EPI in the news

• Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ would create ‘unfettered abuse’ of AI, 141 high-profile orgs warn in letter to Congress

  The letter’s signatories include Georgetown Law’s Center on Privacy and Technology, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Economic Policy Institute, Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, the Alphabet Workers Union, and many others.

  Business Insider | May 20, 2025
• Supreme Court Hands Trump a Win on Revoking Venezuelans’ Protected Status

  Without TPS, hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan migrants living and working in the U.S. legally will see their way of living uprooted overnight. TPS recipients have high labor force participation and pay income and sales taxes. Many contribute to Social Security and Medicare, even though they will likely never qualify for the benefits, says the Economic Policy Institute.

  Daily Beast | May 20, 2025
• The GOP wants work requirements for Medicaid. Here’s what those rules do (and don’t) accomplish.

  Many critics of work requirements say the policy is built on the false belief that people who are struggling to get by are in that position because of laziness or some other personal shortcoming.

  “More stringent work requirements implemented in the past have largely failed to boost work in significant ways because these requirements do not attack the core problems of weak macroeconomic conditions, the volatile nature of low-wage work, and other barriers to work,” Hilary Wething of the Economic Policy Institute wrote in January.

  Yahoo News | May 20, 2025
• Thinking of Retiring in Seattle? Here Are The Costs You Need to Consider First

  The Economic Policy Institute’s Family Budget Calculator estimates that a household with two adults and no children in the Seattle/Bellevue metro area will pay an average of $916 monthly in taxes.

  Investopedia | May 20, 2025
• How to Survive Being Involuntarily Unretired

  Almost half of older Americans are financially unprepared for retirement. Many find themselves on the brink of poverty. The median retirement account balance for people nearing retirement age is just $10,000, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

  Next Avenue | May 20, 2025
• WA joins two other states in providing benefits for striking workers

  New York and New Jersey are the only other states that allow unemployment benefits for striking workers, according to a report by the Economic Policy Institute, while several other states such as Connecticut, Hawaii and Oregon have recently considered similar laws. New York initially had a seven week waiting period to access benefits but shortened that to 14 days in 2020. New Jersey cut its 30-day waiting period in half last year. 

  Seattle Times | May 20, 2025
• The lose-lose calculus of the trade war

  The bottom line: Critics argue the small pockets of victory don’t seem to outweigh the downsides.

  • Some pockets of businesses want certain tariffs in place, acknowledges Heidi Shierholz, the president of the liberal Economic Policy Institute.
  • But there isn’t a big constituency out there who wanted them to this scale.
  Axios | May 20, 2025

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