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.
AFR joined 39 other organizations urging Congress to staff the five-member panel tasked with monitoring the corporate bailout with members who have experience with oversight and/or investigations and have proven commitment to principles of transparency and accountability.
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.
Americans for Financial Reform and 62 other organizations sent a letter to members of Congress asking them to implement broad-based, efficient, and effective relief for millions of people and small businesses in the U.S.
Joint letter in support of the Housing Fairness Act of 2020
AFR and 84 organizations sent a letter in support of the Comprehensive CREDIT Act of 2020, which would make the credit reporting system more accurate and fairer to consumers.
