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  • PSN calls on state legislators to denounce TX representative's claim that legal immigrants aren't Americans
    Apr 16, 2009
    NEW YORK  -  Today, Progressive States Network (PSN) issued a call for state legislators across the country to denounce Texas State Rep. Betty Brown’s recent assertion that that legal Chinese American immigrants should adopt Anglophone names that are  “easier for Americans to deal with.”

    According to PSN policy analyst Caroline Fan, herself a second generation Chinese American immigrant, “Now more than ever, we need to have a rational and respectful dialogue about how to fix our country’s broken immigration system.  Rep. Brown’s comments, which imply that Chinese Americans aren’t Americans, are precisely the kind of racially divisive rhetoric that will keep us from having such a dialogue.”
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  • RELEASE: Policy recommendations from Corzine panel would put NJ at forefront of immigration reform
    Mar 30, 2009
    JERSEY CITY, NJ — At a press conference this morning, Gov. Jon Corzine unveiled the results of his Blue Ribbon Panel on Immigration Policy, which included recommendations for the establishment of an Office on New Americans to help integrate immigrant families into the state’s culture and work force.  Policy experts at the Progressive States Network (PSN) were quick to praise the panel’s recommendations, which they placed within an emerging trend among state lawmakers to include working immigrant families into plans for shared economic growth.

    According to PSN Interim Executive Director Nathan Newman, who authored a comprehensive 50-state analysis of state immigration policy last September, “The story that states are rushing out to punish undocumented immigrants is really a smoke screen. When you look at the facts, you see that more and more states are finding ways to integrate immigrants into a growing workforce and thriving small business community.  States like New Jersey realize that there is a far better economic future in working together than there is in dividing the population against itself.”
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  • National experts visit Oregon to testify in support of precedent-setting transparency legislation
    Mar 06, 2009
    Salem, OR — Amidst renewed calls from the Obama administration for accountability from private contractors on the federal level, the Oregon State House of Representatives is considering a bill that would far outstrip the contractor accountability provisions maintained by any state governments to date.

    This Monday at 8am, leading transparency experts from the national Coalition for an Accountable Recovery (CAR) will testified before the Oregon House Business and Labor Committee in support of the bill, HB 2037, which would require private contractors in Oregon to disclose the number of employees and the wages, they pay. This is especially important with the federal government requiring transparency on jobs created through the $6.48 billion in federal funds set aside for Oregon under the recovery plan.
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  • Progressive States Network launches new initiative to help state leaders implement Recovery Act
    Feb 20, 2009
    Poised to receive billions in federal grant money amidst unprecedented budget shortfalls, state governments across the country face a host of difficult decisions over how to identify and allocate the resources they need to turn their ailing economies around.  Amidst this daunting backdrop, Progressive States Network, in partnership with a broad coalition of advocacy organizations, today launched an initiative to assist state legislators in understanding funding guidelines and identifying progressive policy priorities as they move forward to implement the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
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  • National state health care expert offers testimony backing Iowa health care coverage partnership program
    Feb 18, 2009
    Des Moines, IA - Today, at a hearing of the Iowa State Senates Subcommitteee on Senate File 48, Progressive States Network Senior Health Care Policy Specialist Adam Thompson provided the following written testimony in support of Sen. Jack Hatch's owa Health Care Coverage Partnership Program:
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  • NH State Rep introduces bill to cut small business health costs, give employers more options
    Feb 10, 2009
    Concord - Rep. Jill Shaffer Hammond (D-Hills. Dist. 3) today introduced an innovative bill that would allow small businesses, non-profits, and their employees to purchase health insurance through the state employee health plan.  HB617 would help tens of thousands of New Hampshire residents and small employers by increasing their options in the insurance market.  The bill could reduce health insurance costs for business owners and employees who take advantage of the option to join the state employee plan.
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  • Amidst budget woes, new study points to savings from comprehensive health care reform
    Jan 29, 2009

    Olympia, WA — At a hearing today of the Washington State Senate Health and Long Term Care Committee, the actuarial firm Mathematica Policy Research will present a new study showing that Washington state could cut health care costs from $300 million to $800 million and boost economic activity anywhere between $370 million to $1.6 billion from a range of comprehensive health care reform initiatives proposed last year by state lawmakers.  

    Set against the backdrop of devastating budget shortfalls in states and households across the country, the report bolsters the case for national and state health care reform playing a central role in ongoing economic recovery efforts.

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  • Progressive States Network Announces New Interim Executive Director
    Jan 14, 2009
    New York — The national policy and advocacy group Progressive States Network announced today that its longtime Policy Director Nathan Newman will take over as the organization's Interim Executive Director. He will replace outgoing Executive Director and PSN Co-Founder Joel Barkin, who will become Deputy Secretary of State for Public Affairs in the office of New York Secretary of State Lorraine A. Cortes-Vazquez.
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  • Michigan House passes national popular vote legislation in the wake of Big Three bailout snub
    Dec 16, 2008

    Lansing, MI - Last Thursday, in a 65-36 vote, the Michigan House of Representatives passed HB 6010, a bill that would enter the state into an interstate compact to de facto abolish the Electoral College by ensuring that the winner of the national popular vote becomes president.

    The vote, which came on the same day the US Senate voted against a proposed bailout of the Detroit-based auto industry, highlighted a growing rift between the national GOP leadership, which rallied opposition to the bailout, and Republican legislators in Michigan.

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  • Election results show states moving forward with nation-wide progressive mandate
    Nov 05, 2008
    New York - On the heels of Barack Obama’s landslide victory in Tuesday’s Presidential election, the national policy group Progressive States Network hosted a conference call today in which policy experts, legislators, and advocates from across the nation highlighted the state-level mandate for progressive change that accompanied Obama’s victory and mapped an ambitious 50-state legislative agenda to capitalize on that mandate.
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