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April 22, 2021
Watchdog Calls For Investigation Into White House's Delay On Covid-19 Workplace Safety Standards
Watchdog calls for an investigation into potential corporate influence behind the White House’s continued delay on Covid-19 workplace safety standards
April 22, 2021
Merrick Garland: A Potential Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing for Criminal Justice Advocates
Last May, as the country first erupted into protests over George Floyd’s murder at the hands of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, Biden promised that he would deliver “real police reform” if elected president. The country’s eyes are on Minnesota again this week after a police officer in a Minneapolis suburb shot and killed Daunte Wright, sparking a new wave of protests. This time, Biden need no longer speak in hypotheticals; he is President. Will his administration deliver?
April 22, 2021
Delaware Connections Run Deep As DuPont Family's Darla Pomeroy Heads To Treasury
Darla Pomeroy, who is married to an heir to the DuPont family fortune, was just named Senior Advisor to the Office of Domestic Finance at the US Treasury. While her record does not show any familiarity with financial regulatory policy, it reveals instead a history of a powerful corporation highly influential in Delaware placing a close ally in the administration.
April 22, 2021
Wall Street Lawyer Leading Wall Street Oversight Unsettles Allies Of Gensler
“Oh has chosen to spend over 20 years reinforcing a corrupt status quo in corporate America, in which the largest companies systematically evade democratic accountability. No one so comfortable with the breakdown in the rule of law over corporate America should be entrusted with responsibility for implementing long-overdue accountability on Wall Street.”
April 21, 2021
Education Department Must Rein In For-Profit College Industry Mergers And Reclassifications
The Education Department controls almost every aspect of regulating for-profits, from certifying the accrediting agencies to the enforcement of student protections like the gainful employment rule and the borrower defense rule.
April 21, 2021
Watchdog Grades Biden A "B-" On Preventing Corporate Capture Of Executive Branch
“Although the bar is low, Biden has proven to be the least captured and most public-oriented President of any of our lifetimes,” the Revolving Door Project wrote. “That said, Biden’s administration thus far is certainly not spotless.”
April 21, 2021
100 Days In and Biden Still has Trump Holdovers Left to Fire
As the end of his first 100 days nears, Biden has signed into law COVID relief legislation, published his inaugural budget proposal, and begun rolling back some of the damage wrought by the Trump years. On the campaign trail, Biden rightfully described Trump as an “existential threat”.
April 19, 2021
In Latest Disappointment From Yellen, John Morton Is Treasury's New Climate Counselor
The U.S. Treasury Department announced today that John Morton would be appointed as its first Climate “Counselor,” tasked with organizing financial-related climate work across the executive branch’s financial regulators.
April 19, 2021 | The Daily Beast
Silicon Valley’s Favorite Fixer Aims to Stop the Rising Left
But the old guard continues to wield significant power and will be hard pressed to admit defeat, as exemplified by political strategist Bradley Tusk’s continued success. Some might recall Tusk as New York Mayor Bill De Blasio’s biggest critic. Others know him best as Silicon Valley’s favorite political fixer. Teachers’ unions probably remember him comparing them to the NRA. Tusk’s particular brand of politics—lobbying against regulation on behalf of companies he then invests in—in some ways represents the last gasp of corporate control over government that has run rampant since the Reagan era.
April 16, 2021
The Brother Of A Pharma Lobbyist Advises Biden As He Weighs Vaccine IP Waiver
Despite pushback from progressives, Ricchetti has continued to hold a powerful advisory position in the Biden White House. His background in corporate lobbying and strong ties to the pharmaceutical industry are deeply troubling signs as the Biden Administration faces enormously consequential decisions about how to end the COVID-19 pandemic.
April 16, 2021
Break Big Pharma's Stranglehold On COVID-19 Vaccines With Existing Powers, 16 Groups Tell Biden Admin
A coalition of 16 organizations called on Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and COVID-19 Response Coordinator Jeffrey Zients to maximally use the executive branch’s existing powers to end the pharmaceutical industry’s stranglehold on supply on COVID-19 vaccines in an open letter today.
April 15, 2021
Why Is Politico's Ryan Heath Carrying Water For Big Pharma Monopolies?
The world is currently at an inflection point – Western leaders can choose to continue blocking the TRIPS waiver and lock in a cycle of dependence or empower poorer countries to develop generic vaccines and build infrastructure that will safely put the pandemic behind us. Critiques of the TRIPS waiver claim that most poor countries lack the infrastructure to carry out vaccine operations – a paternalistic view that suggests that manufacturing capacity, supply chain management, and logistics are static in nature. The sooner we act, the more time poorer countries have to begin mobilizing resources needed to make generic vaccine development possible.
April 14, 2021
Bold Leadership Needed in Minnesota’s U.S. Attorney Office
As police terror continues to claim the lives of Black Minnesotans, Biden must use all the tools at his disposal to root out police misconduct and deliver on his campaign promises of racial justice. U.S. Attorneys, the local face of the Department of Justice, will be an important institution to leverage. But the remains of Trump’s influence on these offices through acting officials and assistants could thwart the administration’s goals.
April 14, 2021
Biden’s Build Back Better is Behind Schedule
On the campaign trail, Biden was reluctant to criticize any aspect of the “Obama-Biden” administration’s record. Since taking office, however, he has made perfectly clear that he is aware of, and has learned from, many of its mistakes. Having watched how an anemic stimulus package in 2009 delivered a slow, faltering recovery and political carnage, the Biden administration chose to go big with its economic response. This initial, consequential departure has earned Biden accolades and prompted a “growing narrative that he’s bolder and bigger-thinking than President Obama” (a narrative Biden reportedly loves). But while Biden may be surpassing Obama legislatively, he is lagging behind him when it comes to the pace of nominations, delaying policy implementation and preventing his administration from reaching its full potential.
April 14, 2021
Revolver Spotlight: Sarah Bianchi
With his nomination of Katherine Tai, who has advocated for a worker-centered trade policy, Biden demonstrated his commitment to transforming the trade agenda in the Democratic party. Unfortunately, his choice of Sarah Bianchi to serve as deputy USTR could undermine these efforts: