On Tuesday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren introduced a bill to ban mandatory pre-employment credit checks. Josh Eidelson, in Salon:
… Warren’s bill, the Equal Employment for All Act, would make it illegal for employers (outside national security jobs) to require that job applicants disclose their credit history. Warren’s Senate bill is co-sponsored by six Senate Democrats, including Vermont’s Patrick Leahy and Ohio’s Sherrod Brown, and is based on a bill Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., introduced in 2011 in the House. “A credit score,” Warren argued, “should not be used as a way to cut people out of the job market.”…
Warren spoke on a call hosted by the progressive think tank Demos, which previously released a report offering evidence credit checks “can create an untenable Catch-22 for job seekers: They are unable to secure a job because of damaged credit and unable to escape debt and improve their credit because they cannot find work.”…
Asked about her bill’s prospects for passage, Warren said she understood “how difficult it is to get a bill through the United States Congress,” and had “no illusions,” but “I know that nothing happens if you don’t take the first step.” She added, “People told me it wasn’t possible to get the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau through, and yet we did it.” Asked if she’d reached out to Republicans for support, Warren said, “We’re in the middle of talking to lots of people.”
Petitions supporting the bill are posted at both Warren’s website and that of the PCCC.
More good news today from Greg Sargent at his Washington Post blog, “Dems plan big Christmas push on unemployment benefits“:
To the degree that it gets discussed by the Washington political classes at all, the expiration of unemployment benefits for 1.3 million Americans just after Christmas is already being treated as a fait accompli — there is no way “Congress” will ever act to renew them, after all.
But Democrats and liberal groups are still not giving up. They are planning a concerted, multi-faceted push over the break designed to pressure Republicans — not Congress; Republicans — to agree to renew the benefits. This comes after Harry Reid announced that a vote on extending UI — which Republicans continue to resist — will take place when the Senate reconvenes in January…
House Democrats are planning a big push in local media, with the goal of using local coverage to dramatize how constituents in Republican districts will be impacted by the expiration of benefits. This is hyper-granular stuff: I’m told Ways and Means Committee Dems are collecting county-by-county data on the number of people who will be kicked off benefits, and pushing local press outlets to reflect these numbers in their coverage.
The idea is to make it harder for individual lawmakers to escape the direct consequences, in their districts, of failing to renew benefits, bringing it home. The goal is to inspire more press coverage like this, this, and this…
Meanwhile, labor unions are planning events in states, and liberal groups are planning polls on unemployment benefits in both marginal districts and nationally. Results should be released next week…
Many more details of tactics & strategery at the link.
Holiday Gifts from Senators Warren & ReidPost + Comments (83)