LABOR, ECONOMY & THE CLIMATE

A pilot program with the aim of delivering student loans through prepaid bank cards is vulnerable to a conflict of interest, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos was warned during a hearing on Tuesday. DeVos, however, dismissed those concerns, and later appeared to know very little at all about the card program. The Education Department’s Office of Student Aid is planning to launch the pilot program this year, dispersing loans to as many as 100,000 students via prepaid cards, similar to debit cards. The initiative would be… Keep Reading

The landmark law giving workers the right to organize doesn’t include the right to collectively seek legal redress, the Supreme Court ruled. Justices said employers can force their workers to adjudicate claims on an individual basis through private arbitration, in a 5-4 decision issued on Monday. The dispute was centered around whether the National Labor Relations Act guarantees the right of collective legal action. The conservative majority ruled that it does not; and that workplace contracts mandating individualized private dispute settlement are permitted under the… Keep Reading

There was rare good news for regulatory safeguards this week: The window closed for Congress to pass legislation repealing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rule on payday loans, according to advocates of the initiative. Stop the Debt Trap, a coalition of labor unions and non-profits, said Wednesday evening that the “legislative clock has expired” on efforts to annul the rule under the Congressional Review Act. “Consumer and civil rights advocates are urging the consumer bureau to keep intact the rule, which is set to go… Keep Reading

Banks look set to be given more freedom by the Trump administration to engage in practices that were previously banned under rules on speculative trading. Regulatory agencies, led by the Federal Reserve, are set to propose scrapping a key assumption about short-term holdings by depository institutions, according to Bloomberg. Assets held by banks for less than 60-days will no longer be presumed to be violation of the Volcker Rule, under the change. The new framework will put “the onus on regulators” to prove banks are… Keep Reading

The Supreme Court struck down a federal prohibition on sports betting, paving the way for states to legalize the activity. In a 6-3 decision on Monday, the high court found that the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) was unconstitutional. The court ruled that provisions in the law requiring states to prohibit sports gambling was an unlawful form of commandeering, prohibited by the Tenth Amendment. “The Constitution gives Congress no such power,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the majority. Without PASPA in place, states legislatures… Keep Reading

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar was asked about rising drug prices in America during a Congressional hearing on Thursday, and both his response to the question and the Senator who posed it were noteworthy. “Why are pharmaceuticals charging so much?” Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.) asked Azar, who was testifying before a Senate appropriations subcommittee. Citizens of the US spend vastly more on drugs than their counterparts in the rest of the developed world. It results in nearly 19 million Americans every year purchasing… Keep Reading

The clock is ticking on Net Neutrality. The Federal Communications Commission said Thursday that President Obama’s strengthening of the key internet regulation will expire on June 11. Commissioners had previously voted in December along party lines to roll back the 2015 Net Neutrality rules. “The FCC is on the wrong side of history, the wrong side of the law, and the wrong side of the American people,” said Democratic Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. FCC Chair Ajit Pai remarked that the vote would end “heavy-handed, utility-style regulation”… Keep Reading

Richard Cordray won the Ohio Democratic gubernatorial primary on Tuesday. Earlier in the day, lawmakers in Washington undermined part of his legacy. The House of Representatives voted 234-175 to approve of a Senate-passed bill annulling guidance issued by Cordray, when he was Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Eleven Democrats joined every Republican but two in approving the measure. The bill now only needs President Trump’s signature before becoming law. The memo, first released by the CFPB in 2013, was crafted to clampdown on… Keep Reading

EPA administrator Scott Pruitt has granted valuable exemptions from renewable fuel requirements to an oil refinery owned by Carl Icahn–the billionaire investor and former adviser to President Trump. Pruitt granted a waiver from the rules in recent months to CVR Energy Inc., according to a report on Monday in Reuters citing two unnamed industry sources. The Obama era program was created to force petroleum refineries to either use more biofuel or purchase biofuel credits in an effort to reduce energy emissions. Waivers to the program… Keep Reading

A pair of Democratic legislators caught wind of an attempt by the White House to claw back funding for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)—a move that could potentially be illegal. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) wrote a letter to the NLRB’s General Counsel Peter Robb on Wednesday, informing him that any decision to fund the board at levels lower than what Congress appropriated would be “an extreme act of bad faith” in violation of federal budget laws. “We remind you… Keep Reading