A Compact With America: The Congressional Progressive Caucus Releases Its New Affordability Agenda
May 1, 2026
The initiative is essential to defining the Democrats’ reason for being.
The Congressional Progressive Caucus released its “New Affordability Agenda” this week, a critical step in defining what Democrats are about. The package contains 10 concrete legislative reforms, each providing relief to Americans who are drowning under the rising costs of basic goods: health care, energy, housing, child care, wages. The goal is to craft a program around which all but the most compromised Democrats could unite. Twenty-two national organizations endorsed the agenda when it was published.
The CCP’s initiative comes at a critical time. This year’s congressional elections will largely be a referendum on the corruption, chaos and disaster wrought by Trump’s mismanagement, with Republicans facing a brutal reckoning. “Have you had enough?” » will be the main appeal of the Democrats. But the same polls that show growing dismay with Trump should calm Democrats, because voters don’t think highly of either party. Voters rightly believe that most politicians are peddlers of false promises.
This leads much of the Democratic establishment to focus on Trump’s failures, arguing that voters won’t believe anything we promise anyway. The CCP’s efforts aim to break down this cynicism – from the party establishment and voters.
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His new affordability agenda essentially fills a void left by party leaders. He is making the difficult strategic choice of not proposing what CCP Chairman Greg Casar calls progressive “flagship reforms” – Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, tuition-free college, etc. — but rather reasonable, immensely popular reforms that could center a platform around which Democrats could unite.
The initiative is reminiscent of Contract with America, the platform presented by Republican Newt Gingrich for the 1994 elections, when Republicans won 54 seats and won a majority in the House for the first time in 40 years. This election centered on voter dismay during the early years of the Clinton administration. The Gingrich Contract promised voters that if elected, Republicans would introduce and adopt each point of a 10-point agenda within 100 days. The package included only reforms that received more than 60 percent support in polls. Divisive right-wing passions, like ending abortion or school prayer, have been omitted. It combined basic conservative principles – tax cuts, balanced budgets, deregulation, welfare reform, crackdowns on crime and child pornography, plus some popular gimmicks like term limits. Gingrich lined up 300 candidates on the steps of the Capitol for a photo op suggesting that if elected, they really might be able to do what they promised. The content of the contract was, in many ways, less important than the commitment and the photo.
As was the case with the Gingrich Contract, the CCP has released polls showing that the proposed reforms all enjoy 60 percent or more popularity. It is based on 10 legislative proposals ready for adoption. Unlike the Gingrich contract, the CPC’s affordability program aims to provide concrete help to American workers struggling with wages that are not keeping pace with the soaring costs of basic necessities. The reforms are summarized below.
The CCP initiative leads various efforts by progressive organizations to develop a bold and positive agenda for Democrats. The Working Families Party released its Worker Guarantee, a six-point platform that outlines both flagship progressive reforms, such as Medicare for All and a national union jobs program, and reforms that overlap with the CCP’s initiative. It was endorsed by 18 members of Congress, led by Senators Elizabeth Warren and Jeff Merkley, CCP Chairman Greg Casar, Ro Khanna and Pramila Jayapal. The PAM supports candidates who run with this guarantee, hoping to build an ever-stronger progressive push within the party.
Unions and citizen groups such as Communications Workers of America and People’s Action have launched deep listening sessions, in-depth discussions about what their members and activists want, to produce programs built from the ground up.
As part of Casar’s expansive vision, these efforts could be complementary. The CCP’s affordability agenda forms the basis of a compact with America that could be supported by the vast majority of the 435 Democratic candidates. The more radical Workers’ Guarantee from WFP and others can unify and support progressives committed to the fundamental “flagship” reforms the country needs.
Resistance to the calamity that is Trump 2.0 is essential. However, it is not enough to turn back the reaction. Americans are being scammed and looking for help. With its affordability agenda, the Congressional Progressive Caucus has launched the critical effort to ensure that with victory in the fall, help is on the way.
Affordability reforms promise to:
• Reduce the cost of prescription drugs by having the government produce generic drugs and supply them to the public at much reduced prices compared to current prices;
• Reduce housing costs by providing direct assistance to first-time home buyers and investing in affordable public housing;
• Reduce energy costs by cracking down on price gouging by monopolistic utilities and taxing the windfall profits oil companies are pocketing from Trump’s Iran debacle, returning the money to consumers;
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• Reduce child care costs through a universal child care program capping costs at 7 percent of family income;
• Reduce price gouging by prohibiting surveillance pricing that would allow large retailers to charge different prices for the same products;
• Reduce food costs by eliminating corporate patents on seeds, allowing farmers to replant them, leading to lower costs for consumers;
• Reduce the cost of family time by guaranteeing paid leave to the 27 million workers who are currently deprived of it;
• Provide wage and hour assistance by increasing overtime pay to double standard time, providing relief or reward to workers often forced to work overtime;
• Limit big money in politics, capping contributions to super Pacs at $5,000 a year, thereby limiting the ability of billionaires to overturn democratic elections.
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