PPI

Washington DC has the nation's lowest per capita emissions, yet its energy costs rose 93% in five years, faster than anywhere else.

A new PPI report by Neel Brown & John Kemp finds DC pays $750–$870 to abate each ton of carbon, twice what any state pays.
progressivepolicy.org/washington-dc-…

🚨HUGE NEWS:

The Build America Caucus is launching an ambitious, bipartisan agenda focused on improving Americans’ lives by making it easier to build the things we need.

It just went live on our website for you to read. Here’s why you should: 🧵

buildamericacaucus-harder.house.gov/the-build-more…

In The Hill, Will Marshall argues Democrats keep blaming the economy for losing working-class voters while flinching from immigration.

Denmark's Social Democrats show a better path: control the border and integrate newcomers. thehill.com/opinion/immigr…

American K-12 education is going modular, as more families build their children’s schooling from microschools, online courses, and co-ops.

PPI’s Bruno Manno argues this shift is driven by children’s needs and that public systems must now catch up. realcleareducation.com/articles/2026/…

Public schools have long bound a diverse nation together, but the culture war now puts them at risk.

In The Atlantic, PPI’s @RickKahlenberg shows how voucher advocates are exploiting the culture war and argues public schools should remain ideologically neutral while renewing their civic mission. theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/09/…

As daily life continues to move online, reliable, high-speed internet has become a necessity. From work to healthcare to education, Americans depend on broadband to participate in the modern economy and remain connected. Rising consumer demand, combined with intense competition and government funding, has driven heavy investment across different technologies, with better coverage and quality of service than ever before.

Still, achieving high-quality, universal connectivity is a challenging goal, and policy plays an instrumental role in making it happen. One branch of policy is national. For example, with the 2021 passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Congress created the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, allotting more than $42 billion over the next several years to expand broadband to underserved communities across the country. These funds supplement the massive spending by broadband companies such as AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, and Charter. According to estimates in PPI’s annual “Investment Heroes” report, these four companies alone have invested $325 billion in the United States over the past five years.

The second branch of policy is at the state level, where regulatory choices can make it easier or more costly to expand high-speed broadband. Consider California, for example, where a regulatory framework designed for a different era is complicating the expansion. By designating certain service providers as “carriers of last resort,” California requires them to provide basic telephone service to all customers within a designated service area.

These obligations, in turn, require the maintenance of copper networks, which represent a relic of the past that have not kept up with the standards of modern technology. In California, only 3% of the households served by AT&T still use traditional phone services.

In 2024, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) dismissed AT&T’s application to be relieved of these obligations, making California the only one of 21 states where AT&T still operates copper networks not to grant relief. The decision has triggered a legal fight and federal action that could preempt the CPUC’s authority on the issue, both of which remain unresolved. progressivepolicy.org/what-californi…

The center-left is being squeezed by populist insurgents on the right and left.

@Will_PPI argues Democrats need more than moderation.

They must reclaim their legacy of bold, pragmatic reform rooted in America’s liberal tradition. thehill.com/opinion/campai…

This week, PPI honored the 25 American nonfinancial companies that invested the most at home in 2025, powering the U.S. economy and laying the foundation for major productivity gains.

At PPI’s 2026 Investment Heroes reception, @RepJoshHarder, @RepMcClellan, Amazon’s @DavidZapolsky and PPI’s @MichaelMandel joined a discussion moderated by journalist @petercoy on AI infrastructure, permitting reform, domestic investment, and more.

Nick Miller is a Democrat who knows how to reach working-class voters. In 2022, he became the youngest candidate elected to Pennsylvania’s Senate in over a century by winning an Allentown-based district where more than three-quarters of adults lack a bachelor’s degree. This was no easy feat: Just two years later, the same district backed Donald Trump for president.

What was Miller’s secret?

“I ran as a pragmatic, commonsense candidate focused on results rather than ideology,” he says. “Independent voters play a critical role in our elections. And they consistently respond to leaders who are willing to work with anyone to get things done.”

If Democrats want to become competitive again outside the blue islands of major metro areas and college towns, their single most important task will be winning back the Americans without college degrees who have abandoned the party in droves during recent decades. This report brings together interviews with dozens of politicians who’ve already shown they can do just that: 28 state legislators from seven battleground states who, like Miller, have managed to prevail in competitive, heavily working-class districts. We asked them about the issues they focused on, how their voters view the national party, and what on-the-ground tactics they relied on to win. progressivepolicy.org/democrats-who-…

Published annually since 2012, PPI’s Investment Heroes report spotlights the public companies making the largest capital investments in the U.S. economy. Previous reports have focused on topics such as the relationship between higher capital investment, on the one hand, and lower inflation and faster job creation, on the other.

The main theme of this year’s report is simple: getting big things done. In recent years, Americans have become increasingly concerned that the United States has become a bumbling giant, unable to execute complex, forward-thinking projects. The result is stagnant living standards and a loss of the ability to defend ourselves.

Yet this year’s Investment Heroes report shows that America can still rise to the occasion to address our biggest economic and military challenges. By analyzing corporate financial reports, we find that the country’s top 25 Investment Heroes collectively invested $520.4 billion in the U.S. in 2025. This marks a 29.2% increase from our 2024 estimates.

The $520 billion in investment in equipment and structures spans much of the American economy, from factories and fiber networks to power grids and retailers. But the clear standout of this year’s investment is computing and the infrastructure needed to power AI. The four largest investors this year — tech firms Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, and Microsoft — collectively invested more than $269 billion in the U.S. in 2025, a 61.1% increase from their 2024 spending.

This year’s sizable investments in compute capacity are building the foundation for the expansion of AI applications beyond software and back-office efficiency. The country faces major challenges, including high costs of food, healthcare, housing, and energy; archaic government systems; and cybersecurity vulnerabilities, among others. The buildout led by this year’s Investment Heroes is creating the capacity and knowledge needed to tackle these challenges head-on. progressivepolicy.org/investment-her…

Russia is waging a hybrid war on Europe through sabotage, cyberattacks, and drone incursions.

Writing for @monthly, PPI’s @tamarjacoby argues Europe’s cautious posture is no longer enough, calling for a firmer response that imposes real costs on Moscow. washingtonmonthly.com/2026/09/14/eur…

The Trump administration’s forced-labor tariffs would cost Americans roughly $100 billion a year.

In a new amicus brief before the Court of International Trade, PPI’s @EBGresser argues USTR never showed the targeted countries import forced-labor goods or that such imports burden U.S. commerce. progressivepolicy.org/amicus-curiae-…

America’s economic strength depends on investment in energy, infrastructure, technology, equipment, and workers.

Join us on Wednesday, September 16, as PPI’s @MichaelMandel unveils the 2026 Investment Heroes report, which recognizes the 25 companies making the largest investments in America’s economic future.

Together, these companies invested $516 billion in FY25 year, a 28% increase over the previous year. Featuring:

🇺🇸 Rep. Josh Harder (@RepJoshHarder), Build America Caucus co-chair
🇺🇸 Rep. Jennifer McClellan (@RepMcClellan)
🇺🇸 Rep. Janelle Bynum (@RepBynum)
🇺🇸 Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet (@repkmr)
🇺🇸 David Zapolsky (@DavidZapolsky), Chief Global Affairs and Legal Officer at Amazon
🇺🇸 Moderator Peter Coy (@petercoy)

Date: Wednesday, September 16
Time: 3:45 to 6 p.m. (program from 4 to 5 p.m., followed by a reception overlooking the waterfront)
Location: The Wharf, Washington, D.C. (exact location provided upon RSVP)
RSVP: eventbrite.com/e/ppis-2026-in…

Republicans have long claimed an edge on national security as an issue, yet their midterm convention agenda includes zero mentions of defense or foreign policy.

In a new piece for Radically Pragmatic, PPI’s Danielle Steitz argues Democrats should answer with a bold vision of national security leadership. radicallypragmatic.org/p/republicans-…

Thank you to Kiki McLean, Steph Driver, Emma Weir, and Caty Payette for joining PPI’s Women in Policy Alliance this morning for a conversation on how to be an effective communicator in Washington, London, and beyond.

From presidential campaigns to Capitol Hill to 10 Downing Street, their reflections made clear that in an increasingly complex profession, showing up, reaching out, and earning trust one conversation at a time matter as much as ever.

ICYMI: The New World screwworm, absent from the U.S. since 1966, has returned to Texas this summer.

In this week’s editon of Trade Fact, PPI’s @EBGresser links the reappearance to years of disinvestment in federal science agencies and calls for reinvesting in staff and inspection capacity. progressivepolicy.org/new-world-scre…

A sweeping bill targeting Russia also hands Trump vast new tariff powers.

PPI’s @tamarjacoby writes that the bill codifies years of sanctions but leaves enforcement largely to the discretion of the president.

Data centers are becoming one of the clearest paths to the middle class for American workers.

Electricians are earning family-sustaining wages and building long-term careers thanks to the infrastructure that powers the modern economy. nytimes.com/2026/08/21/opi…

Less than 10 percent of America’s plastic gets recycled today, driving up landfill costs nationwide.

In a new op-ed for @the535news, PPI’s @stumalec argues advanced recycling could close that gap, saving municipalities up to $328 million a year in tipping fees. 535.news/op-ed/advanced…

Democrats have a real opening heading into the midterms, but democratic socialism is the wrong answer to voters’ economic anxieties.

Writing for The Hill, @Will_PPI argues that Democrats should reaffirm their liberal convictions and offer bolder ideas for reform of their own. thehill.com/opinion/campai…