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News Release | U.S. PIRG Education Fund | Financial Reform

Consumer Advocates File in Support of Acting CFPB Director Leandra English

This is a joint press release from U.S. PIRG Education Fund and other leading consumer and civil rights organizations explaining our amicus (friend of the court) brief filed today in support of acting CFPB director Leandra English. English was appointed acting director by outgoing director Richard Cordray, but the President has claimed authority to appoint Office of Management and Budget director Mick Mulvaney to simultaneously be acting director of the Consumer Bureau. English seeks a preliminary injunction blocking the Mulvaney appointment.

News Release | U.S. PIRG | Public Health

2016 Shows First Decline In Antibiotics Sales For Livestock, Following Numerous Commitments From Restaurants And Food Companies

Today, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released its annual report of antibiotics sales for livestock and poultry, showing the first decline in year-to-year sales since recording began. Overall, sales of medically important antibiotics to food animals decreased by 14 percent from 2015 through 2016.

Blog Post | Financial Reform

We Oppose S2155, Senate Banking Bill Is Not A Consumer Protection Bill | Ed Mierzwinski

We've sent a letter up to the Senate Banking Committee urging opposition to a bi-partisan proposal to roll back certain protections for consumers seeking mortgages and also certain safety-and-soundness protections enacted to give prudential regulators more authority to prevent large -- but not the largest -- banks from taking on too much risk. The bill will likely be voted on Tuesday.

News Release | U.S. PIRG | Tax

Senate Passes Tax Bill

Michelle Surka, program advocate with U.S. PIRG, on the passage of the Senate tax bill

Blog Post | Financial Reform

Consumer Bureau Threatened By President's Assertion He Can Select Temporary Director | Ed Mierzwinski

With the departure yesterday of director Richard Cordray from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, we don't doubt that the President has the authority to nominate a new director of the Bureau. But the President's assertion later that day that he can and would appoint his own temporary or acting director -- at odds with the plain language of two laws -- places the bureau's leadership in crisis.

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News Release | U.S. PIRG Education Fund | Financial Reform

Consumer Advocates File in Support of Acting CFPB Director Leandra English

This is a joint press release from U.S. PIRG Education Fund and other leading consumer and civil rights organizations explaining our amicus (friend of the court) brief filed today in support of acting CFPB director Leandra English. English was appointed acting director by outgoing director Richard Cordray, but the President has claimed authority to appoint Office of Management and Budget director Mick Mulvaney to simultaneously be acting director of the Consumer Bureau. English seeks a preliminary injunction blocking the Mulvaney appointment.

News Release | U.S. PIRG | Public Health

2016 Shows First Decline In Antibiotics Sales For Livestock, Following Numerous Commitments From Restaurants And Food Companies

Today, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released its annual report of antibiotics sales for livestock and poultry, showing the first decline in year-to-year sales since recording began. Overall, sales of medically important antibiotics to food animals decreased by 14 percent from 2015 through 2016.

News Release | U.S. PIRG | Tax

Senate Passes Tax Bill

Michelle Surka, program advocate with U.S. PIRG, on the passage of the Senate tax bill

News Release | U.S. PIRG | Financial Reform

Statement On Departure Today of Consumer Bureau Director Richard Cordray

U.S. PIRG and the state PIRGs commend Rich Cordray for his over six years as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s first director. In its short years as the nation’s top consumer cop, all under Director Cordray, the young Bureau has returned $12 billion dollars to over 29 million consumer victims of financial schemes by wrongdoers ranging from Wall Street banks, mortgage companies and for-profit schools to debt collectors, credit bureaus and payday lenders. FULL STATEMENT FOLLOWS.

News Release | U.S. PIRG | Financial Reform

Groups Demand To Know How Much Money Equifax Making Off Data Breach

Recent rosy earnings reports from Equifax and Transunion suggest that the company and its competitors are profiteering from consumer misery caused by the Equifax breach. They're hawking extremely-lucrative subscription credit monitoring products (up to $19.95/month or more) and charging us, in over 40 states where fees are allowed, for the privilege of placing a credit freeze to protect our own credit reports. Read our group press release, which links to our group letter to the Big 3 credit bureau CEOs.

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Result | Transportation

66 Mayors Sign Letter to U.S. DOT Urging Action to Reduce Carbon Emissions from Transportation

By 2050, nearly 70 percent of the world’s population will live in cities. While strong urban centers provide many important benefits, cities also face unique challenges. Despite accounting for just 2 percent of landmass, cities produce 70 percent of the world’s CO2 emissions. This sad reality jeopardizes the health of urban residents and the health of our planet. That's why today, U.S. PIRG is proud to announce the support of 66 mayors, representing an estimated combined total 6.4 million people, in calling on the United States Department of Transportation to move forward with new rules that could require localities to track, measure, and take steps to reduce carbon emissions from transportation sources.

Result | Democracy

Delivering one million petitions to President Obama on dark money

U.S. PIRG joined a broad coalition to deliver one million petitions from Americans, including U.S. PIRG members and supporters, calling on President Obama to shine a light on dark money, or secret political spending.

Result | Consumer Protection

30 years of toy safety

For the past thirty years, our sister organization U.S. PIRG Education Fund has taken a close look at the safety of toys sold in stores. Their reports have led to more than 150 regulatory actions. In November 2015, they released our 30th annual Trouble in Toyland report.

Result | Democracy

Giving more Americans a greater voice in our elections

In our democracy, the size of your wallet shouldn’t determine the volume of your voice. In 2015, we helped win reforms in Maine and Seattle to ensure that more Americans have a greater say in our elections. Seattle’s Initiative-122 empowers small donors with “democracy vouchers” that can be donated to local candidates and lowers the cap on contributions. In Maine, the state’s Clean Elections Act was improved by strengthening campaign finance disclosure laws and offering qualifying candidates increased public funding.

Result | Public Health

Convincing McDonald’s and Subway to protect public health

In 2015, bolstered by the support of more than 100,000 members and supporters, we convinced both McDonald’s and Subway to take action to protect public health. In March, just two days after we delivered more than 30,000 petitions to McDonald’s headquarters, the company announced that they would stop serving chicken raised on medically-important antibiotics. And in October, after more than 100,000 called on the chain to take action, Subway announced a similar policy for all the meat they serve.

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Report | U.S. PIRG Education Fund | Consumer Protection

Trouble in Toyland 2017

For over 30 years, U.S. PIRG Education Fund has conducted an annual survey of toy safety, which has led to over 150 recalls and other regulatory actions over the years, and has helped educate the public and policymakers on the need for continued action to protect the health and wellbeing of children.

Toys are safer than ever before, thanks to decades of work by product safety advocates, parents, the leadership of Congress, state legislatures, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).

Report | U.S. PIRG Education Fund | Consumer Protection

Lead In Fidget Spinners

While lead in toys has become less prevalent in recent years, U.S. PIRG Education Fund tested several models of one of today’s hottest toys, fidget spinners, for the toxic heavy metal. Laboratory results indicated that two fidget spinners purchased at Target and distributed by Bulls i Toy, L.L.C. contained extremely high levels of lead. U.S. PIRG Education Fund calls on Target and Bulls i Toy to immediately recall these two fidget spinners and investigate how such high levels of lead were found in these toys. Also, we call on the U.S.

Report | US PIRG Education Fund & Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy | Tax

Offshore Shell Games 2017

U.S.-based multinational corporations are allowed to play by a different set of rules than small and domestic businesses or individuals when it comes to paying taxes. Corporate lobbyists and their congressional allies have riddled the U.S. tax code with loopholes and exceptions that enable tax attorneys and corporate accountants to book U.S.-earned profits in subsidiaries located in offshore tax haven countries with minimal or no taxes. Often a company’s operational presence in a tax haven may be nothing more than a mailbox.

Report | U.S. PIRG Education Fund & Frontier Group | Consumer Protection

Older Consumers in the Financial Marketplace

Older consumers are at risk of harm from predatory financial behavior. An analysis of more than 72,000 financial complaints submitted by older consumers (those 62 years of age and older) to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB, or Consumer Bureau) and contained in its Consumer Complaint Database suggests that mistreatment of older consumers by financial companies is widespread.

Report | U.S. PIRG Education Fund | Public Health

Chain Reaction III

The third annual Chain Reaction report, which grades companies on their antibiotics policies and practices, found that 14 out of the top 25 restaurants in the U.S. have taken steps to restrict the routine use of antibiotics in the production of the chicken they serve, up from nine just one year ago. While restaurant chains made great progress on chicken, the groups who authored the report found that there were no new commitments to limit antibiotic use in beef and pork.

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Blog Post | Financial Reform

We Oppose S2155, Senate Banking Bill Is Not A Consumer Protection Bill | Ed Mierzwinski

We've sent a letter up to the Senate Banking Committee urging opposition to a bi-partisan proposal to roll back certain protections for consumers seeking mortgages and also certain safety-and-soundness protections enacted to give prudential regulators more authority to prevent large -- but not the largest -- banks from taking on too much risk. The bill will likely be voted on Tuesday.

Blog Post | Financial Reform

Consumer Bureau Threatened By President's Assertion He Can Select Temporary Director | Ed Mierzwinski

With the departure yesterday of director Richard Cordray from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, we don't doubt that the President has the authority to nominate a new director of the Bureau. But the President's assertion later that day that he can and would appoint his own temporary or acting director -- at odds with the plain language of two laws -- places the bureau's leadership in crisis.

Blog Post | Food

GUEST BLOG: THE FARM BILL MUST BE REFORMED

Many of our positions on food and farm policy align with those of Rep. Blumenauer, with whom we worked closely on the last Farm Bill. He has been and continues to be a champion on important farm and food issues, and we’re pleased to have him as a guest blogger.

Blog Post | Financial Reform

Halloween Over, But Congress Mixing Up Witches' Brew of Bank Rollbacks Anyway | Ed Mierzwinski

Yesterday, the Senate Banking Committee announced a bi-partisan bill designed to weaken bank regulations in numerous ways. Today the House Financial Services Committee votes on nearly two dozen bills. The worst would allow payday lenders and other seeking to avoid strong state laws under a new rent-a-bank scheme. It's Halloween again on Capitol Hill, with tricks for consumers and taxpayers, and treats for banks and payday lenders.

Blog Post | Financial Reform

We Warn Congress: After Equifax, Firms Will Step Up Trojan Horse Efforts to Eliminate State Privacy Laws | Ed Mierzwinski

Like clockwork, after any big data breach is disclosed, powerful special interests seek to turn the problem into a bigger problem for consumers by using it as an opportunity to enact some narrow federal legislation that broadly eliminates state data breach notice, state data security and other privacy protections. I testified yesterday in the House warning of their Trojan Horse efforts, which not only take away existing laws, but deny any new laws, even on new problems identified.

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Protect bees AND Our Food Supply

Millions of the bees that pollinate our food are dying off every year, and scientists say a widely-used class of pesticides is one of the causes. Let's ban bee-killing pesticides.

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Recall Lead-Laden Fidget Spinners

When we found alarming levels of lead in some fidget spinners sold at Target, the retailer stopped sales. Now, Target, the CPSC & Bulls-i-Toy need to negotiate a full recall to protect our kids.

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What You Need To Know About The Equifax Breach

Hackers gained access to the personal data of as many as 143 million Americans in the Equifax breach. Learn how to protect yourself.

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Consumer Protections At Risk

Congress is one step closer to rolling back consumer protections established after the 2008 financial crisis. Help keep the financial cop on the beat.

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DEFEND THE CFPB

Tell your senators to oppose the “Financial CHOICE Act,” which would gut Wall Street reforms and destroy the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as we know it.

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