justice, Equity, and Infrastructure
This work session explores community-led infrastructure policy to address the climate crisis, invest in communities on the front lines of environmental racism, and build family-sustaining union jobs for the next generation.

Moderator:
Jessica Eckdish, BlueGreen Alliance

Featuring:
Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia
Rep. Deb Haaland
Rep. Mike Levin
Sen. Gustavo Petro, Senate of the Republic of Colombia
Celeste Arredondo-Peterson, Texas Organizing Project
Jon Barton, Service Employees International Union
Ben Beachy, Sierra Club Ben Beachy, Sierra Club
Jane Fonda, Actress & Activist
Judith LeBlanc, Native Organizers Alliance
Mary Metzmeier, Communities United for Action (CUFA)
Collette Pichon Battle, Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy
Liz Schuster, Food and Water Watch
Ann Shikany, Natural Resources Defense Council
Jeff Soth, International Union of Operating Engineers
Kerene Tayloe, WE ACT for Environmental Justice
Elder Donell Raglin, Communities United for Action
Anthony Rogers-Wright, Climate Justice Alliance
Evan Weber, Sunrise Movement

Leading with our Values: Progressive Foreign Policy
As the U.S. approaches two decades in Afghanistan, nuclear weapons treaties expire, and we face global challenges from the refugee crisis to climate change, progressives need a clear vision for foreign policy. In this session, we will discuss the principles of a progressive foreign policy and then translate those principles into specific legislative fights on defense spending, war powers, and use of diplomacy.

Moderator:
Katrina vanden Heuvel, The Nation

Featuring:
Rep. Ro Khanna
Rep. Barbara Lee
Rep. Ilhan Omar
Rep. Nydia Velazquez
Andrew Albertson, Foreign Policy for America
Bashar Azzeh, Palestine National Council
Tobita Chow, People’s Action
William Hartung, Center for International Policy
Lindsay Koshgarian, Institute for Policy Studies
Guillaume Long, Former Foreign Minister of Ecuador
Stephen Miles, Win Without War
Fida Nara, Mahapach-Taghrir
Trita Parsi, Quincy Institute
Yael Patir, J Street
Jeffrey Sachs, Columbia University
Yifat Susskind, MADRE
Cecili Thompson Williams, Beyond the Bomb
Mark Weisbrot, Center for Economic and Policy Research
Jim Zogby, Our Revolution

Rebalancing Our Democracy
Repressive voting laws. Redistricting. Dark money. Democracy is under attack. Join us as we discuss efforts to ensure that everyone’s voice is heard and we place the people’s interests ahead of special interests.

Moderator:
Deirdre Schifeling, Democracy for All 2021

Featuring:
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee
Rep. Jamie Raskin
Lisa Gilbert, Public Citizen
Meagan Hatcher-Mays, Indivisible
Bret Healy, Four Directions
Daniel Schuman, Demand Progress
Anisha Singh, Planned Parenthood Federation of America
Bo Shuff, DC Vote
Laura Williamson, Demos

Who We Are: Countering White Nationalism, Xenophobia and the Trump Administration’s Attacks on Immigrant Communities
History will judge us by how we respond to family separation, the Muslim Ban, mass raids on immigrant communities, the criminalization of asylum-seekers and refugees, and a staggering rise in hate crimes. The progressive movement must respond to this crisis with an unequivocal and unwavering demand for an end to these human rights abuses, while simultaneously putting forward a vision for a compassionate, just immigration policy. Together, we will take a deep dive on messaging that works on immigration in the midst of a 2020 campaign where Trump and his extremist supporters are trying to weaponize the issue.  Then, we will explore a pro-active agenda on immigration and ending white nationalist violence.

Moderator:
Avideh Moussavian, National Immigration Law Center

Featuring:
Rep. Yvette Clarke
Rep. Jimmy Gomez
Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon
Sen. Citlalli Hernandez, Senate of the Republic of Mexico
Sanaa Abrar, United We Dream
Heidi Altman, National Immigrant Justice Center
Mehrdad Azemun, People’s Action
Amy Fischer, Detention Watch Network
Jennifer Johnson, Southern Border Communities Coalition
Rabbi Jason Kimelman-Block, Bend the Arc
Jess Morales-Rocketto, Families Belong Together
Carmen Orozco-Acosta, Community Change
Mireya Reith, Arkansas United
Adrian Reyna, United We Dream
Scott Simpson, Muslim Advocates
Mary Small, Indivisible

Dem AGs Protecting the Progressive Agenda During the Trump Era
With Congress stuck in partisan gridlock and a President who clearly hasn’t read the Constitution, Democratic Attorneys General are the only elected leaders effectively protecting the progressive agenda. Together, Democratic AGs are leading the resistance on issues ranging from criminal justice reform to immigration to labor rights. Holding bad actors accountable is the name of the game—and Democratic AGs are WINNING in court. This previously under-the-radar office is front and center—and there are critical races ahead in 2019 and 2020. Take it right from the source! This panel brings together leaders and partners from the most diverse coalition of Democratic AGs in history to talk about how they are working together like never before to protect progress and defend our most vulnerable communities.

Featuring:
Attorney General Keith Ellison, Minnesota
Attorney General Kathy Jennings, Delaware

Tell Your Story, Change the World: Communications Workshop
Facts, statistics, and logic don’t change minds. We win when we can convey complex ideas, simply, and from the heart. Join us for an interactive training and workshop on story-telling, changing the narrative and improving your communications skills. Bring your toughest communications challenges!

Trainers:
Reggie Hubbard, MoveOn
Roger Wolfson, Writers Action Group

4:00-4:10 PM

Break

4:10-4:30 PM

Closing Remarks
Regency A Ballroom

Speakers include:
Alan Barber & Matt Hayward, Progressive Caucus Action Fund
Attorney General Keith Ellison, Minnesota
Jane Fonda, Actress and Activist

4:30-6:00 PM

Networking Happy Hour
Regency A Ballroom

6:00-7:30 PM

Watch Party: Uncovered: Health Care Conversations with Ady Barkan
Regency A Ballroom

Join Center for Popular Democracy Action and the Be a Hero Fund to watch Ady Barkan's inspiring and deeply personal video series. Top presidential candidates sit down with Ady in his home for a personal deep dive on one of the most critical issues this election: health care. Each episode is 10 minutes long and features stories from Americans who have had personal experiences with our unjust health care system.