Media clips

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• South Florida Dems working with Ted Cruz, Richard Blumenthal against human trafficking

  The bill has drawn additional support from both sides of the aisle including having U.S. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-Ct., on board as cosponsors.   Groups backing the proposal include the AFL-CIO, the Alliance to End Slavery and Trafficking (ATEST), the American Federation of Teachers, the Economic Policy Institute, Freedom Network, Free the Slaves, Futures Without Violence, International Labor Recruitment Working Group (ILRWG), Justice in Motion, the National Domestic Workers Alliance, the National Employment Law Project, National Guestworker Alliance, Polaris, Safe Horizon, Service Employee International Union (SEIU),  the Southern Poverty Law Center, UniteHERE, Verité and Vital Voices.

  Sunshine State News August 5, 2019
• Foreign students hired for summer jobs in US subjected to abuses, says study

  “The state department has no mandate or expertise on labor standards,” said Daniel Costa at the Economic Policy Institute. They outsource this to sponsor organizations for whom this is a business and who “have an incentive not to report”.

  The Guardian August 5, 2019
• Chase plans to screw its credit card holders next week. Here’s how to stop them from screwing you.

  As a paper by the Economic Policy Institute’s Ross Eisenbrey explains, individual workers forced into arbitration are less likely to prevail before an arbitrator than they are before a real judge. And when they do prevail, they typically receive far less money.

  Mandatory arbitration graphic.

  ThinkProgress August 5, 2019
• 8 startling facts that show just how hard the student-debt crisis is hurting black Americans

  Black college graduates ages 21 to 24 earn $3.34 less per hour than their white peers, reported Jillian Berman for MarketWatch, citing an analysis by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. That contributes to a $7,000 annual difference.

  Business Insider August 5, 2019
• Here’s how much you can rent out your house for on Airbnb, by Houston neighborhood

  Airbnb has become a lucrative business for homeowners looking to pad their wallet with extra money by entering the sharing economy, according to a study by the Economic Policy Institute.

  Houston Chronicle August 5, 2019
• Publishers’ pending merger faces growing opposition

  A second letter to the Department of Justice opposing the merger on a legal and economic basis was made public on Monday. It was drafted by the Open Markets Institute and signed by U.S. PIRG, the Economic Policy Institute and several other consumer advocacy groups, as well as a handful of professors.

  Lindsay McKenzie August 5, 2019
• Policymakers aim to address 900,000-person green card backlog

  “We’re just kind of taking away the pain of some people, spreading it around to more,” said Daniel Costa, director of immigration law and policy research at Economic Policy Institute, a think tank that focuses on improving incomes for low-wage workers. According to him, a seven-year to eight-year wait for all nationals after the current backlog being cleared is likely under the Lee and Lofgren bills.

  The Motley Fool August 5, 2019
• Policymakers aim to address 900,000-person green card backlog

  “We’re just kind of taking away the pain of some people, spreading it around to more,” said Daniel Costa, director of immigration law and policy research at Economic Policy Institute, a think tank that focuses on improving incomes for low-wage workers. According to him, a seven-year to eight-year wait for all nationals after the current backlog being cleared is likely under the Lee and Lofgren bills.

  Sojourners August 5, 2019
• Exchange Visa program puts participants at risk of exploitation

  “The way the system is set up is pretty crazy,” said Daniel Costa, director of immigration law and policy research at the Economic Policy Institute. “There’s a huge conflict of interest” because the State Department essentially leaves program oversight and worker protections to the private sponsors who bring the workers to the U.S., he said.

  The agency “told us for years that they were really looking into the program” and making improvements, “but we never saw anything concrete come out,” Costa said.

  Bloomberg Law August 5, 2019
• Forcing more litigation isn’t the answer to litigation abuse

  The public relations machine supporting the poorly named FAIR Act is now in full gear. Terri Gerstein of Harvard University and Heidi Shierholz of the Economic Policy Institute attacked NDP’s study, but missed their target. Their main beef was that the study looked at arbitrations regardless of whether the agreement to arbitrate came before or after the issue arose and did not look at class actions. When the arbitration agreement occurred has nothing to do with the whether the result was fair. Their other concerns are similarly off-point.

  Washington Examiner August 5, 2019