About CPA

Today, state legislators are proposing the nation's most far-reaching, proactive measures. They are making legislatures a testing ground for the newest political debates. And they are winning progressive victories with cutting-edge policies-creating new healthcare programs, expanding antidiscrimination laws, strengthening the social safety net, developing new consumer protections, defending the environment, and most recently, reforming the tax system.

While legislators are now the vanguard of the progressive movement, they barely have the time or resources to do their jobs effectively. Forty-one states have part-time legislatures, and in 22 of those states, legislators have no paid staff. Nineteen legislatures meet less than 80 days a year, and six convene only every other year. These same legislatures annually consider 150,000 bills and enact 75 times more laws than the U.S. Congress.

Conservatives recognize the importance of focusing on state legislators. On the national level, business groups and right-wing ideological organizations fund the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) to push their agendas across the states. CPA is the only counterpart to ALEC working directly with legislators in all fifty states to advance proactive, progressive policy solutions.

The Center for Policy Alternatives (CPA) empowers state legislators by simultaneously working at three levels: providing values-based leadership development programs to make legislators into more effective advocates for progressive policy; developing user-friendly policy tools on a wide variety of issues, making it easy for legislators to introduce and argue for progressive legislation; and building a strong, coordinated network of legislators across the states, enabling them to support one another as they take on the often-scary and sometimes-lonely job of leading the fight for progressive change.

Since CPA's mission is unique among national organizations, each of CPA's programs is also one-of-a-kind:

Leadership Development
CPA provides the only values-based leadership development program for state legislators. Since its inception, the Flemming Leadership Institute has become one of the most prestigious fellowship programs for elected officials, graduating more than 340 state legislators since 1994. When requested, CPA also offers special Regional and Statewide Leadership Development Programs to help legislators enhance specific skills or understand specific issues.

Policy Tools
CPA provides user-friendly talking points, policy summaries, model bills and resource lists designed specifically for state legislators. The Progressive Agenda is the only comprehensive handbook of progressive policy for legislators. CPA's website, www.stateaction.org, is the only online source of progressive policy tools covering a wide range of state issues. CPA's State Action Blog provides the latest on progressive action in the states, while our online newsletter gives a monthly round-up of progressive state victories.

Network Building
CPA's State Action Network is the largest national network of progressive state legislators, linking together leaders from all 50 states. The annual Summit on the States conference offers a wide variety of policy and skill-building workshops. CPA's Leadership Circles help legislators who work on similar issues share information and strategies from state to state.

For more information about CPA, read our 2003 Annual Report [pdf].