This whitepaper, written as part of America’s Power Plan, describes the need to update and improve America’s grid infrastructure. This is especially important as new energy sources and distributed generation are increasingly added to the system. This paper suggests five ways to reduce the institutional and political barriers to building new grid infrastructure; 1) assess and communicate the benefits of transmission expansion, 2) prioritize inter-regional lines that link balancing areas, 3) harmonize grid operations and increase market competition, 4) reduce timeline for planning, building, and siting transmission, and 5) optimize new transmission after its installation.