Center for American Progress
The Center for American Progress is a public policy research and advocacy organization which presents a liberal viewpoint on economic and social issues. CAP is headquartered in Washington, D.C.
The president and chief executive officer of CAP is Neera Tanden, a Democratic political consultant and former government official. The first president and CEO was John Podesta, who has served as White House Chief of Staff to US president Bill Clinton and as the chairman of the 2016 presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton. Podesta remained with the organization as chairman of the board until he joined the Obama White House staff in December 2013.
History and mission
The Center for American Progress was created in 2003 as a Democratic alternative to conservative think tanks such as The Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute.Citing Podesta's influence in the Obama administration, Michael Scherer in a November 2008 article in Time stated that "not since the Heritage Foundation helped guide Ronald Reagan's transition in 1981 has a single outside group held so much sway". In 2011, the Washington Post's Jason Horowitz described the Center for American Progress as "Washington's leading liberal think tank", and "an incessant advocate for a broad progressive agenda and as such, a sharp thorn in President Obama's left side." Sarah Rosen Wartell, a co-founder and former executive vice-president of the CAP, was later named president of the Urban Institute
In 2021, Politico described CAP as "the most influential think tank of the Biden era."
As of 2025, CAP's board of directors includes Democratic politician Julian Castro, Sandler Foundation president Steve Daetz, businessman Andrew Hauptman, former Bain Capital partner Kristin Mugford, CAP founder John Podesta, billionaire hedge fund manager Donald Sussman, CAP president and CEO Neera Tanden, and Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss. On September 29, 2025, the Jamal Khashoggi-founded Democracy for the Arab World Now called on CAP to reconsider their decision to appoint former Secretary of State Antony Blinken to their board of directors.
Activities
ThinkProgress
ThinkProgress, active from 2005 to 2019, was an American progressive news website affiliated with the Center for American Progress but with editorial independence. In September 2019, ThinkProgress was shut down when CAP could not find a publisher willing to take it over. The news site was then "folded into CAP's online presence" to "focus on analysis from CAP scholars and CAP Action staff."Generation Progress
was launched in February 2005 as "the youth arm of the Center for American Progress". According to the organization, Generation Progress partners with over a million millennials.Center for American Progress Action Fund
Formerly known simply as the American Progress Action Fund, the Center for American Progress Action Fund is a "sister advocacy organization" and is organizationally and financially separate from CAP, although they share many staff and a physical address. Politico wrote in April 2011 that it "openly runs political advocacy campaigns, and plays a central role in the Democratic Party's infrastructure, and the new reporting staff down the hall isn't exactly walled off from that message machine, nor does it necessarily keep its distance from liberal groups organizing advocacy campaigns targeting conservatives". Whereas CAP is a 501 nonprofit, CAP Action is a 501, allowing it to devote more funds to lobbying. In 2003, George Soros promised to financially support the organization by donating up to $3 million. CAP Action is headed by Neera Tanden.File:Thomas Perez and Neera Tanden, December 2014.jpg|thumb|Tom Perez and Neera Tanden, December 2014
Launched in 2017, "The Moscow Project" is one of its initiatives, created, according to the Action Fund, to advocate for and work on the investigations of Donald Trump's ties to Russia. This initiative's website was archived in 2021.
Washington Center for Equitable Growth
The Washington Center for Equitable Growth, also known simply as "Equitable Growth", is a grantmaking and research organization founded in 2013 and "housed at the Center for American Progress". Equitable Growth funds academic research in economics and other social sciences, with a particular interest in government's role in the distribution of economic growth and the role of public perceptions of fairness in shaping government policy.Disability Justice Initiative
In July 2018, the Center for American Progress recruited former Obama staffer and National Council on Disability executive director Rebecca Cokley to lead its new project focused on disability rights advocacy. Senator Tammy Duckworth spoke at the first event announcing creation of the new project, which is housed within CAP's Poverty to Prosperity Program. The Disability Justice Initiative became the first such project at a mainstream public policy advocacy organization not already focused on disability.Project 2025
The Center for American Progress is public in its opposition to the Heritage Foundation's political initiative "Project 2025," having released detailed critiques of the proposed policies. Advocates from CAP have referred to the initiative as "an extreme far-right agenda that will hurt all Americans" and "an authoritarian playbook". This criticism has continued after the 2024 presidential election of Donald Trump.Biden administration
In 2023, CAP analysts were involved in drafting proposals for the Biden administration's economic agenda, focusing on areas such as supply chains and manufacturing.Policies
Health care
In 2017, CAP opposed Bernie Sanders' single-payer health plan. Critics said that this was because of funding from the health care industry, such as the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, the Health Care Service Corporation and America's Health Insurance Plans, who would be eliminated under Sanders' plan. In 2018, the center proposed an alternative to single-payer that would offer patients and employers a choice between government coverage and private insurance.In 2020, CAP president Neera Tanden came out in support of "universal health care". The organization has also proposed "Medicare Extra", which CAP says would add 35 million people to the insurance rolls while cutting U.S. health expenditures by over $300 billion annually.
Criticism
Pro-UAE, pro-Saudi policy
In October 2016, the Intercept reported that United Arab Emirates Ambassador to the US Yousef Al Otaiba praised "a released that advocates for continued cooperation with Gulf states like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates."In January 2019, two CAP staffers were fired after an investigation concerning the leaking of an internal email exchange involving discussions over the phrasing of CAP's response to the murder of The Washington Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi. CAP released a statement noting that while investigating the leaks, this was not the cause for the firings.
Lack of transparency for funding sources
Some open government groups, such as the Sunlight Foundation and the Campaign Legal Center, criticized the center's failure to disclose its contributors, particularly because it was so influential to the Obama administration. CAP's website states that corporate donors are not allowed to remain anonymous. Nathan Robinson, writing in 2018 for Current Affairs wrote that CAP "continues to conceal the identities of many of its largest donors." He also criticized CAP for receiving "shady donations" and for a grant of $200,000 to the American Enterprise Institute in 2018.CAP has received significant funding from the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, a pro-austerity think tank associated with billionaire investment banker Peter G. Peterson.
Israel controversies
Allegations of antisemitic language
CAP was criticized in 2012 by several Jewish organizations after its employees, Zaid Jilani and Ali Gharib, "publicly used language that could be construed as anti-Israel or even anti-Semitic". Bloggers associated with CAP published several posts using phrases such as "apartheid" and "Israel-firsters", which the American Jewish Committee described as "hateful" and called on CAP to disassociate themselves from these statements. The latter phrase, "Israel-firsters", which was used in reference to US supporters of Israel, was also criticized by the Anti-Defamation League and described as antisemitic, including by Faiz Shakir, then the vice president of CAP. Officials at CAP said the "inappropriate" language came only in personal tweets—not on CAP's website or its ThinkProgress blog. The Tweets were deleted, and the authors apologized.Allegations of suppression of criticism of Israel
In 2015, however, other writers criticized CAP for what they saw as censorship of reasonable comments critical of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and other policies. Based on leaked emails, columnist Glenn Greenwald, for example, wrote that CAP had deleted references to Israeli settlement policies in reports by their staffers.Greenwald and others also criticized CAP for hosting a meeting with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. At the same time, Netanyahu was hostile to the Obama Administration. Greenwald described CAP's positions as "servitude to AIPAC and pandering to Netanyahu." Eighteen organizations and over one hundred academics signed an open letter, circulated by Jewish Voice for Peace and the Arab American Institute, against the meeting. 26,300 people signed a petition opposing the meeting.