Corporate Accountability

Amendment To Strike Title II From FISA Amendments Act of 2008

hmoroz — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 16:30:58 -0400

Legislation

The middle class

Supports

Video Summary

Injustice Facts

Year in which the United States Constitution established “the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures”: 1791

Year Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) was passed: 1978

Number of warrants the federal courts approved under the FISA in 2004: 1,758

Number of warrants courts rejected under FISA in 2004: 4

Date on which federal district court judge ruled that "the president of the United States ... has undisputedly violated the Fourth [Amendment] in failing to procure judicial orders" for unwarranted wiretap surveillance activities: August 17, 2006

Overview/Summary

Middle Class Position Analysis

The Middle Class Supports. Granting retroactive immunity to companies that illegally spied on citizens sets a dangerous precedent for corporations to trample the rights of middle-class Americans without having to face any consequences for breaking the law. Telecommunications companies, at the behest of the Bush Administration, illegally monitored American citizens’ private e-mail correspondence, phone calls, password protected web activity, and other communications. This violated Americans’ Fourth Amendment right against unwarranted searches and seizures, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and the contractual rights of private customers who signed privacy agreements with these companies. Our civil justice system allows regular Americans to hold corporations accountable when they violate cherished rights such as those outlined in our Constitution. Granting retroactive immunity would weaken middle-class Americans’ ability to take on powerful corporations for breaking the law. What’s more, retroactive immunity would weaken the ability of middle-class consumers to trust that their contracts with corporations will be honored and that the legal system will treat their constitutional rights as more than symbolic. In short, granting retroactive immunity would severely undermine Americans' faith in the legal system. Granting retroactive immunity also sets a dangerous precedent by giving the Administration unbridled power, under the guise of pursuing security interests, to pressure companies into violating Americans’ rights with impunity and to protect those corporations from liability for a range of other violations of the law.

Quotes from Experts

Beyond this Bill

Additional Resources

“The Case Against Retroactive Amnesty for Telecoms,” from the Electronic Frontier Foundation

“ACLU vs. AT&T and Verizon” updates on the lawsuits filed in August 2006 from the American Civil Liberties Union

Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2008

atraub — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 16:31:29 -0500

Legislation

The middle class

Video Summary

Injustice Facts

Overview/Summary

Middle Class Position Analysis

Quotes from Experts

Beyond this Bill

Additional Resources

Amendment To Strike Retroactive Immunity From Intelligence Legislation of 2008

atraub — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 15:30:53 -0500

Legislation

The middle class

Supports

Video Summary

Injustice Facts

Year in which the United States Constitution established “the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures”: 1791

Year Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) was passed: 1978

Number of warrants the federal courts approved under the FISA in 2004: 1,758

Number of warrants courts rejected under FISA in 2004: 4

Overview/Summary

Middle Class Position Analysis

Quotes from Experts

Beyond this Bill

Additional Resources

“The Case Against Retroactive Amnesty for Telecoms,” from the Electronic Frontier Foundation

“ACLU vs. AT&T and Verizon” updates on the lawsuits filed in August 2006 from the American Civil Liberties Union

Home Ownership Preservation and Protection Act of 2007

atraub — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 11:05:57 -0500

Legislation

The middle class

Video Summary

Injustice Facts

Overview/Summary

Middle Class Position Analysis

Quotes from Experts

Beyond this Bill

Additional Resources

Consumer Product Safety Commission Reform Act of 2007

atraub — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 11:00:02 -0500

Legislation

The middle class

Video Summary

Injustice Facts

Overview/Summary

Middle Class Position Analysis

Quotes from Experts

Beyond this Bill

Additional Resources

FDA Amendments Act of 2007

atraub — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 15:29:15 -0500

Legislation

The middle class

Supports

Video Summary

Injustice Facts

Number of letters sent by the FDA to pharmaceutical manufacturers warning them that they had violated regulations for prescription-drug advertising in 1997: 142

Number of letters sent in 2006: 21

Percentage of the warning letters regarding direct-to-consumer advertisements between 1997 and 2006 that admonished drug companies for minimizing drug risk or exaggerating drug effectiveness: 84

Pounds of imported foods the average American eats in a year: 260

Percentage of food imports currently inspected by the FDA: 1

Estimated number of Americans who become sick each year due to food-borne illness: 76 million

Overview/Summary

Middle Class Position Analysis

The Middle Class Supports. Middle-class Americans depend on over-the-counter and prescription drugs for everything from relieving aches and pains to sustaining life. Because these medications are so important, and because every drug has risks associated with it, the power this legislation provides the FDA to more closely regulate the pharmaceutical industry is vital. Middle-class Americans, inundated with advertisements extolling the benefits of innumerable and at times indistinguishable medications, need the FDA to ensure that the drugs they rely upon are safe and appropriate for the individuals to whom they are marketed.

For more than five years, 20 million Americans took the arthritis pain medication Vioxx before studies demonstrating an increased risk of heart attacks associated with the drug forced Merck to withdraw it. The new authority that this legislation grants the FDA to demand post-approval studies of medications is a regulatory tool that could have exposed the risks associated with Vioxx much sooner, saving many Americans from heart attack and death. Fines to punish false advertisements will do much to ensure that Americans are not misled about the purposes, risks, and benefits of the medications they are taking. Finally, the concealment and obfuscation of safety information that puts consumers at risk of taking dangerous drugs – a charge that Merck has faced in the products liability litigation involving Vioxx – will be made difficult by the FDAAA’s expansion of public access to safety data. A public database of clinical trial data with mandatory disclosure requirements will allow consumer advocacy groups, concerned academics, and products liability litigators, along with jealous industry competitors, to expose misinformation, ultimately protecting middle-class consumers.

Quotes from Experts

Beyond this Bill

Additional Resources

“Drug Safety: FDA Needs to Further Address Shortcomings in Its Postmarket Decision-making Process,” from the GAO

“Prescription Drugs: Improvements Needed in FDA’s Oversight of Direct-to-Consumer Advertising,” from the GAO

“The Future of Drug Safety: Action Steps for Congress,” from the Institute of Medicine

Shareholder Vote on Executive Compensation Act of 2007

atraub — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 16:47:03 -0400

Legislation

The middle class

Supports

Video Summary

Injustice Facts

Total 2006 profits of California tech company Synnex Corp.: $51.4 million

Approximate ratio of every dollar Synnex earned that went directly into the pocket of CEO Robert Huang, according to the Los Angeles Times’s California Executive Pay Report: 1:7

Amount that Huang’s outsized pay package reduced the value of each company share, according to the Los Angeles Times: $2.90

Proportion of Americans who say CEOs are overpaid: 8 in 10

Average percentage of company profits paid to the top five executives at U.S. companies in 1993: 5

Average percentage paid to the top five executives in 2003: 10

Overview/Summary

Middle Class Position Analysis

The Middle Class Supports. Today nearly half of Americans own some stock, with many middle-class families relying on 401(k)s and other investments to finance their retirement security or help their children afford college. Workers with traditional pension plans, including many public employees, also have a stake in the long-term financial performance of companies their pensions are invested in. As a result, the retirement security middle-class Americans work a lifetime to earn can be thrown into jeopardy by lavish CEO pay and retirement packages that reward executives with hundreds of millions of dollars even if they perform poorly or behave unethically. Excessive CEO pay not only cuts into the company’s bottom line, but can also provide incentives for CEOs to manipulate earnings or encourage mergers that pump up their compensation packages but are unprofitable for the company as a whole – directly undermining shareholder value.

Simply put: when CEOs get sumptuous rewards for inferior or mediocre work, middle-class Americans get short-changed on the retirement benefits they’ve earned. Yet so far there is little shareholders can do to curb the excesses of companies in which they have a vital stake. This bill would introduce an important element of accountability, giving all shareholders “a say on pay” in the form of a non-binding advisory vote to the Board of Directors. Although the vote is non-binding, knowing they have option to vote increases shareholders’ scrutiny of CEO pay and provides regular shareholder feedback to Boards of Directors. The mechanism of a non-binding vote on compensation has been used successfully in Britain, Australia, and other countries to put the brakes on questionable compensation plans and tie CEO pay more closely to performance. Some U.S. companies, such as the health insurer AFLAC, have also voluntarily adopted a shareholder vote on executive compensation, which they regard as a “best practice” in corporate governance.

Quotes from Experts

Beyond this Bill

Additional Resources

"What International Markets Say on Pay: An Investor Perspective,” from Institutional Shareholder Services

“Executive Pay Watch,” from the AFL-CIO

“Executive Compensation,” from CorpWatch

Class Action Fairness Act of 2005

jon — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 18:25:55 -0400

Legislation

The middle class

Opposes

Video Summary

Injustice Facts

Minimum ratio of federal judges in district courts to state judges in general jurisdiction courts as of 2003: 1:13
Number of cases pending in U.S. District Courts for three years or longer as of September 2003: 34,067
Minimum number of consumer groups signing on to a letter of opposition to S. 5: 68
Number of lobbyists retained by corporate interests to ensure a class action bill favorable to their interests, according to Public Citizen: 475
Number of such lobbyists from the insurance industry alone: 193
Likelihood that a class action case against a life insurance company will be certified and allowed to go forward in state court vs. in federal court: 2:1

Overview/Summary

Middle Class Position Analysis

The Middle Class Opposes. While moving lawsuits from state to federal courts may seem harmless enough, in effect it will prevent many middle-class Americans injured by defective products, manipulated by deceptive marketing, or discriminated against by unfair employment practices from ever being able to hold corporate wrongdoers accountable. As a result, the threat of lawsuits will be less of a deterrent to corporations that engage in deceptive or discriminatory practices or seek to cut corners by skimping on product safety. Moving state cases to the federal courts is particularly harmful because it is state judges, not the federal judiciary, that are most familiar with the state consumer protection laws under which wrongdoers are sued. As a result, federal judges usually won’t certify cases based on state law, which effectively prevents even the most legitimate cases from ever being heard if they are forced into federal court. That means ordinary citizens have lost an important means of getting recourse to the laws their democratically-elected state legislators passed. To make matters worse, the federal courts are increasingly stacked with judges hostile to consumer and workers’ rights. What’s more, the federal courts are already overburdened, struggling to cope in a timely manner with the caseload already before them. Further clogging the federal system with state cases may slow down everyone’s access to justice. Finally, the “rights” guaranteed to plaintiffs by this Act, such as greater scrutiny for cases in which settlement terms cause plaintiffs to suffer a net loss, don’t actually provide as much new protection as it appears because they primarily duplicate already-existing provisions of the rules of civil procedure. Although provisions reining in low-value coupon settlements are positive, they don't warrant the bill's other very harmful provisions.

Corporate Accountability

Amendment To Strike Title II From FISA Amendments Act of 2008

Legislation

The middle class

Video Summary

Injustice Facts

Overview/Summary

Middle Class Position Analysis

Related Blog: Header

Quotes from Experts

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Beyond this Bill

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Additional Resources

Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2008

Legislation

The middle class

Video Summary

Injustice Facts

Overview/Summary

Middle Class Position Analysis

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Quotes from Experts

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Beyond this Bill

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Amendment To Strike Retroactive Immunity From Intelligence Legislation of 2008

Legislation

The middle class

Video Summary

Injustice Facts

Overview/Summary

Middle Class Position Analysis

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Quotes from Experts

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Beyond this Bill

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Home Ownership Preservation and Protection Act of 2007

Legislation

The middle class

Video Summary

Injustice Facts

Overview/Summary

Middle Class Position Analysis

Related Blog: Header

Quotes from Experts

Related Blog: Text

Beyond this Bill

Related Blog: Link

Additional Resources

Consumer Product Safety Commission Reform Act of 2007

Legislation

The middle class

Video Summary

Injustice Facts

Overview/Summary

Middle Class Position Analysis

Related Blog: Header

Quotes from Experts

Related Blog: Text

Beyond this Bill

Related Blog: Link

Additional Resources

FDA Amendments Act of 2007

Legislation

The middle class

Video Summary

Injustice Facts

Overview/Summary

Middle Class Position Analysis

Related Blog: Header

Quotes from Experts

Related Blog: Text

Beyond this Bill

Related Blog: Link

Additional Resources

Shareholder Vote on Executive Compensation Act of 2007