📬 LP Network Download | Defending immigrants and affordability in our neighborhoods | August 2026

🖊️ Sign On: Push Congress to Vote on the American Dream and Promise Act

Local Progress endorsed the discharge petition for the American Dream and Promise Act, introduced by Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia, which creates a pathway to citizenship for those eligible for TPS as of January 1, 2024, DACA recipients, and undocumented youth who have been in the US since age 18. The petition is just a handful of signatures away from going to the full House for a vote. Check whether your Member of Congress has signed yet, and sign on to this letter to local and state elected officials urging Congress to act by September 3! 

🏠 Bold Housing Solutions: A Toolkit for Pennsylvania Municipalities

Housing should be for people, not profit. That’s why Local Progress Impact Lab is releasing a resource with Regional Housing Legal Services on bold tactics local elected officials in Pennsylvania can take to bring down the cost of housing in their communities. The Bold Housing Solutions toolkit covers policies to make housing in Pennsylvania more affordable, protect renters, and prevent displacement, including anti-retaliation, funding, zoning, eviction protections, rent stabilization, social housing, and more! 

📕 New Preemption Report: The Hidden Heist

Our partners at PowerSwitch Action published a critical report on the corporate actors behind preemption and how it fits into a broader strategy to shift our country away from free and fair democracy. This report, entitled The Hidden Heist: How Corporations Push State Bans to Keep Us Broke & Hijack Our Democracy, reveals how corporations in different states, industries, and eras have used the same playbook to ban a wide range of community-driven solutions.

It includes:

• Corporate power vs community progress: The two-century history of corporations and wealthy elites hijacking democracy.
• State case studies: Exposing how corporations have banned affordable housing solutions, higher wages, and livable workplaces in California, Colorado, Missouri, Tennessee, and Texas.
• The repeat tactics: How corporations buy, bully, and bamboozle to get their way.
• The repeat villains: The industry groups, corporations, and ideological think tanks that push state bans from state to state.

🗳️ 9/23: Election Protection Webinar Series

Join Local Progress Impact Lab for a series of webinars to learn what we can do to protect the 2026 midterms and ensure our elections are safe in the face of authoritarian threats. Each call will feature guidance from expert partners on key election protection strategies and space for individualized technical assistance. Our next session, Messaging for Trust & Combating Disinformation, will take place on Wednesday, September 23, 7:00pm ET/4:00pm PT. Join to learn about the threat landscape and ways to build people power and resiliency to defend our right to vote. These webinars are only open to LP members. As a reminder, we’ve published a new Policy Bulletin, Protecting the 2026 General Election, with expert resources and concrete actions you can take to protect our vote.

🏟️ 9/16: Governing During Mega-Events

Mega-events like the World Cup, Olympics, and Super Bowl can bring major changes to a city’s housing, transportation, labor market, public spending, and development priorities. For local leaders, they also create a compressed window to plan, coordinate across agencies and jurisdictions, and make decisions with long-term consequences. Join Local Progress Impact Lab and Next City on September 16 at 3:00pm ET/12:00pm PT for The Home Field Advantage: Local Power in Mega-Event Governance. Hear from King County Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda, Philadelphia Councilmember Isaiah Thomas, and Play Fair ATL’s Michael Collins about what the 2026 World Cup can teach us about using local power to prevent displacement, protect workers, demand accountability, and ensure mega-events leave communities stronger, not sidelined.

🛡️ 9/22: Personal Safety Workshop for Local Electeds

At a time when communities are calling on local governments to take bold action and stand in the way of the Trump administration’s authoritarian power grabs, the safety of local elected officials has come under increasing threat. From school board members to county commissioners, everyone needs to consider what they need to keep themselves and their loved ones safe. Local Progress has partnered with the Women’s Democracy Lab to develop resources to help LP members bolster their physical and digital security, including creating a personal safety plan. Join us on September 22nd at 3:00pm ET/12:00pm PT to connect with other LP members and get the tools you need to affirm your safety as a local elected official.

🛑 9/24: Resisting 287(g) Agreements Webinar 

Join the Local Progress Impact Lab on Thursday, September 24 at 3:00pm ET/12:00PM PT for “Resisting 287(g) Agreements.” The 287(g) program enlists local law enforcement into Trump’s mass deportation agenda by training local and state law enforcement officers to act as ICE agents. Law enforcement agencies that participate in 287(g) agreements engage in more racial profiling and escalatory violence while decreasing community trust. Congress followed direction from the Trump Administration to allocate $261 billion to persecute immigrants by slashing funding for Medicaid and SNAP. Now that funding is providing payouts to jurisdictions that participate in 287(g) agreements.

This webinar will cover background on the 287(g) program, including the different types of agreements and the harms of the program; how to cancel and oppose 287(g) agreements and how to block future agreements; and harm reduction strategies for jurisdictions in states that require participation in the 287(g) program. Register now!