THIS WEEK: "Regulatory uncertainty?!", Frackaholics Annonymous, FDA testimony and Trans-Pacific trade deals
Today, Public Citizen’s attention is on Congress as Obama’s pick for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Richard Cordray is questioned by confirmation hearing before the Senate Banking Committee. Read our latest Consumer Law & Policy blog post on why the GOP needs to stop with the obstructionism so the work on this important new bureau can move forward before the idea of Wall Street reform becomes a joke for yet another year ex post the global financial crisis.
Tomorrow, we will release a big study in collaboration with a Harvard professor that will make you think about the debate over corporate disclosure of political giving in a completely different way. Tune back in and find out what is sure to have everyone from Wall Street traders to congressional staffers talking!
Fresh off her arrest at the White House in protest of the Tar Sands pipeline, Public Citizen’s Allison Fisher is now on her way to Pennsylvania to a shale fracking conference protest. Learn why Public Citizen has been outspoken on the issue of hydraulic fracking here. And, see our blog posts on frackaholics.
On September 8-9, Mike Carome, of Public Citizen’s Health Research Group, will be testifying at the FDA’s Obstetrics and Gynecology Devices Panel of the Medical Devices Advisory Committee meeting regarding the use of surgical mesh products for transvaginal repair of pelvic organ prolapse. The testimony will parallel our petition to FDA on this issue, which all women of child bearing age should know about.
Another Public Citizen Health Research Group rep, Sammy Almashat will also be testifying before an FDA committee on the safety of bisphosphonates, a common treatment to prevent osteoporotic fractures.
The Obama administration is hosting trade negotiators from throughout the Pacific Rim in downtown Chicago this week and next to negotiate a new Trans-Pacific Free Trade Agreement. On Labor Day, Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch director Lori Wallach rallied with hundreds of activists in Chicago – representing dozens of local and national organizations – demanding a “fair deal or no deal.” Today, Lori joined iconic ice cream makers Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield in delivering over 10,000 hand-signed postcards to the U.S. negotiators urging them to ensure any Trans-Pacific trade deal advances labor, environmental and human rights standards at home and abroad. Learn more about Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch division.
Last, but far from least, we will continue to expose the fallacy that “regulatory uncertainty” is a job killer, rebuffing the administration whose last minute Bush-Era-Friday-before-Labor-Day-bad-news bomb about EPA regulations had us rolling and screaming! Get the facts from the Coalition for Sensible Safeguards here, and follow @RegsRock on Twitter for more.
Rachel Lewis is Public Citizen’s New Media strategist & online outreach coordinator. She prefers her elected officials with spine and T&Ts on the rocks. You can follow the latest from her and the Citizen Vox blog @Citvox and of course, @Public_Citizen!