"Wired for Progress Version 2.0," hones in on the key decisions facing Congress and the Obama administration in coming days and weeks as they take up the challenge of rebuilding America's electricity infrastructure. Version 2.0 focuses on the four major hurdles to building a national clean energy smart grid—planning, siting, cost allocation, and ensuring the low-carbon attributes of the electricity. We then examine three broader policy imperatives—grid intelligence, physical and cyber security, and job training and workforce development—that must also be part of this crucial modernization effort.

In February, the Center for American Progress published a major report on the urgent need to build a national clean energy smart grid to power an innovative, low-carbon 21st century economy that combats global warming and creates millions of good jobs. Titled "Wired for Progress 1.0," our report - based on an extensive stakeholder outreach process undertaken in partnership with the Energy Future Coalition – detailed the reasons why we need to build this national clean energy infrastructure quickly, and outlined key policy measures to move this complex project forward.

In just a few short weeks since that February release, Congress has made progress on drafting concrete legislative language and in building the political will to turn these policies into law. As this debate moves forward, it is critical that the essential features of the proposal remain clear, and the basic outlines of a national compromise be preserved. Reducing our nation's dependence on foreign oil by examining short- and long-term solutions to replace foreign oil with domestic resources to fuel vehicles and trucks, including natural gas, is also an important issue to be addressed.

Join the Center for American Progress Action Fund, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and energy executive T. Boone Pickens for this thought-provoking discussion.

Stakeholders from across the health care system joined President Barack Obama at the White House Health Summit last month to assert their support for reforming the health care system, and committed to assisting the President with his efforts. However, prospective paths to change and consequences of reform vary greatly across health care professionals, health insurance companies, consumer advocates, drug manufacturers and others.

Health care providers — who are the frontline in keeping our country healthy — are absolutely essential to moving forward with health reform this year. In a paper to be released at the event, Bob Berenson argues that health reform can deliver an improved health care system that considers providers’ professional needs. Please join the Center for American Progress Action Fund in welcoming Ronald Paulus of Geisinger Health System, followed by a discussion with distinguished members of the health professional community.

Although a full day's pay should be the same for men and women working in the same jobs, every year women's pay lags behind men's. The typical woman worker has to toil for all of 2008 and then four more months into 2009 - until April 28th - to earn what the typical man earned in 2008 alone. While some of the pay gap can be explained by differences in the jobs that men and women hold, the skills they bring to the workplace, or time out of the labor force, most of the gap is not due to these factors.

Join the Center for American Progress Action Fund as we mark Equal Pay Day with a panel highlighting the importance of women's earnings to family well-being, discussing why the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was only the first step in fighting pay discrimination, and outlining what policymakers can do to ensure that every worker earns a fair day's pay.

The Center for American Progress Action Fund and Bucerius Law School, Germany, are pleased to host a premiere transatlantic policy event featuring Senator John Kerry (D-MA) and Sigmar Gabriel, German Federal Minister for the Environment.

This event will feature an open conversation between Senator Kerry and Minister Gabriel on climate change and the transition to a green economy, and a panel of American and German experts speaking on the role of economic growth and modernization in producing green jobs. The panel will draw upon lessons that might be learned from Germany and the EU for the U.S. in shaping a green recovery in light of the need to forge an international agreement in response to climate change.