Press Releases Archives - Page 11 of 31 - Americans for Financial Reform

photo of a student borrower looking sadly at the sky - Photo by Matese Fields on Unsplash

Statement: AFR Applauds Schumer, Warren Resolution Calling on Trump to Cancel Student Debt

We applaud Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Elizabeth Warren’s Resolution calling on the Trump Administration to cancel student debt. Cancelling student debt will provide both immediate financial relief to millions of Americans, and crucial economic stimulus for everyone during this protracted crisis — boosting GDP and job creation at a time of intense labor shocks and economic contraction.

News Release: Senate Pandemic Relief Bill Would Weaken Key Safeguard Against Financial Crisis

A provision inserted by Sen. Mike Crapo, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, would encourage Trump-appointed regulators, who have already sought to reduce the minimum amounts of their own risk capital that banks have to hold during the COVID-19 pandemic, to go further. Sen. Susan Collins, sponsor of the part of Dodd-Frank in 2010 that Crapo wants to gut, has already filed an amendment that would strike the part of Republican bill that would make this change. The Senate should follow her lead and preserve minimum statutory thresholds for bank capital.

News Release: Private equity-backed nursing homes do worse during pandemic for residents and staff

Private equity-owned and -backed nursing homes had higher COVID-19 infection and fatality rates for residents, and those same facilities had a disproportionate share of the COVID-19 resident and staff cases and deaths relative to public, non-profit, and other for-profit nursing homes in New Jersey, according to a new report from Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund (AFREF).

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News Release: CFTC Rule Dismantles Key Guardrail for Derivatives Market

Cross-border derivatives regulation is the latest area in which Trump appointees are systematically dismantling the post-2008 framework for regulation of Wall Street and the global “too big to fail” banks. Today, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission drastically weakened their rules governing the massive global markets for financial derivatives.

students in graduation cap and gowns - Photo by Caleb Woods on Unsplash

AFR Supports Rep. Alma Adams’ Amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act

“Rep. Adams’ amendment gives borrowers a chance to recover on the same timeline the economy is projected to need to return to pre-coronavirus productivity. Granting the same CARES Act suspension of student loan payments to private student loan borrowers, and extending the suspension to September 2021 will mean more funds for food, medicine, and basic household needs.”

a student with books - Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash

AFR Supports Rep. Madeline Dean’s Amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act

“Rep. Dean’s amendment would put borrowers and their families on stronger financial footing and accelerate the economic recovery. Providing up to $10,000 in immediate assistance to pay down a private student loan offers much-needed and long-term relief to the 6 million private student loan borrowers who were left out of the CARES Act entirely.”

Statement: AFR Mourns Passing of Civil Rights Legend John Lewis

AFR joins the Civil Rights Movement and the nation in mourning the passing of John Lewis. We celebrate his leadership, his outsized contributions to the struggle for racial and economic justice – until the very end of his life – and his steadfastness in demanding and defending a more robust democracy. His work as a legislator with a strong moral compass advanced all these strands of work and highlighted the relationship between them all.

Joint Statement: 103 Organizations Agree – Congress Needs to Cancel Student Debt

Today, 103 civil rights, consumer and advocacy organizations and think tanks sent a joint letter to House and Senate leadership, urging them to include student debt cancellation in the next economic stimulus package.

Led by American for Financial Reform, Demos, Center for Responsible Lending and Freedom to Prosper, the letter stresses the ways that if left unaddressed, the student debt trap will deepen our current recession, slow our economic recovery, exacerbate inequality, and deepen a crisis already facing black and brown borrowers and families.

News Release: Improve Fed Facility to Help States and Municipalities Handle Coronavirus Crisis

States and localities provide critical public services, and more than 1.5 million state and local jobs have been lost since February. Without credit support like that which should be provided by this Facility, deeper job losses and service cuts can be expected as states grapple with unprecedented fiscal challenges in the face of the coronavirus crisis. Supporting states and localities is critical for economic recovery and for assisting communities impacted by the dual public health and economic crisis we face.

eagle statue outside a federal reserve bank

Statement: AFR on the Fed’s “Broad Market Index” for the Secondary Market Corporate Credit Facility

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York announced the initial composition of the index they will be using to purchase corporate bonds through its Secondary Market Corporate Credit Facility (SMCCF). The corporations included in their June 5 “Broad Market Index” raise serious concerns about public benefit, solvency, and further incentivizing companies to take on additional debt unnecessarily.