THIS WEEK in the Halls of Power: We expose the medical device industry's attempts to put profits over safety and demand Starbucks
This week, we will present our take on the proposed Cap One-ING merger (hint: we have concerns that this would create another too-big-to-fail institution). An announcement from the Federal Reserve is due soon. Watch this space for more.
Also today, we will be giving you details about our petition drop at Starbucks headquarters. Late last Friday, Public Citizen activists submitted more than 15,000 signatures to Starbucks, demanding the company stop requiring gift card customers to give up their right to go to court. The terms of service of the coffee giant’s prepaid cards contain a forced arbitration clause and class-action ban that unfairly restricts its customers’ legal rights.
Speaking of petition drops, we will be joining folks from CALPRIG and Common Cause today to deliver more than 10,000 signatures to a California Assembly member calling on the state legislature to support a constitutional amendment to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision. That’s the one that let corporations spend as much as they want to influence elections.
Also today, we are urging everyone to tell the Senate not to approve the Keystone XL pipeline. A vote is scheduled for tomorrow, and Public Citizen is joining with other organizations to help generate 500,000 emails to senators in 24 hours. Make your voice heard on this critical issue!
You’ve seen the news reports about malfunctioning medical devices – the defibrillators that erroneously shock patients, the replacement hips that leach scraps of metal into their victims and so forth. Amazingly, the medical device industry is pushing Congress to speed up the approval process for medical devices. The trouble is, the approval process is already dangerously flawed, as evidenced by the fact that so many faulty devices are hitting the market. Tomorrow, watch for a significant report we will issue about the medical device approval process and what Congress should do. A congressional hearing on the matter is scheduled for Wednesday on the
And finally, an issue we’ve long fought for, a ban on Congressional insider trading, is on the verge of becoming law this week. The question is will this law have teeth or will House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and the one-percent he seems deadset on protecting claim another victory? Public Citizen President Robert Weissman wrote of Cantor’s move last week to strip the political intelligence registration provision of the bill,
It was quite a brazen move by Cantor. He knows Wall Street is unpopular. He knows the Democrats are going to attack him over the move. He has to know that he is defending the ability of a small slice of Wall Street traders gaining unfair advantage in the markets.
Weissman says, “Now the ball is back in our court.” So who is ready to play ball against these shape-shifters on the Hill? Find out what you can do to eliminate the Eric Cantor Wall Street trading loophole. And click here, to read Robert Weissman’s full post on the fight to ban Congressional insider trading.