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.
(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:
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 -- 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:
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.
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.
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
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."
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.
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:
WASHINGTON, DC – Yesterday, in a letter to President Obama, leaders for nonprofit voting rights organizations Demos and Project Vote alerted the White House that the application process for benefits under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) currently violates the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA).
In the letter, the groups urge the Obama Administration to take immediate steps to bring federally facilitated health benefits exchanges (FFEs) into compliance with federal law.
When millions of Americans stood in lines for hours to vote yet again in the 2012 elections, President Obama recognized that “we need to fix that.” Today, the Presidential Commission on Election Administration released a report with their recommendations on ways to improve election administration. The Commission’s recommendations are welcome but much more work remains to be done to ensure every eligible voter can exercise their right to vote.
(NEW YORK, NY) – This morning, the White House announced that President Obama will sign a “Good Jobs” Executive Order requiring government contractors to raise the minimum wage for their lowest-paid workers to $10.10 for all new and renegotiated contracts. The president will include this announcement in his State of the Union Address tonight.
"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.