The Center for American Progress (CAP) is a public policy research and advocacy organization which presents a liberal[2] viewpoint on economic and social issues.

[6] 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".

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".

[26] Senator Tammy Duckworth spoke at the first event announcing creation of the new project, which is housed within CAP's Poverty to Prosperity Program.

[27] The Center for American Progress has come out in opposition to the Heritage Foundation's "Project 2025,"[28] releasing detailed critiques of the proposed policies.

[32][33] In 2018, the center proposed an alternative to single-payer that would offer patients and employers a choice between government coverage and private insurance.

[35] 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.

[43] 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".

[46] 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.

Based on leaked emails, columnist Glenn Greenwald, for example, wrote that CAP had deleted references to Israeli settlement policies in reports by their staffers.

"[47] 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.

After the publication of the BuzzFeed story, CAP president Neera Tanden unintentionally used the first name of one of the anonymous women during an all-staff meeting to address their handling of the sexual harassment allegations.

Yasmine Taeb, an author of the report, said that they were instructed to remove the chapter or make dramatic revisions, alleging this was "because of how it was going to be perceived by Mayor Bloomberg."

CAP officials disputed her account, characterizing the changes as editorial decisions: detailed discussion of NYC policing was off-topic because the report had been "commissioned to examine right-wing groups targeting Muslims with explicit bigotry and conspiracy theories."

[60] Major individual donors include George Soros, Peter Lewis, Steve Bing, and Herb and Marion Sandler.

[60] In December 2013, the organization released a list of its corporate donors, which include Walmart, CitiGroup, Wells Fargo, defense contractor Northrop Grumman, America's Health Insurance Plans, and Eli Lilly and Company.

Named donors included the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates, each giving between $500,000 and $999,999.