Category Archives: Letters to Congress

a student raises their hand in a classroom Photo by Felicia Buitenwerf on Unsplash

Sign-on letter: 69 orgs call for canceling student debt to tackle economic fallout

Today, 69 community, civil rights, consumer, and student advocacy organizations sent a letter to House and Senate leadership, urging them to include student debt cancellation in the next coronavirus package.  The letter also calls on leadership to extend the suspension of payments on federal student loans through March 2021, as current estimates indicate that the economy will not recover to pre-virus levels until the third quarter of 2021.

Joint Letter: No Bailout for Private Equity

Congress needs to resist calls from private equity executives to gain access to pandemic-related bailout programs. Private equity-owned firms are not comparable to ordinary small businesses, who cannot draw on deep-pocketed Wall Street owners who could support them if they chose to do so. Private equity (PE) funds are pooled investment funds managed by Wall Street firms that purchase operating companies. Prominent examples of private equity-owned portfolio companies include Toys ‘R Us, Shopko, and TeamHealth.

The track record of private equity funds demonstrates that these firms will wherever possible seek to divert income streams, including government support, to wealthy private equity executives rather than supporting employment and customer service at portfolio firms.

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Letter to Congress: AFR endorses package of student borrower protection bills

Americans for Financial Reform wrote to Congress to express our support for The Student Borrower Protection Act, The Fair Student Loan Debt Collection Practices Act, and The Private Loan Disability Discharge Act. The student loan protections, transparency measures, and servicing reforms included in these bills are urgently needed so that borrowers are treated more fairly, basic standards are clearer, and borrowers facing challenging circumstances have every opportunity to succeed.

Letter to Congress: Broad Coalition Supports the Stop Wall Street Looting Act

Today, private equity and hedge fund managers take advantage of gaps in regulations to make billions of dollars by looting real-world businesses and engaging in abusive practices without any accountability. They also pay taxes at a lower rate than teachers and firefighters. The undersigned organizations support the Stop Wall Street Looting Act (S.2155 / HR 3848 ). This legislation would eliminate tax, securities and bankruptcy law carve-outs that allow these Wall Street titans to make billions at the expense of workers, communities and pensions.

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