Showing posts with label Senate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Senate. Show all posts

Friday, September 8, 2017

Brown Calls on Equifax to Remove Forced Arbitration from Credit Monitoring, Following Data Breach

Source: Senator Sherrod Brown- (D - OH)

Washington, D.C. - September 8, 2017 (The Ponder News) -- U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) – ranking member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs – is calling on Equifax to immediately remove forced arbitration from all services offered to customers following a data breach that exposed 143 million Americans to identify theft. Equifax is currently touting free credit monitoring and identify protection services for victims of the breach through its TrustedID product. However, Equifax included forced arbitration clauses in the terms of use agreement customers must agree to when signing up for the services – effectively forcing victims of the breach to sign away their rights to seek access to court.

“It’s shameful that Equifax would take advantage of victims by forcing people to sign over their rights in order to get credit monitoring services they wouldn’t even need if Equifax hadn’t put them at risk in the first place. If Equifax is genuine about wanting to protect customers, it must remove forced arbitration immediately from TrustedID and any other services offered to victims of the data breach,” Brown said. “This is just one more example why the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s rule banning forced arbitration is badly needed to protect the rights of working Americans.”

Many victims of the Equifax breach were likely enrolled through their credit card company or another third-party credit provider, and may not even know they are customers of Equifax.

Brown is cautioning victims of the breach to carefully read all fine print before signing up for TrustedID or other Equifax products.

The arbitration clauses contained in Equifax’s terms of use agreement to TrustedID are highlighted below. The complete agreement is available here.

Booker, Lee Introduce Bicameral Bill to Remove Confederate Statues From Capitol

Source: Senator Cory A. Booker (D-NJ)

Washington, D.C. - September 8, 2017 (The Ponder News) -- U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) and U.S. Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA) introduced a bicameral bill in the Senate and House to remove Confederate statues from the U.S. Capitol. The Confederate Monument Removal Act would remove all statues of people who voluntarily served the Confederate States of America from the National Statuary Hall Collection within 120 days.

“The National Statuary Hall Collection is intended to honor American patriots who served, sacrificed, or made tremendous contributions to our nation,” Senator Booker said. “Those who committed treason against the United States of America and led our nation into its most painful and bloody war are not patriots and should not be afforded such a rare honor in this sacred space.

Booker continued, “The Capitol is a place for all Americans to come and feel welcomed, encouraged, and inspired. Confederate statues do not do this -- they do the opposite. To millions of Americans, they are painful, injurious symbols of bigotry and hate, celebrating individuals who sought to break our nation asunder and preserve the vile institution of slavery. These Confederate statues belong in a museum where they can be given proper historical context, not venerated in the U.S. Capitol." (Audio of this quote can be found here).

“In the wake of Charlottesville, it’s abundantly clear that much work remains to root out racism from our society. Across the country, Confederate statues and monuments pay tribute to white supremacy and slavery in public spaces. These hateful symbols should have no place in our society and they certainly should not be enshrined in the U.S. Capitol,” Congresswoman Barbara Lee said.

“Though we’ve made tremendous progress as a nation in our quest for social, racial and economic justice, we cannot ignore or forget that Confederates fought fervently to preserve the institution of slavery and keep African Americans in chains. It’s past time for Congress to reject these symbols of racism and demand that our public monuments respect and uplift human dignity.”

The National Statuary Hall Collection was created in 1864 with a law that allows states to select two statues of deceased individuals to be displayed in the U.S. Capitol. Under the Confederate Monument Removal Act, states can reclaim Confederate statues that are currently part of the National Statuary Hall Collection. Statues that are not reclaimed by states would be turned over to the Smithsonian.

The Confederate Monument Removal Act is cosponsored by Senators Ed Markey (D-MA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Kamala Harris (D-CA) and 46 members of the House of Representatives.

Blumenthal Statement on Senate Vote to Raise the Debt Ceiling, Fund the Government, and Provide Disaster Relief for Hurricane Victims

Source: Senator Richard Blumenthal- (D - CT)

Washington, D.C. - September 8, 2017 (The Ponder News) -- U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) released the following statement after the Senate voted to raise the debt ceiling, extend government funding through December 8th, and provide $15.25 billion in disaster relief for victims of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma.

“Today's vote falls far short of a long-term solution for any of the fiscal challenges facing our nation, but it is a positive step that will keep the lights on. The Senate acted swiftly to provide critical emergency funding for communities devastated by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, but much more is needed. We funded the government for another three months, but short-term funding measures are no way to run a government,” said Blumenthal.

Congress Urged to Pass Wildfire Funding Fix in Any Future Disaster Aid

Source: Senator Michael F. Bennet - (D - CO)

Washington, D.C. - September 8, 2017 (The Ponder News) -- With fires blazing across the West, Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet and a bipartisan group of senators urged Senate Leaders Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer to include a wildfire funding fix in any future disaster aid legislation that passes through Congress.

This week, Congress passed a bipartisan funding bill that helps with the cost of fighting the wildfires across western states this summer. However, the funding bill did not fix the long-term problem of consistently underfunding fire suppression, which currently forces federal agencies like the U.S. Forest Service to steal funds from fire prevention and other non-fire programs to fight fires, so-called "fire borrowing."

Wildfires have burned almost 8 million acres of land across the West this year, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. Thousands of residents have been forced to evacuate from their homes, and the U.S. Forest Service has already spent more than $1.7 billion this year to put out fires.

"We stand ready to work with our colleagues in a bipartisan way in Congress to do everything we can to ensure the victims of Hurricane Harvey get the assistance they need," the bipartisan group of senators wrote. "As we work to assist Texas and Louisiana on the road to recovery, please do not forget about wildfires - the natural disaster currently raging through the West.

"We ask that any disaster aid package or other must-pass legislation that passes through Congress include a wildfire funding fix. This fix is long overdue and people throughout the West desperately need our help."

In addition to Bennet, the letter's signers include Ron Wyden (D-OR), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Jim Risch (R-ID) Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Kamala Harris (D-CA), Jon Tester (D-MT), Patty Murray (D-WA), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), and Tom Udall (D-NM).

Click HERE for a copy of the letter.

U.S. SENATOR TAMMY BALDWIN CALLS FOR SENATE COMMERCE COMMITTEE TO HOLD HEARING ON EQUIFAX DATA BREACH

Source: Senator Tammy Baldwin - (D - WI)

Washington, D.C. - September 8, 2017 (The Ponder News) -- U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin has called on leaders of the Senate Commerce Committee to hold a hearing on the Equifax data breach.

“I write today to urge you to hold a hearing on an issue impacting the lives of millions of Americans – the recently reported data breach at Equifax, one the nation’s largest consumer credit reporting agencies,” wrote Senator Baldwin, a member of the Commerce Committee. “American consumers deserve answers about this breach and the actions of Equifax executives before this breach was made public.”

Senator Baldwin’s letter to Senate Commerce Committee Chair John Thune (R-SD) and Ranking Member Bill Nelson (D-FL) is available here

Thursday, August 3, 2017

Is it time to talk about repealing the 17th Amendment?

Allen B. West

You know, if you sit and read the entire Declaration of Independence, the Federalist Papers and the Constitution, you’ll come to realize how truly brilliant the Founding Fathers were. Today, we have an academic elite that sees them only through the lens of identity politics; often, they perceive them as old, slave-owning, white men.

But when you lucidly examine what they did, you’ll see, as Benjamin Franklin said, they gave us a Republic — if we could keep it. They gave us a governing structure not just focused on the near term, but could truly last forever. Sadly, we lack the intellectual regimen in our current system of indoctrination (not education!) to objectively study these fundamental ideas, principles and values. We used to call it civics, but now, via revisionist history, the progressive socialist left, as Barack Obama stated, is all about fundamentally transforming our nation.

Read more...