We couldn't have done it without you.

 

Engaging the Public, Reducing Toxic Risks

On the anniversary of the West, Texas explosion, we created an interactive map that shows schools located within one mile of a high-risk chemical facility. Our map was prominently featured on a lengthy feature of The Rachel Maddow Show and informed thousands of viewers about chemical risks to schoolchildren.

Our Kids in Danger Zones report mapped schools located inside the company-reported vulnerability zones of the riskiest chemical facilities and then outlined ways local communities can prepare for incidents and reduce the risks from toxic chemicals. This report garnered major coverage on metropolitan television stations: from CBS affiliates in Boston, Las Vegas, Tulsa, and Dallas; NBC affiliates in Cleveland, San Diego, Chicago, and New York; and the ABC affiliate in Austin.

 


Pushing for Extended Benefits for Unemployed Americans

Seventy-five leaders, including 30 members of Congress, joined us over seven weeks to raise the voices of struggling unemployed Americans. Each person read an excerpt from the more than 2,500 stories sent to us detailing the everyday struggles faced by unemployed Americans who had lost unemployment benefits. When we began, people said we were wasting our time and that no vote on an unemployment insurance extension was possible. By the middle of our seven-week campaign, new legislation had been drawn up, with seven Republican cosponsors. We had the votes to win by July – if Speaker John Boehner would have allowed a floor vote to occur – because the elected officials who stood with us didn’t give up and kept pressing their colleagues to act.

 


Urging Corporate Tax Reform

Our Fleecing Uncle Sam report, co-published with the Institute for Policy Studies, contributed to international debates on excessive CEO pay and tax avoidance. Our research demonstrated that a growing number of U.S. corporations are paying their CEOs more than they pay in federal income taxes. Reuters, The Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, Politico, the Guardian, and the New York Daily News covered the story, which ran on six continents.

We created tools for local organizers. Our Disappearing Corporate Tax Base report, co-published with National People's Action (NPA), helped NPA's local organizers connect the dots between federal budget cuts and state budget shortfalls. The report reveals how the end of the fiscal stimulus, coupled with austerity budgets under sequestration, led federal revenue-sharing with states to spiral downward.

 


Demanding Rules that Serve the Public, not Lobbyists

Our Gaming the Rules report exposed how trade associations and big businesses often shut small business voices out of the federal rulemaking process. Released with the American Sustainable Business Council, the piece grabbed the attention of reporters and editors at Politico, the Guardian, The Hill, Government Executive, and Greenwire, among other outlets.

The co-chairs of the Coalition for Sensible Safeguards, Robert Weissman of Public Citizen and Katherine McFate of the Center for Effective Government, were invited to join Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Bob Casey at the podium as they introduced legislation that would allow criminal prosecution of corporate officials who knowingly continue to market defective products or employ unsafe work practices.

Katherine McFate testified at a hearing of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee's Subcommittee on the Efficiency and Effectiveness of Federal Programs and the Federal Workforce. The testimony laid out why critical health and safety standards were being delayed and how we could improve the timeliness and transparency of the rulemaking process.

The Benefits of Public Protections: Ten Rules That Save Lives and Protect the Environment demonstrated the positive impact of federal rules on the lives of everyday Americans and showed that in almost every case, the rules not only saved lives, but the monetary benefits to the economy far outweighed the cost of implementing the rules.

In our role as co-chairs of the Coalition for Sensible Safeguards, we highlighted the threats to U.S. public protections from the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP, sometimes called TAFTA). We were invited to testify before the German Parliament and at a TTIP stakeholders meeting. At each event, we made a strong case that this agreement posed significant risks to our public protections on the federal, state, and local levels.

 


Improving Access to Public Information

We graded the responsiveness of 15 agencies to citizen requests for public information in our Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Scorecard. The report received extensive media coverage from USA Today; the Associated Press; The Washington Post; the Dallas Morning News; the Arizona Republic; 26 McClatchy newspapers, including the Kansas City Star, the Miami Herald, the Sacramento Bee; the ABC affiliate in Washington, DC; and others. The report was also referenced by Sen. Al Franken during a Judiciary Committee hearing in the spring.

 


Advocating for Safer, Healthier Workplaces for All

Our Director of Regulatory Policy Ronald White testified at an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) hearing advocating for strong worker protections on a proposed silica rule.

We created a widely-shared infographic drawing attention to Workers' Memorial Day and the urgent need for safer jobs.

 


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