National Consumers League announces support for Farm Bill – National Consumers League

/in /by

September 12, 2012

Contact: Carol McKay, NCL Communications, (412) 945-3242, carolm@nclnet.org

Washington, DC–Today, the National Consumers League (NCL), the nation’s oldest consumer advocacy organization, will participate in the Farm Bill Now! rally being held in Washington, DC, joining farmer, conservation, and nutrition groups, as well as members of Congress, to call for the passage of the farm bill that provides stability and a fair marketplace to farmers and protects the social safety net programs like SNAP (food stamps) for families in need.

“We are pleased to join this rally to support a robust and dynamic farm bill,” said Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director, who will speak at the rally. “NCL is pleased to provide a consumer perspective on this issue.”

The current farm bill, a large piece of legislation that forms the bedrock of farm policy in the United States, will expire on September 30. The farm bill includes 37 programs, including conservation measures and programs that promote the growth of local farmers markets.

“Eighty percent of the money from the farm bill goes to nutrition programs, most notably the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or food stamps. This critical measure is an essential part of the American safety net and has been particularly helpful during the recession of the past few years,” said Greenberg. “Without this program, which currently serves about 46 million Americans, many parents would have been unable to feed themselves and their children.”

As a program that kicks in during tough economic times, SNAP has proven not only a crucial part of the safety net but also a tool to stimulate economic activity. “Funding SNAP is of paramount importance and is good for those who benefit from the program and for the economy in general,” added Greenberg.

The rally will take place at 11:00 a.m. at Union Square in front of the Capitol Reflecting Pond.

###

About the National Consumers League

The National Consumers League, founded in 1899, is America’s pioneer consumer organization. Our mission is to protect and promote social and economic justice for consumers and workers in the United States and abroad. For more information, visit www.nclnet.org.

Letter from consumer groups in opposition to Independent Agency Regulator Analysis Act – National Consumers League

/in /by

September 11, 2012

Contact: Ben Klein, National Consumers League (202) 835-3323, benk@nclnet.org

Re:  S. 3468 Will Undermine Efforts by Independent Agencies to Protect Consumers

Dear Chairman Lieberman and Ranking Member Collins:

The undersigned national consumer protection organizations strongly oppose S. 3468, the Independent Agency Regulatory Analysis Act of 2012.  This bill would undercut the ability of independent federal agencies like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to protect consumers from predatory financial schemes, dangerous consumer products and costly, anti-competitive practices. Before considering a mark-up of this bill, we urge you to conduct a legislative hearing to thoroughly exam the effect of the bill on the many crucial consumer protection efforts that independent agencies are currently undertaking.

Our organizations have previously expressed detailed concerns about this bill in a letter from over 50 public interest organizations and academics. Most significantly for consumers, S. 3468 imposes duplicative and time-consuming requirements on independent agencies to conduct cost-benefit analyses of proposed protections. The Dodd-Frank Act already requires the CFPB to perform a cost-benefit analysis of all proposed rules, consider the effects of rules on small financial institutions and rural consumers, and conduct a lengthy assessment of the impact of rules on small businesses (under the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act).  The Magnusson-Moss Act already requires the FTC to meet extraordinarily burdensome rulemaking requirements that can require the agency to take a decade to finalize a rule.  The CPSC is already required to conduct cost-benefit analysis for many of its rulemaking proceedings. In fact, the CPSC’s inability to promulgate mandatory standards that would effectively protect consumers from product hazards led to the passage of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA).

This bill authorizes the President to issue an executive order requiring the CFPB and other independent agencies to conduct 13 additional cost-benefit analyses.   Such burdensome requirements will simply undermine the ability of agencies like the CFPB, the FTC and the CPSC to fulfill their consumer protection missions in a timely and effective fashion.

S. 3468 would also undermine the independence of these agencies to act on behalf of consumers by requiring the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) of the Office of Management and Budget to conduct a detailed review of significant policies (not just rules) proposed by independent agencies.  Congress establishes independent agencies in order to insulate them from undue political pressure from an Administration, whether Republican or Democratic. This measure would single-handedly eliminate that independence and hand special interests another tool that they can use to stop or delay urgently needed protections.

The federal rulemaking process is already lengthy and subject to undue influence by powerful special interests with prominent political patrons.  S. 3468 will make it even more arduous for independent agencies to propose and implement necessary consumer protection measures, while giving deep-pocketed opponents of such reforms another way to derail them. The end result will likely be harm to American consumers.

Sincerely,

Travis Plunkett
Legislative Director
Consumer Federation of America 

Rachel Weintraub
Director of Product Safety and Senior Counsel
Consumer Federation of America

Ellen Bloom
Senior Director of Federal Policy
Consumers Union

Ira Rheingold
Executive Director
National Association of Consumer Advocates

Gary Kalman
Director of Federal Policy
Center for Responsible Lending

Sally Greenberg
Executive Director
National Consumers League

Edmund Mierzwinski
Consumer Program Director
U.S. PIRG

Nasima Hossain
Public Health Advocate
U.S. PIRG

Political conventions feature impressive speakers, lack some important discussion – National Consumers League

/in /by

By Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director

This past week I attended the Democratic Convention in Charlotte. President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden were nominated once again on the Democratic ticket. Charlotte laid out the red carpet for delegates and attendees at the convention. I especially enjoyed meeting seven of America’s Olympic championship girls, including gymnast Gabby Douglas and Soccer player Abby Wambach, who were signing autographs at a special event for kids in downtown Charlotte.

I should note that I also had the opportunity to attend the Republican Convention this month, which I blogged about earlier. So now that I have had the privilege of attending both of the national parties’ conventions, I thought I’d discuss some of my impressions.

First, the focus of both campaigns is decidedly on middle-class voters. It’s all about how tax cuts will affect the middle class, jobs for the middle class, whether the middle class is better off today than it was 4 years ago when President Obama was elected. What I missed was any mention of how people who make minimum wage and are the working poor are doing. They number, according to the National Employment Law Project (NELP), an astounding 47 million. And middle-class jobs are disappearing at an alarming rate, so how do our leaders think we can lift people who are forced to live on low wages out of poverty – because minimum wage workers usually live below the poverty line. As NELP notes, these low wages are “driven in part by the steep erosion of wage standards throughout our economy.”

VP Joe Biden talked about the importance of good, middle-class jobs, but that’s as close as anyone got to the issue.

My Labor Day post addressed the condition of those 47 million low-wage workers. These are the people who are behind counters at airports, train stations, fast food restaurants, and convenience stores. What’s the plan to get American companies to give these folks a path to a better life, and why is no one talking about those millions of workers?

This disappearing middle class is a national crisis, but our politicians don’t talk about it.

I also heard precious little at either convention about global warming and the environmental crisis we face. Senator John Kerry, who ran for President in 2004 on a platform robust with concerns about—and solutions to address—global warming, mentioned the crisis exactly once in his speech at the Democratic Convention. And yet, the Wall Street Journal reported this week (“Record Ice That in Arctic and Greenland”): “The Northern Hemisphere’s largest expanses of ice have thawed faster and more extensively this year than scientists have previously recorded. And the summer isn’t over.” The consequences for climate across the world are enormous; changes in the ice of the far North can raise sea levels and affect weather throughout the hemisphere by altering wind currents, heat distribution and precipitation. But to listen to politicians over the last two weeks, you’d never know we are facing an environmental crisis.

On a more positive note, the conventions gave us a chance to see some amazing people in action. I was struck by the number of articulate and compelling women who spoke at the Conventions.

Ann Romney was smart and thoughtful and an accomplished speaker. I had never before seen her in action, and I was very impressed with her poise. Though I didn’t much care for what South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley had to say about Voter ID laws (she supports them), she is an equally effective and attractive speaker.

The Democratic Convention featured a riveting talk by First Lady Michelle Obama, who caused a few commentators to say the next day, “SHE should be running for President.” Jill Biden talked warmly about her VP husband’s lifelong devotion to making life better for the middle class, and Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm provided a theatrical performance that won’t soon be forgotten as she described the jobs that were preserved as a result of auto industry loans. All these women—Republican and Democrat—should be a great source of pride for both parties. They are in some ways the best news the parties have to offer and both Republicans and Democrats are smart to give them center stage.

In addition to my list above, there are a number of other issues of national significance neither party chooses to address; consumer protection issues were largely overlooked, as was sensible gun regulation. As we count down the next two months until the election, I hope we can count on voters to ask the politicians some of the tough questions that got short shrift during the Conventions.

LifeSmarts launches 2012-2013 season at www.lifesmarts.org – National Consumers League

/in /by

September 10, 2012

Contact: Carol McKay, National Consumers League (412) 945-3242, carolm@nclnet.org

Washington, DC—The 2012-2013 LifeSmarts season is officially underway this week, with a new competition year going live at the program’s online home, www.lifesmarts.org, along with a variety of new consumer resources for adult and youth participants. LifeSmarts is an educational competition run by the National Consumers League that tests middle school and high school students nationwide on real-life consumer issues through online quizzes and live competition. It culminates in the annual national LifeSmarts championship, taking place this competition year in Atlanta, GA, where winning teams and individual students are awarded academic scholarships and prizes.

“We’re thrilled to be launching the 19th year of LifeSmarts,” said Program Director Lisa Hertzberg. “LifeSmarts delivers life skills to students and allows them to shine in competitions where they demonstrate their knowledge of personal finance and consumer issues. It also provides thousands of teachers across the country with up-to-date, broad-based consumer education resources.”

Over the years, LifeSmarts has steadily grown in numbers of student and adult participants, state partnerships, and supporters. In the most recent season, an estimated 100,000 students and teachers across the country answered more than 3.5 million LifeSmarts questions.

“As the consumer marketplace has become more challenging to navigate, LifeSmarts content is keeping up, preparing our teens and tweens to become the next generation of smart consumers and workers,” Hertzberg said.

LifeSmarts provides participants with practical advice and information on consumer issues ranging from personal finance and health and safety to the environment, technology, and consumer rights and responsibilities. Starting online each fall, the competition progresses to live state play-offs, and then builds to a high-spirited National Championship. At last year’s national competition held in Philadelphia, the Maryland team took home top honors after competing for four days against state champion teams from across the country.

This year, the National Consumers League is expanding LifeSmarts to partner with coordinators in 34 states, including new partners Georgia 4-H, the Louisiana Attorney General’s Office, the Maine Jump$tart Coalition, and the New Mexico Council on Economic Education. Other state coordinators include Better Business Bureaus, credit unions, consumer protection agencies, and State FCCLA organizations. Interested students and adults can visit the LifeSmarts Web site to connect with the program in their state.

“The National Consumers League’s mission is to inspire confidence and safety in the marketplace,” said Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director. “The LifeSmarts program fosters students’ understanding of consumer issues and provides them with real-world knowledge they will need to take charge of their lives.”

New this fall at www.lifesmarts.org are dozens of up-to-the-minute teaching resources for educators, including innovative lessons housed within the LifeSmarts U virtual campus, daily practice quizzes, question-of-the-day calendars, and more, all utilizing thousands of new competition questions.

Major LifeSmarts contributors include Visa, Western Union, UL, Experian, Toyota Financial Services, American Express, American Century Investments Foundation, Bridgestone Retail Operations, LLC, McNeil Consumer Healthcare, TracFone Wireless, Inc., and others. To see a full list of current LifeSmarts contributors, visit www.lifesmarts.org.

To test your LifeSmarts, take a sample daily quiz at www.lifesmarts.org.

###

About the National Consumers League and LifeSmarts

The National Consumers League, founded in 1899, is America’s pioneer consumer organization. Our mission is to protect and promote social and economic justice for consumers and workers in the United States and abroad. For more information, visit www.nclnet.org.

LifeSmarts is a program of the National Consumers League. State coordinators run the programs on a volunteer basis. For more information, visit: www.lifesmarts.org, email lifesmarts@nclnet.org, or call the National Consumers League’s communications department at (202) 835-3323.

Newborn circumcision rates trending unfortunately downward – National Consumers League

/in /by

By Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director

There are certain topics in public health that involve body parts that evoke embarrassment when raised for discussion but are absolutely critical in achieving optimal health – breastfeeding is one of them, and male circumcision is another. Breastfeeding may be embarrassing to some folks, but it shouldn’t be; it’s a totally natural act that not only leads to a myriad of positive health outcomes for the baby – fewer allergies, fewer illnesses, less incidence of obesity – but also for the nursing mother, including lower rates of cancer and diabetes.

Recently, USA Today reported on a series of improved medical outcomes brought about by male circumcision – a topic which some might find embarrassing but that is proving critical not only to men’s health, but also the health of their sexual partners. Unfortunately, rates of circumcision have been dropping since the 1970s, in part because shockingly, Medicaid programs have stopped covering the procedure in 18 states. About 56 percent of newborns were circumcised in 2008, down from 64 percent in 1995. In the 1970s and 80s, nearly 80 percent of male babies were circumcised. If the trend continues, and rates drop to 10%, this would mean:

  • 211% more urinary tract infections in baby boys
  • 12% more HIV cases in men
  • 29% more Human Papillomavirus in men
  • 18% more high risk HPV infections in women

More cases of cervical and penile cancer linked to HPV would result. Researchers estimate the each skipped circumcision in men costs an additional $313 in medical bills, which totals over a decade to $4 billion. These estimates are based on a study in Uganda in which men underwent circumcision and were followed, along with their female partners.

Interestingly, the American Academy of Pediatrics is about to issue a new policy statement that changes their formerly neutral stance and now will say that circumcising baby boys has significant health benefits. There are some risks as well, bleeding, pain and possibility of infection, that AAP’s research acknowledges. But this new information on circumcision is evidence-based research at its best. And we welcome these new studies in our quest to provide baby boys – and the men they grow up to be – with the best possible health outcomes.

Labor Day in America – National Consumers League

/in /by

By Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director

Today is Labor Day in America – a time to celebrate workers the world over and take stock of the welfare of America’s workers. The fact is that wages and working conditions for millions of American employees have deteriorated; the once thriving middle class working in union jobs that saw its heyday after World War II, has dwindled as America’s most powerful employers have successfully fought to undermine the labor movement and its ability to negotiate for decent wages and benefits. From 1973 to 2011, the share of the workforce represented by unions declined from 26.7 percent to 13.1 percent.

A few weeks ago I listened to the book on tape version of Nickel and Dimed, the 2001 bestselling account by American author Barbara Ehrenreich –which I read when it came out – chronicling her year-long experience trying to survive on minimum wage jobs. When Ehrenreich published the book 10 years ago, it had a big impact; it seemed everyone was reading it and pledging to do something to improve the plight of minimum wage workers. But the latest edition of Ehrenreich’s book includes a foreword where we are 10 years later. It’s not happy news. Things are worse, not better, for low-income workers. Those low paid jobs were at least plentiful. Today, with employment hovering between 8 and 10 percent depending on where you live, even those lousy jobs with no benefits are hard to come by.

But NCL’s history of advancing the cause of workers continues unabated, and this is a good time to reflect on what we are doing to raise awareness about the quality of life for America’s working families.

  • This week Reid Maki of our staff and I read essays and reviewed posters prepared by farmworker teens. These youngsters described waking up at 3 am with their parents, driving 2 or more hours to a field only to spend 12 hours picking fruit for less than minimum wage, all the while subjected to bee stings, ladder tip overs, and relentless beating sun. It’s clear from these poignant stories that the lives of migrant farmworkers – their living conditions, their lack of benefits on the job, their minimal pay – have improved only marginally in the last 50 years. NCL champions the cause of farmworker children through our Child Labor Coalition, working to break the cycle of poverty for low wage migrant farm worker kids by getting them out of the fields and into schools.
  • During Restaurant Week in Washington August 13-19, NCL staff distributed flyers in front of local venues facing lawsuits for their poor worker treatment. We called for paid sick days and health care for restaurant workers and an end to the poverty level tipped wage of $2.75 an hour.

When, on August 31st , the Washington Post editorialized in support of Walmart opening in DC’s Ward 4, NCL responded with a Letter to the Editor. (Whether the Post will publish our letter we don’t know.) Walmart is notorious for paying low wages and stinting on benefits and working conditions. The Post claims that Walmart’s promise to hire 300 people and pay $2.5 million in taxes makes them an attractive employer. NCL begs to differ. Our letter to the Post noted that an employee who works Walmart’s definition of full-time (34 hours per week) makes just $15,500 per year. Thousands of people who work full-time at Walmart live below the poverty line and are forced to utilize state subsidized benefits. Walmart employees cost taxpayers more than $1 billion nationwide. We also noted that a Chicago study from 2009 shows that businesses within one mile of a Walmart Supercenter have a 25 percent chance of shuttering in the first year, and a 40 percent chance of shuttering in the second year. “DC doesn’t need Walmart, it needs employers who pay fair wages and benefits to workers and a good corporate citizen and neighbor.”

While NCL strives to draw attention to improving the wages of American workers, we learned that a majority of jobs lost during the economic downturn of the last few years were in the middle range of wages, while a majority of those added during the recovery are low paying, according to the National Employment Law Project. Jobs with median hourly wages of $7.69 to $13.83, accounted for 21 percent of job losses during the retraction. Since employment started expanding, they have accounted for 58 percent of all job growth. The middle third — occupations in fields like construction, manufacturing and information, with median hourly wages of $13.84 to $21.13 — accounted for 60 percent of job losses from the beginning of 2008 to early 2010. The job market has turned around since then, but those fields have represented only 22 percent of total job growth.

There are many more examples –few of them uplifting – about the state of labor today, especially for workers at the bottom of the totem poll. What can be done? For starters, for low-income workers, we can support legislation to increase the minimum wage to $9.80 by July 1, 2014. S. 3453 and HR 6211, the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2012, would do that. Raising wages of about 28 million workers, who would receive nearly $40 billion in additional income over the phase-in period, and it would stimulate the economy!

And we can support the right to unionize and frankly, do a far better PR job publicizing the value of unions in improving wages and working conditions across all industries. According to the Economic Policy Institute, Between 1973 and 2011, the median worker’s real hourly compensation (which includes wages and benefits) rose just 10.7 percent. EPI: “ A major factor driving these trends has been the ongoing erosion of unionization and the declining bargaining power of unions, along with the weakened ability of unions to set norms or labor standards that raise the wages of comparable nonunion workers.” EPI’s research is incontrovertible and we need to make that public.

Finally, we need to draw attention to the massive profits that so many American companies enjoy – in 2011 Apple made $25 Billion in profits, Walmart $15 Billion – and yet so few are willing to share that wealth with their workforce without a union in place. What if Walmart raised its minimum wage to $15 an hour – no one will get rich on that but it’s closer to a living wage? Apple could do the same – why not share your riches with the workers?

This Labor Day, we should resolve to redouble our efforts, explain to the public more effectively why laws like the Employee Free Choice Act are needed to promote union membership, we need to demand that companies making billions in profits can well afford to raise the wages they pay to their workforce, and we should commit ourselves to improving the standard of living for all working families.

Labor Day reflections: “Save Money. Live Better” ? – National Consumers League

/in /by

By Brianne Pitts, NCL public policy intern

This Labor Day here at the National Consumers League, we’d like to talk about an American company that has surpassed all others in profits and power in the marketplace. We are asking the question: At what cost? Shouldn’t acompany be about more than profits when those ever-growing profits come at the cost of the quality of life of their millions of employees?

You guessed it – the company is the mega-retailer, Walmart. When consumers think of Walmart, what comes to mind? Low prices? Perhaps the corporation’s slogan “Save money. Live better?” This multinational, American-based retailer has cut costs on everyday goods, and purports to have changed the lives of Americans, but has the change really been for the better? Low prices, sure, but these inexpensive items come  at a high cost:lost American businesses, outsourcing, and violations of labor laws. Walmart’s practices may hurt consumers more than their “low prices” help them.

Edward Fox of J.C. Penney’s Center for Retailing Excellence observes,  “Clearly, Walmart is more powerful than any retailer has ever been. It is in fact, so big and so furtively powerful as to have become an entirely different order of corporate being.” Walmart grossed an astonishing $443 billion last year in revenue and has been achieving similar numbers for the past five years. This success has led Walmart to accrue over $15 billion in profit last year alone. The massive retailer also employs over 2 million workers worldwide, over half of whom are American. With all of its economic power, Walmart is an integral part of the American and the global economy.

It is deeply disappointing then that this mega-corporation has offered low prices by driving down worker wages and by forcing suppliers to meet rock bottom price demands that in turn, force suppliers to cut corners and reduce pay, creating a downward spiral on wages and benefits. For Walmart, it’s all about increasing profits and reducing costs. –Author of the article “The Walmart You Don’t Know,” Charles Fishman says, “Walmart wields its power for just one purpose: to bring the lowest possible prices to its customers.” Walmart’s low prices and ability to draw consumers from large geographic areas means a large market share, and forces smaller businesses tolose customers or go out of business completely.

Much of Walmart’s manufacturing is done in China, where labor laws  may appear good on paper – 8 hour days, no forced overtime, etc. –but are rarely enforced in practice.  The abuse of worker rights in China is legendary. Just look at the electronic manufacturing giant, Foxconn.Workers there are often not allowed to talk to one another, and often work mammoth numbers of overtime hours with no additional pay. Conditions are so bleak that the company had to install suicide netting to prevent workers from jumping off of factory buildings.

Walmart has been forced to pay millions of dollars to thousands of workers over allegations of wage theft, including the failure to pay overtime and the misclassification of workers. In 2008 alone, the company agreed to shell out between $352 million and $640 million to settle 63 wage and hour lawsuits filed against the company in more than 40 different states.

The company has been cited for not allowing rest or lunch breaks, and threre have been multiple claims that managers at Walmart warehouses harass their employees to keep working even after they have acquired work-related injuries.

Walmart’s stinginess when it comes to paying its workers has consequences. “Because Wal-Mart wages are generally not living wages, the company uses taxpayers to subsidize its labor costs,” noted. Congressman George Miller (CA-7), a member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, in a study, “Every Day Low Wages: The Hidden Price We All Pay for Wal-Mart.” : The company shifts much of the burden of healthcare and other costs to employees, said Miller, The lack of a living wage requires more than $2,000 per Walmart employee in taxpayer services, according to the study’s estimate. As Walmart’s profit grows, its impoverished workforce’s need for the welfare system growsand, ironically, so does its need forlow-price items like those sold at Walmart.

We shouldn’t make the mistake of believing that paying low wages, being stingy on benefits, and engaging in different forms of wage theft, are necessary to provide reasonable prices.  Many companies – including the Container Store, Costco, QuickTrip, and Trader Joe’s – provide a different, and we believe, far better  model. These companies demonstrate that paying fair wages can increase consumer satisfaction, sales, profits, and still keep prices reasonable for consumers.

Walmart’s slogan “Save money. Live better.” is a fiction. Consumers may save money in the short term, but we all pay for the consequences of this company’s litany of unfortunate business practices that pervade its entire supply chain. So this Labor Day, we ask consumers to stop, look, listen and ask questions about the places they shop. If you see incredibly low prices, stop for a second and ask: “At what cost are these prices so low?”