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News Release | U.S. PIRG | Higher Ed

Congress Must Keep Their Eye on the Prize

Statement of Rich Williams, U.S. PIRG Higher Education Advocate, on the upcoming vote on H.R. 4628: "Unless a new plan is adopted by Congress, interest rates on subsidized student loans for nearly 7.5 million students will double on July 1st."

News Release | U.S. PIRG | Food

Senate Committee Approves New Taxpayer Giveaways to Big Ag

The Senate Agriculture Committee’s proposed Farm Bill would entrench taxpayer handouts to large agribusinesses and underwrite junk food ingredients

News Release | U.S. PIRG | Public Health

Mad Cow Highlights Need for Continued Funding of APHIS Program

With the identification of a cow infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy in California yesterday, the cuts that the USDA want to make in the APHIS program may not be prudent. 

Report | U.S. PIRG | Higher Ed

The Cost of College Will Soar if Interest Rates Allowed to Double

The loans distributed by the U.S. Department of Education currently hold an interest rate of 3.4 percent. But that rate is set to double if Congress fails to act by July 1, 2012. If that occurs, millions of students will see their interest rates soar to 6.8 percent on the new loans they take in the next year thereby causing a steep rise in their loan burden and effectively increasing the cost of attaining a college degree.

News Release | U.S. PIRG | Tax

Lobby Effort Disbanded to Create Tax Holiday for Users of Offshore Tax Shelters

Bloomberg and The Hill yesterday reported the disbanding of the lobbying effort to create a tax holiday for profits stashed in offshore tax havens. The “Win America Campaign,” which included corporate giants such as Cisco Systems, Duke Energy, Pfizer and Microsoft, ended its relationship with two of its three lobbying firms in March, according to forms reportedly filed with the U.S. Senate last week.

CFPB takes first step to eliminate forced arbitration and other consumer news

Tuesday, April 24, 2012
By | Ed Mierzwinski
Consumer Program Director

Today the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau took an important first step toward protecting consumers from mandatory arbitration clauses, which are boilerplate sentences in bank account and other contracts that crush consumer legal rights. ... Meanwhile, the New York Times follows up on a lawsuit by the Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson against a medical debt collector that blocks and tackles consumers trying to get through hospital emergency room doors. But it gets better. That debt collector just happens to be owned by the same hedge fund that owned a supposedly neutral (not) forced arbitration mill known as NAF and favored by the big credit card companies.   ...  Also today, the World Privacy Forum announced updates to its helpful pages on medical identity theft.

News Release | U.S. PIRG | Higher Ed

President calls for extending lower interests on student loans to combat rising debt burden

Statement of Rich Williams, Higher Education Advocate for U.S. PIRG, on the President’s call for extending lower interests on student loans to combat rising debt burden.

CFPB Launches College Cost Tool; Its Investigations of Overdraft Fees and Auto Finance Escalate

Monday, April 23, 2012
By | Ed Mierzwinski
Consumer Program Director

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has announced a "thought starter" beta test version of a tool to make it easier to calculate college debt burdens. "The goal is to give students and their families an easy-to-understand view of how their decisions today impact your debt burden after graduation."  Meanwhile, banks and an auto finance company have confirmed that the CFPB is investigating both the marketing of overdraft protection schemes and the practices of "buy here, pay here" auto dealers.

Who Owns Big Oil? We Do!

Monday, April 23, 2012
By | Blair Bowie
Democracy Advocate

The American Petroleum Institute has a new public image campaign: http://whoownsbigoil.org. The purpose of this website, presumably, is to convince us that if we raise taxes on hugely profitable corporations we will only be hurting ourselves. Why? Because we are all shareholders of those corporations and when they are taxed we suffer.

While I am skeptical of API’s conclusions, it’s right to say we own the oil companies. In fact, shareholders across the country are demanding accountability and disclosure from the corporations that they rightfully own and the effort could be the key to slowing the flow of corporate money in the 2012 election.

News Release | U.S. PIRG | Higher Ed

Romney Endorses Low Interest Rate for Student Loans

Today presidential candidate and Republican Mitt Romney endorsed an extension of the low student loan interest rate for subsidized Stafford student loan borrowers. On July 1, the low 3.4 percent rate will double to 6.8 percent, unless Congress intervenes. Close to 8 million students will be negatively impacted.

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