New Legislation Is Important Step Forward; Bill Can Be Strengthened
Representatives James Sensenbrenner (R-WI), John Conyers (D-MI), Steve Chabot (R-OH), Bobby Scott (D-VA), Spenser Bachus (R-AL), John Lewis (D-GA), Sean Duffy (R-WI) and others have introduced the Voting Rights Amendment Act of 2014, offering common sense fixes designed to modernize the Voting Rights Act (VRA). Demos President Miles Rapoport issued the following statement in response:
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes rejected a proposal by Detroit’s Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr to pay off a complex financial deal that was originated in 2005 and turned catastrophic for the city during the recession.
Miles Rapoport, who led Demos through a period of extraordinary growth as President, will step down on March 10th to become the President and CEO of Common Cause, a grassroots organization dedicated to restoring the core values of American democracy.
"Demos has never been a job. It has been a mission, a family, and an organization that has grown to have national reach."
Montgomery, AL – The Alabama State Conference of the NAACP, represented by attorneys from Project Vote, Demos, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and the law firms Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP and Copeland Franco, signed settlement agreements with the Alabama Secretary of State, the Alabama Department of Human Resources (DHR), and the Alabama Medicaid Agency addressing deficiencies in the state agencies’ provision of voter registration services and setting out procedures intended to guarantee compliance with Section 7 of the National Voter Registratio
"Helping build Demos has been hugely rewarding, and it's been thrilling to see the emergence of a larger and stronger progressive infrastructure that, 15 years ago, was just a dream for many of us,” said Callahan.
Judge Rhodes ordered the city and the banks to renegotiate their settlement which would have paid the banks 75 cents on the dollar. Despite a unanimous city council vote against it, the Emergency Manager is currently pushing the city to enter into another financial deal with Barclays to pay off the swaps termination fees.
The opportunity to work hard and get ahead is a core value of American society. Yet today in the United States, qualified job seekers are turned away from employment because of their personal credit history. People whose credit is damaged as a result of medical debt, student loans, a layoff, divorce, predatory lending, identity theft, or simple error are shut out of jobs—despite a lack of evidence connecting someone’s credit history with their job performance.
NEW YORK — Demos applauds the work of Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) who today introduced The Equal Employment for All Act, legislation that would prohibit the widespread use of personal credit history in employment. The use of employment credit checks is an unjust practice that poses a serious barrier to economic security for many Americans and leads to discriminatory hiring practices against people of color and the long-term unemployed.
WASHINGTON—Today,Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) introduced The Equal Employment for All Act. This legislation would prohibit the widespread use of personal credit history in employment, an unjust practice that poses a serious barrier to economic security for many Americans and leads to discriminatory hiring practices against people of color and the long-term unemployed.
NEW YORK -- In response to the final, approved version of the Volcker Rule, Demos Senior Fellow Wallace Turbeville, aformer investment banker and the author of Demos' recent Volcker Rule explainer and The Detroit Bankruptcy report, released the following statement:
The Volcker Rule is a requirement in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 that is sometimes referred to as a “mini-Glass-Steagall.”
In the wake of the worst effects of the Great Recession, African Americans, like Americans as a whole, are getting their balance sheets in order and paying down credit card debt. But new research from Demos’ National Survey on Credit Card Debt of Low-and Middle-Income Households finds that African Americans face challenges to their financial security that are unlike those of white households.
New research illustrates ways in which the current economic difficulties of African American households are compounded even further by a legacy of discriminatory policies that have left African Americans with significantly fewer assets and lower rates of homeownership than white households.
(NEW YORK) – Today, the Senate voted to put an end to one aspect of Washington’s gridlock by changing the rules governing the use of the filibuster for executive-branch appointees and most judicial nominations. Senate Republicans most recently filibustered three qualified judicial nominations to the bench of the D.C. Circuit Court. Demos President Miles Rapoport issued the following statement:
Modest Pension Benefits Play Little Role in Financial Crisis
DETROIT — In their push for bankruptcy, Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr and other public figures are incorrectly looking at Detroit’s long-term debt—figures generated using aggressive and in some cases inaccurate assumptions—to the detriment of solving the City’s immediate cash-flow crisis and its long-term structural challenges, according to a report released Wednesday by Demos.