In the discourse surrounding student debt cancellation, some pundits and lawmakers have consistently missed the mark on the benefits this policy will bring. Too many have ignored the very serious ways that student debt is a disproportionate burden on women borrowers, and Black women with student debt in particular.
The “Climate Roadmap for U.S. Financial Regulation,” from Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund and Public Citizen, outlines how Biden appointees can protect investors, workers, and the economy from the escalating risks caused by the climate crisis, while also shifting the regulatory framework towards one that promotes the transition to a low-carbon future.
“The nonprofits Public Citizen and Americans for Financial Reform have released an early copy of their new “roadmap” for climate-finance reform to The Weekly Planet. It’s a guide to what the new executive branch might do to shift the flows of capital toward greener investments.”
“Not that this will be easy. Yesterday, Senator Pat Toomey, a Republican from Pennsylvania, wrote a letter to the San Francisco Fed implying that it should stop researching “climate economics,” labeling the topic “bitterly partisan.” He’s not wrong—climate change is bitterly partisan. But all of the country’s largest banks have issued climate policies nevertheless. And if it is partisan, that is because partisans fought greenhouse-gas regulation for so long that climate change has become a costly and whole-of-society issue. The financial system is where those costs come to roost. Any big problem, ignored for long enough, becomes a financial issue.”
On the one-year anniversary of the CARES Act, AFR calls for more oversight in future COVID recovery legislation along with Public Citizen and POGO, to advance a more equitable recovery.
AFR joins a letter to the White House and the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE), calling on President Biden to nominate individuals to fill the fourteen open inspector general positions by June 1, 2021. Inspectors general are a linchpin of government accountability yet fourteen of the seventy-four total offices of the inspectors general are vacant. The ongoing response to COVID-19 has demonstrated the importance of using all available mechanisms within the federal government to ensure proper oversight and accountability of government programs.
AFR joins 338 groups representing all 50 states and the District of Columbia called for Congress to support a resolution to overturn rule that fosters loans with triple-digit interest rates that evade state and voter-approved interest rate caps
AFREF joined our partners in sending a follow-up letter calling on the CFPB to rescind its April 1, 2020 guidance allowing consumer reporting agencies and furnishers to exceed the dispute investigation deadlines under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. In the six months since we sent our last letter, the situation has only gotten worse, with nearly 26,000 more complaints submitted by consumers about delayed or nonexistent responses to credit/consumer reporting disputes. We urged the Bureau to revoke the guidance as soon as possible to prevent further consumer harm.
AFR released housing policy recommendations to promote equitable housing access for all people in the United States, minimize pervasive harm from the COVID-19 pandemic, hold predatory actors accountable, and expand sustainable opportunities in communities of color.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – March 24, 2021 – New concerns are being expressed today by a wide-ranging group of organizations and experts who are urging the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold the rights and protection of investors against corporate misconduct. In a sign-on statement from 38 groups and individuals the authors warn the pending case “has potentially far-reaching and devastating implications” for investors and market integrity
AFREF joined a sign on letter highlighting critical shareholder rights at stake in the Goldman Sachs Supreme Court Case.