New America is committed to renewing American politics, prosperity, and purpose in the Digital Age.

event April 14, 2016

Paid Leave Leapfrogging

Anne-Marie Slaughter

Join the World Bank Group's Women, Business and the Law and New America's Better Life Lab for a conversation about these global lessons, and how laws, regulations and institutions differentiate between women and men and affect their capacity to work or set up a business. Pulling from the World Bank Group's most recent Women, Business and the Lawreport and using the combined expertise of local, national and world experts, we'll shed a spotlight on two issues that are particularly important to encouraging women's labor force participation and entrepreneurship: paid leave and flex time.

Upcoming Events

Holy Lands

EVENT April 13, 2016 12:00 PM– 01:30 PM
New America

Wednesday April 13, 2016

12:00 PM – 01:30 PM


[u'New America', u'740 15th Street NW', u'Suite 900', u'Washington DC 20005']

Today the Middle East is torn apart by sectarian wars. Yet in the nineteenth century, the Middle East was more tolerant than Western Europe. In his new book Holy Lands: Reviving Pluralism in the Middle East, Nicolas Pelham, argues that the Ottoman Empire allowed religious pluralism and self determination to flourish until European powers broke the empire up into secular nation-states, a spectacular failure spawning sectarian violence since. The solution, Pelham argues is to try and revive the lost pluralist tradition.Nicolas Pelham is The Economist’s correspondent in Jerusalem and writes on Arab affairs for The New York Review of Books. He first worked as a journalist in Cairo in 1992 and then joined the BBC Arabic Service. From 2001 to 2004 he reported for The Economist and the Financial Times in Iraq and Jordan. He is the author of A New Muslim Order (2008) and co-author with Peter Mansfield of A History of the Middle East (2010).

More about the event

Paid Leave Leapfrogging

EVENT April 14, 2016 12:00 PM– 01:30 PM
New America

Thursday April 14, 2016

12:00 PM – 01:30 PM


[u'New America', u'740 15th Street NW, Suite 900', u'Washington, DC 20005']

Join the World Bank Group's Women, Business and the Law and New America's Better Life Lab for a conversation about these global lessons, and how laws, regulations and institutions differentiate between women and men and affect their capacity to work or set up a business. Pulling from the World Bank Group's most recent Women, Business and the Lawreport and using the combined expertise of local, national and world experts, we'll shed a spotlight on two issues that are particularly important to encouraging women's labor force participation and entrepreneurship: paid leave and flex time.

More about the event

The State of the Afghan Economy

EVENT April 15, 2016 12:15 PM– 01:45 PM
New America

Friday April 15, 2016

12:15 PM – 01:45 PM


[u'New America', u'740 15th Street', u'Suite 900', u'NW, Washington DC 20005']

What is the state of the Afghan economy? With the fate of the American military presence under discussion and efforts underway to further develop indigenous sectors and expand Afghanistan’s trade network, it is a time of economic change in Afghanistan. Will Afghanistan meet its growth goals? What are the government’s development priorities?

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Books

All Books
press release | April 12, 2016 | Open Technology Institute

Coalition Urges Congress to Reject Anti-Net Neutrality Bill

Today, New America’s Open Technology Institute (OTI) joined 49 consumer advocates and technology organizations in a letter urging Congress to reject a harmful bill that the House of Representatives plans to vote on later this week. The legislation, H.R. 2666, would make it practically impossible for the Federal Communications Commission to enforce the 2015 Open Internet Order.

article | April 12, 2016 | Open Technology Institute

Equal Access to Congressional Service Reports Act of 2016

Open Technology Institute

Every day, Members of Congress and their staffs are forced to consider and make decisions on dozens of critical issues. In order to do that, they need access to unbiased and complete information about these issues. That’s why the Congressional Research Service (CRS), housed within the Library of Congress, is a critical support agency for Congress. However, the reports generated by CRS are not publicly available to taxpayers that fund them. We recently signed onto letters to the House and Senate, led by the Congressional Data Coalition, requesting these reports be made available online as a publicly available resource.

in the news | April 11, 2016 | Open Technology Institute

Building a digital Lifeline for America's families

Sarah Morris

Late last month, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to modernize the Lifeline program in the most wide-ranging national effort ever enacted to remove cost barriers to broadband. By doing so, the FCC formally recognized that in the digital age, broadband access is a fundamental tool, rather than a luxury.++++While significant, the FCC decision is only one step toward achieving robust broadband adoption for millions of low-income American families. Having consistent, quality access to broadband is critical to resolving the "homework gap" between low-income kids and their more privileged peers. Quality connectivity is no less important for their parents, for whom opportunities for employment and skills training are increasingly migrating online.