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NOTE TO REPORTERS: Using the CRA, Trump Repeals Broadband Privacy Protections and Other Safeguards Under Cover of Darkness

April 4, 2017

NOTE TO REPORTERS: Using the CRA, Trump Repeals Broadband Privacy Protections and Other Safeguards Under Cover of Darkness

President Donald Trump continues to lavish favors on corporate interests, in more of the corrupt insider-dealing he campaigned against. Late Monday night, he signed Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolutions of disapproval repealing several key public protections. These included broadband privacy protections, Alaskan wildlife protections and worker health and safety rules. On Friday night, Trump also signed a CRA resolution repealing commonsense limits on drug testing as a precondition of receiving unemployment benefits. The president now has signed 11 CRA resolutions.

It’s hard to imagine anyone in America wants telecom companies to have the right to systematically and pervasively invade our privacy. But in the past two years, Comcast spent more than $35 million and Verizon spent nearly $25 million on lobbying and political contributions. And now broadband privacy protections are gone. Altogether, corporate interests pushing CRA resolutions spend more than $1 billion a year on politics (PDF), and now they are getting their reward.

Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen, offered this reaction:

“The braggadocio president, who never saw a camera he didn’t want to preen for, is signing the only consequential legislation emerging from Congress away from the klieg lights. Why? Because these measures are payback to the corporate class that elected the Republican Congress and are designed to roll back measures with overwhelming support. Americans want protections against giant cable companies gathering and trading their personal data. They want safe workplaces. They want wild places preserved. The corporate president is signing measures to repeal these popular public protections to satisfy narrow corporate interests, even at expense of the public interest.”

Contact the individuals listed above to speak with an expert, and visit RulesAtRisk.org to track the latest developments involving the CRA.

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