PRESCRIPTION DRUGS—U.S. PIRG Consumer Advocate Lindsey Johnson was interviewed on CNN Headline News on July 29 about the safety of prescription drugs imported from Canada.

U.S. PIRG Backs Drug-Safety Bill

Despite years of warnings from FDA drug reviewers, the FDA took no significant action to protect consumers from the deadly side effects of the painkiller Vioxx.

The Vioxx scandal and other problems have led U.S. PIRG Consumer Advocate Lindsey Johnson to lobby Congress to pass legislation to reform the FDA, introduced by Sens. Grassley (IA) and Dodd (CT).

On September 30, 2004, Merck finally pulled Vioxx from the market— nearly four years after completing a study that revealed people taking Vioxx were five times more likely to have a heart attack than people taking other painkillers.

Epidemiologists have estimated that in less than five full years on the market, Vioxx accounted for more than 140,000 cases of heart disease in the United States—and up to 40 percent of those cases resulted in death.

The Food and Drug Administration Safety Act (S 930) would give the FDA more authority to protect consumers from dangerous drugs and inform doctors of new drug safety concerns.

Administration Dumps Sewage Dumping Plan

In a victory for clean water and public health, the Bush administration withdrew its proposed sewage dumping policy in May.

If finalized, this U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) policy would have allowed inadequately treated sewage to flow into America’s lakes and rivers, exposing more people to bacteria, viruses and other pollutants found in sewage.

“Americans rely on our waterways for safe drinking water and for clean places to swim and fish. This decision shows that citizens’ concern for clean water can trump Washington politics,” said U.S. PIRG Clean Water Advocate Christy Leavitt.

EPA announced its decision just hours before the House of Representatives voted to stop the proposal from being finalized.

Leavitt applauded Congressional champions Reps. Bart Stupak (MI), Clay Shaw (FL), Frank Pallone (NJ) and Jeff Miller (FL) for leading this successful bipartisan effort, and called on EPA to further protect U.S. waters by ensuring and enforcing sewage treatment.

Shareholders Tell Oil Companies: Save Refuge

This spring, a significant block of shareholders at two of the world’s largest oil companies— ExxonMobil and ChevronTexaco— voted to push their companies to stay out of the Arctic Refuge.

The resolutions, organized and filed by a U.S. PIRG-led coalition that includes the Sierra Club and Green Century Capital Management, were supported by more than 9 percent of ChevronTexaco shareholders and more than 8 percent of ExxonMobil shareholders.

This show of shareholder support means that each resolution can be voted on again at the 2006 annual meetings of each company.

Report: Campaign Finance Reform Flawed

CAMPAIGN FINANCE—U.S. PIRG Democracy Advocate Adam Lioz spoke at a debate and forum on campaign spending limits at the Georgetown University Law Center on August 2.

“The Role of Hard Money”—a new report by U.S. PIRG democracy advocates Gary Kalman and Adam Lioz—takes a critical look at the impact of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002.

After the first full election cycle with the new law in place, U.S. PIRG found that candidates and political parties raised more money than ever before, topping $2.5 billion.

Big money still determined the outcome of 97 percent of races; and competition dropped as fewer candidates chose to compete.

The law, initially supported by U.S. PIRG, was crippled in an eleventh hour compromise that traded a ban on unregulated “soft” money for doubling the limits on regulated “hard” money contributions.

Voicing strong opposition to the compromise, PIRG made a series of controversial predictions on how the higher contribution limits would undermine the long-soughtafter goals of reform. Unfortunately, many of these predictions have now come to fruition.