July 21, 2026: Washington, DC – The National Consumers League, Consumer Federation of America, and 29 other stakeholders sent a letter to members of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation opposing the confirmation of Brien Lorenze and Karen Sessions to serve as commissioners of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). The committee is scheduled to vote on the nominations tomorrow.
July 20, 2026: Washington, DC – The National Consumers League, alongside the Campaign for Fairer Gambling, the National Council on Problem Gambling, the Public Health Advocacy Institute, and Truth in Advertising, Inc. (TINA.org), today filed a petition calling on the Federal Trade Commission to require wagering apps to provide consumers better control over the notifications they receive.
July 7, 2026: Between 9.9 and 14.9 million—the number of people that could become uninsured as a result of the cuts and work requirements imposed by H.R.1, commonly known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
July 2, 2026: Washington, DC – Today, the National Consumers League and 14 other organizations submitted comments to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) opposing a petition from X Corp. (formerly Twitter) to discard an order requiring the company to maintain privacy and cybersecurity safeguards. The order—unanimously approved in 2022 by two Republican and two Democratic commissioners—was necessitated after Twitter repeatedly violated a preexisting privacy order it had been under since 2011. The 2011 order was also ratified unanimously at the time by two Republicans and three Democrats.
July 1, 2026: Washington, DC – One year after the enactment of President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the National Consumers League (NCL) warns that millions of Americans will face new barriers to obtaining and maintaining Medicaid coverage.
June 29, 2026: Washington, DC – Today, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter and other formerly independent agency heads across the government by allowing the president to fire them at will. This decision reverses nearly a century of Supreme Court precedent and granted President Trump significant and consolidated power.
June 25, 2026: Washington, DC– At a time when poison control centers report a nearly 1,500 percent increase in calls since 2019 about overdosing and serious adverse events related to injectable compounded GLP-1 weight loss drugs, the National Consumers League (NCL) is calling on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to act with a sense of urgency in finalizing a rule that will establish “no medical or clinical need” for continued mass compounding of these medicines.
June 24, 2026: Washington, DC – Today, the National Consumers League (NCL) submitted a letter for the record in advance of a Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee hearing on the nominations of Brien Lorenze and Karen Sessions to be Commissioners of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).
June 18, 2026: Washington, DC – The Child Labor Coalition (CLC) applauds Senator Patty Murray and Representative Rosa DeLauro for reintroducing the Children Harmed in Life-threatening or Dangerous (CHILD) Labor Act. According to recent reporting, the number of child labor violations has risen fivefold in the last 10 years.
June 17, 2026: Washington, DC – The National Consumers League (NCL) is offering a stark warning about the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF)’s sweeping proposal to rollback 34 regulations governing the buying, selling, and owning firearms.
The work of the National Consumers League is making a difference in people’s lives across the country. Meet some of the consumers touched by our programs.
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Paige, 55, a Nashville wife and mother of two, answered an employment ad for secret shoppers. Before sending payment to the scammers, she reached out to NCL.
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A grease fire flared up in Decklan’s kitchen. As his family scrambled and panicked, fearing that the whole house might erupt in flames, Decklan remained calm. He hurried over to the pantry, grabbed some baking soda, and dumped it on the fire quickly extinguishing the blaze.
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Cincinnati resident Charles, 45, lost his computer business — and health insurance— during a time of economic downturn. A diabetic, Charles was now unable to afford his medication. He stopped taking it which made him seriously ill and put his life at risk.
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Jeremy is a fast-food worker who has been employed at a number of Chipotle restaurants in New York City. When he was just 20 years old, he took part in an NCL research project that revealed that management practices within the fast food chain were putting workers—and food safety for customers—at risk.
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By Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director
While the COVID-19 pandemic has led to hardship for all Americans, it is clear that people of color have been disproportionately burdened. Across the health care continuum, addressing this disparity has become part of the broader conversation about the history of systemic racism and the underlying social determinants of health that negatively affect the mental, physical, and economic health of individuals and entire communities.
The pandemic has underscored persistent health disparities, and there is growing recognition that representation in research and clinical trials can have a profound impact on health outcomes. A lack of representation from racially and ethnically diverse groups in research and clinical trials have typically led to gaps in data, missing the opportunity to assess the full impact of various treatments and drugs across a range of populations. The collection and use of real-world research and data to inform the potential use, risks, and benefits of medical products and treatments can ultimately lead to better health outcomes, particularly for those who have been underrepresented in the past.
Existing efforts to improve inclusion
Efforts to expand diversity and representation in medical research are underway in Congress. Policymakers are encouraging the incorporation of Real World Evidence (RWE) in drug development through the recent Cures 2.0 draft legislation released by Reps. Diana Degette (D-CO-1) and Fred Upton (D-MI-6). While the status quo limits us from effectively reaching underserved populations, the proposed legislation would allow studies that include RWE for some drugs after they have been approved. At the heart of this issue is a growing appreciation that the same therapy can affect different populations in different ways, which is why Cures 2.0 supports collecting data that more accurately reflects the unique experiences and needs of patients across diverse populations.
Recognizing the potential for RWE in maternal health
The lack of representative research in the field of maternal health is undeniable, and its implications are staggering. The dismal state of maternal care in the United States reflects how our health care system has failed women of color, including by not adequately studying treatment options to prevent maternal morbidity and mortality. The need for RWE is clear when you consider the persistent disparities in health outcomes that plague minority communities.
Preterm birth and its disproportionate impact on women of color is a stark illustration of the need to make progress on representative research in maternal health. Preterm birth is the second-largest contributor to infant death in America today. Despite the tremendous physical, emotional, and financial toll that preterm birth continues to take on our country — disproportionately so on women and families of color — not enough therapeutic tools currently exist to prevent it.
Today, “17P,” the only FDA-approved treatment to help reduce the likelihood of spontaneous, recurrent preterm birth in the United States is at-risk of being withdrawn from the market in all its forms, including the branded product and five generic versions. Unfortunately there is conflicting evidence from two different clinical trials, one representative of a diverse U.S. population and another studied in a largely white population in Europe. It’s not a straightforward comparison. If 17P is withdrawn, the women most affected by preterm birth, predominantly women of color, would be left without an FDA-approved treatment option.
The FDA is considering the path forward, including additional data collection through leveraging RWE from past patient use. The success of the first (approval) trial for 17P in the impacted communities signals the importance of RWE. Continued access to 17P is, at its core, a matter of health equity. Black women must not yet again be left vulnerable to a system that historically has overlooked them.
