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Lobbyist checks shouldn’t dictate policy.

Lobbyist checks shouldn’t dictate policy.

Incoming House Democrats’ first priority? Dismantling the #CultureOfCorruption.

Unlike their Republican colleagues, Democrats are committed to keeping the promises they made to voters. That’s why Democrats plan to reveal the strongest anti-corruption package since Watergate.

Rep-elect Max Rose (D, NY-11) explains why the package should include a ban on lobbyist fundraising, too:

AMERICA’S CHILD CARE DESERTS.

There is a serious shortage of child care supply in the United States.

A child care desert is defined as any community “with more than 50 children under age 5 that contains either no child care providers or so few that there are more than 3 times as many children as licensed child care slots.”

For the first time, the Center for American Progress is comprehensively tracking child care deserts in all 50 states.

  • According to a new CAP report, 51% of people in the U.S. live in a child care desert.
  • Overall, rural areas have the highest concentration of child care deserts.
  • Hispanic/Latino populations disproportionately live in these areas.

The report also offers key policy recommendations:

  • Improve data collection to help policymakers determine the solutions needed to address the child care supply gap.
  • Increase public investments in child care and early education.
  • Raise child care subsidy reimbursement rates.
  • Invest in child care infrastructure in all child care settings.

Parents shouldn’t have to worry about access to safe, affordable, and available child care.

Check out America’s Child Care Deserts in 2018 and accompanying interactives that map America’s nearly 235,000 licensed child care providers across the country and assess various social factors like race and income by neighborhood.

THINKING CAP: ‘THUNDERDOME POLITICS’

There’s change afoot in Congress, and Greg Sargent—writer for The Washington Post’s must-read blog, The Plum Line—has some tips for the new leaders in town. His new book, “An Uncivil War: Taking Back Our Democracy in an Age of Trumpian Disinformation and Thunderdome Politics,” is both a deep dive into the Trump effect on our political system and a manual for how the new Congressional majority should seek to restore faith in democratic institutions. Sargent joined Daniella and Ed on the pod to get into the weeds of all of that and more and to explain what, exactly, he means by “thunderdome politics.” Listen to the episode here.

The positions of American Progress, and our policy experts, are independent, and the findings and conclusions presented are those of American Progress alone. A full list of supporters is available here. American Progress would like to acknowledge the many generous supporters who make our work possible.