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News Release | U.S. PIRG | Democracy

Sens. Udall, Tester Introduce Constitutional Amendments to Overturn Citizens United, Get Big Money Out of Elections

To date, 15 states and nearly 500 municipalities have called upon Congress to overturn Citizens United and related cases by amending the Constitution. The introduction of these two joint resolutions today takes that call seriously and moves us two steps closer to ensuring that in our democracy the size of your wallet does not determine the volume of your voice.

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News Release | U.S. PIRG | Democracy

Supreme Court Upholds National Voter Registration Act

U.S. PIRG applauds the Supreme Court’s ruling today, which upheld that the National Voter Registration Act preempts the Arizona law requiring additional proof of citizenship when registering to vote.

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News Release | U.S. PIRG | Health Care

Big Pharma's Pay-for-Delay Deals Take a Hit

Big Pharma's controversial "pay-for-delay" agreements took a hit today. In FTC v. Actavis, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) case against the payoff keeping generic AndroGel from the market can move ahead in the lower courts. The court chose not to declare all such payoffs unlawful, however, spurring consumer advocates to call on Congress to finish the job. 

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News Release | U.S. PIRG | Food

Unlikely Allies Voice Opposition to House Farm Bill

U.S. PIRG joined with taxpayer and environmental groups from across the political spectrum to voice shared opposition to much of the Farm Bill being considered by the House of Representatives. The Farm Bill passed by the U.S. Senate is nothing more than a giant handout to the largest, most profitable corporate agribusinesses. And Big Ag does even better under the current House bill.

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Blog Post | Democracy

Illinois and Delaware 14th and 15th States to Support Constitutional Amendment to Get Big Money Out of Elections | Blair Bowie

With the votes, Illinois and Delaware joined a steadily growing list, including 13 other states and nearly 500 municipalities, calling for an amendment to overturn the Supreme Court’s decision to equate money as speech and corporations as people.

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News Release | U.S. PIRG | Democracy

Sens. Udall, Tester Introduce Constitutional Amendments to Overturn Citizens United, Get Big Money Out of Elections

To date, 15 states and nearly 500 municipalities have called upon Congress to overturn Citizens United and related cases by amending the Constitution. The introduction of these two joint resolutions today takes that call seriously and moves us two steps closer to ensuring that in our democracy the size of your wallet does not determine the volume of your voice.

> Keep Reading
News Release | U.S. PIRG | Democracy

Supreme Court Upholds National Voter Registration Act

U.S. PIRG applauds the Supreme Court’s ruling today, which upheld that the National Voter Registration Act preempts the Arizona law requiring additional proof of citizenship when registering to vote.

> Keep Reading
News Release | U.S. PIRG | Health Care

Big Pharma's Pay-for-Delay Deals Take a Hit

Big Pharma's controversial "pay-for-delay" agreements took a hit today. In FTC v. Actavis, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) case against the payoff keeping generic AndroGel from the market can move ahead in the lower courts. The court chose not to declare all such payoffs unlawful, however, spurring consumer advocates to call on Congress to finish the job. 

> Keep Reading
News Release | U.S. PIRG | Food

Unlikely Allies Voice Opposition to House Farm Bill

U.S. PIRG joined with taxpayer and environmental groups from across the political spectrum to voice shared opposition to much of the Farm Bill being considered by the House of Representatives. The Farm Bill passed by the U.S. Senate is nothing more than a giant handout to the largest, most profitable corporate agribusinesses. And Big Ag does even better under the current House bill.

> Keep Reading
News Release | U.S. PIRG | Food

Senate Farm Bill Continues Giant Giveaways to Big Agribusiness

The farm bill, just passed by the Senate, would keep the gravy train flowing for big agribusiness, locking in their unjustified corporate handouts for the next five years. The House needs to make serious changes to this legislation or reject it entirely.

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Result | Higher Ed

Stopping Student Loan Interest Rates from Doubling

With college student debt reaching record levels, it is essential that we stop adding to students' loan burden. In spring 2012, U.S. PIRG speaheaded a coalition to stop the interest rate on federal Stafford student loans from doubling from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent. This increase would have cost eight million students an additional $1,000 per loan. At the coalition's urging, Congress came together to find a bipartisan solution, extending the low interest rate for an additional year.

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Result | Financial Reform

Reforming Wall Street

U.S. PIRG’s campaign to win historic Wall Street Reform was recognized by The Hill newspaper as one of the Top 10 lobbying victories of 2010, which wrote that, “[c]onsumer advocacy groups like the U.S. Public Interest Research Group and the Consumer Federation of America won big with the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency.” In addition, we worked to ensure the confirmation of Richard Cordray as director of the CFPB, ensuring that the new agency had the power to carry out its mission.

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Result | Health Care

KEEPING HEALTH CARE AFFORDABLE

Across the country, U.S. PIRG has stood up against unjustified rate hikes and won victories in Oregon and California so far. Thanks in part to our advocacy, California now requires insurers to justify rate hikes to the public, and Oregon state regulators recently cut a proposed 22% rate hike almost in half, saving $12.5 million for some ratepayers.  

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Result | Health Care

Young People Now Covered

This year, the federal health care reforms that U.S. PIRG worked to win have started to pay off for young people. In the past, teens saw their premiums soar or were denied coverage when they turned 19, even if they’d been insured their whole lives. Now, they can remain on their parents’ plans until age 26. 

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Result | Consumer Protection

Protecting Consumers from Credit Company Abuses

Credit card companies seeking even higher profits have invented a slew of unfair practices. U.S. PIRG played a crucial role in passing the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure (CARD) Act, which protects consumers and reins in the credit card companies' most abusive fees and practices.

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Report | U.S. PIRG | Higher Ed

Student Loan Debt in Maine

Without a new plan from Congress, on July 1 the interest rate on subsidized Stafford student loans will double, from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent. In Maine, 33,883 federal student loan borrowers will be impacted if the rate doubles.

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Report | U.S. PIRG | Public Health, Health Care

Prescription for Danger

Compounding pharmacies are increasingly behaving like pharmaceutical companies by producing drugs in bulk, despite the fact that they are not inspected or regulated like the pharmaceutical industry. Due to this lack of oversight, many compounding pharmacies have not adhered to safe manufacturing practices, and shown little regard for consumer safety. According to an analysis of warning letters sent to other compounding pharmacies by the FDA from 2002 to 2012, there is a long history of violations that have in many cases led to unnecessary illness, injury, and even death.

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Report | U.S. PIRG Education Fund | Transportation

A New Direction

The Driving Boom—a six decade-long period of steady increases in per-capita driving in the United States—is over. The time has come for America to hit the “reset” button on transportation policy—replacing the policy infrastructure of the Driving Boom years with a more efficient, flexible and nimble system that is better able to meet the transportation  needs of the 21st century. 

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Report | PennPIRG, PennEnvironment | Democracy

Elections for Shale

Fracking corporation EQT and the rest of the industry spend millions on electoral politics at the state and federal level, elevating their interests and making it more difficult for ordinary citizens to have their voices heard. Concurrently, the industry exploits loopholes to pay extremely low taxes, receives thousands of permits to drill on public lands, and is exempted from many basic environmental standards.

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Report | U.S. PIRG | Higher Ed

Issue Brief: Don't Double Our Rates

Congress should be helping to keep college affordable, not making it more expensive for student loan borrowers to pay for college.

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Blog Post | Democracy

Illinois and Delaware 14th and 15th States to Support Constitutional Amendment to Get Big Money Out of Elections | Blair Bowie

With the votes, Illinois and Delaware joined a steadily growing list, including 13 other states and nearly 500 municipalities, calling for an amendment to overturn the Supreme Court’s decision to equate money as speech and corporations as people.

> Keep Reading
Blog Post | Democracy

House Needs to Enhance, Not Eliminate, Programs That Make Elections Work for People | Blair Bowie

The House Administration Committee is considering legislation this week that would repeal the presidential public financing system and the financing system for conventions, and close the Election Assistance Commission. If passed, these bills would pose a significant threat to the integrity of our campaign finance and election systems.

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Blog Post | Food

Will U.S. trade deal with Europe threaten our safety and pocketbooks? | Ed Mierzwinski

(Updated 15 June 2013) U.S. officials have begun discussing a new Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership with Europe. The deal poses a serious threat to strong U.S food safety laws, new U.S. rules designed to prevent another bank-induced economic collapse and many other public protections. The threat will be lessened if the U.S. reverses its plan to conduct negotiations in the full view of some 600 industry "advisors" but secretly from the rest of us.

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Video Blog | Transportation

Webinar On "A New Direction" Report

Webinar on the report, "A New Direction: Our Changing Relationship with Driving and the Implications for America's Future."
 

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Blog Post | Democracy

IRS Scandal Highlights Need for Increased Transparency in Campaign Financing | Blair Bowie

It’s up to the IRS to ensure that nonprofits are not being used as illicit vehicles to funnel untraceable money into our elections. Unfortunately, the agency’s handling of this responsibility has been thoroughly outrageous, the latest scandal being just the latest example of disturbing action—or, as has been more often the case, inaction.

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Tools & Resources

  • FIGHT HIGH Rx COSTS
    Prescription drugs cost too much. Brand-name drug companies have been paying off generic drug makers to delay competition and keep prices high, and it's costing us billions. Together, we can stop them.
    Learn more
    TAKE ACTION
  • YOUR TAX DOLLARS BECOME CORN SYRUP
    At a time when one-in-three kids is overweight or obese, over a billion taxpayer dollars go to high-fructose corn syrup and junk food ingredients.
    Learn more
    Take Action
  • STOP TAX DODGERS
    Corporate tax avoidance cost taxpayers $100 billion last year. We're working to close the loopholes that allow companies to avoid paying the taxes they owe.
    Learn more
    Take Action
  • Reclaim Democracy
    The Supreme Court's Citizens United decision ushered in an era of unprecedented spending by big money in our elections, but we're working to return our democracy back to the principle of "one person, one vote."
    Learn more
    ADD YOUR VOICE

PRIORITY ACTION

When Big Pharma pays off their competition to keep them from selling lower priced generic drugs, we all pay. Each year this costs Americans an added $3.5 billion.

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