Make Progress National Summit ...1 of 3 >
July 16, 2014 - About 800 young people gathered at JW Marriott for Generation Progess' Make Progress Summit, a day of speeches, breakout sessions and networking.  Generation Progress (known until last year as Campus Progress), is a project of the Center for American Progress; this was their tenth summit. 
Generation Progress policy director Sarah Audelo spoke with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) about a number of subjects including student loan debt, combating sexual assault on college campuses, women running for office, and changes needed in the workplace such as equal pay for equal work and paid leave.  Gillibrand talked about Off the Sidelines, "a call to action to all of America's women to ask them to be heard on whatever issues they care about."  (Off the Sidelines is Gillibrand's PAC as well as the title of the book she has coming out in September).  On the workplace, Gillibrand said that some women face "a chronic pull down to the bottom, and what we call it is the sticky floor.  Women cannot get off the sticky floor; they cannot get out of the lowest wage jobs, and constantly being pushed down into the low wage jobs."  Gillibrand concluded urging the audience of young progressives to speak up on these issues.  "Your voice reallly matters; you can change the outcome of these debates all across the country," she said.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) focused on her Bank on Students bill.  The Bank on Student Emergency Loan Refinancing Act, which she introduced in May, would allow students to refinance their student loan debt at lower interest rates, funded by limiting tax breaks for the wealthy.  It is, said Warren, a simple choice: "students or billionaires."  
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) participated in a discussion on "preventing gun violence in our communities" with Sarah Clements and Ronnie Moseley.  "We can win this fight," Murphy said.
During a breakout session on leadership development, participants considered several different leadership approaches.
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