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In a victory for transparency, Congress just banned anonymous shell companies
Tell Congress: Give hospitals the right to repair lifesaving equipment
Hospital technicians are being restricted from repairing the medical equipment that saves lives — and patients are suffering because of it.
According to a study by U.S. PIRG Education Fund, almost 70 percent of more than 200 medical repair professionals surveyed said their hospital has had to delay a patient procedure while waiting for a manufacturer service representative to repair a device.
There’s no reason that trained technicians should have to wait for a manufacturer to service a piece of potentially lifesaving equipment that they’re qualified to fix themselves — especially in the midst of a global pandemic.
So we’re calling on Congress to pass legislation ensuring that hospitals have the right to repair their own equipment. Will you stand with us, Friend?
Medical equipment manufacturers often put proprietary restrictions on service information and materials for the devices they make, and these restrictions are often driven by profit, as manufacturers tend to charge significantly more for repair service.
Moreover, the companies’ claims that their repair restrictions exist for safety reasons are unfounded — an FDA study concluded that hospital technicians provide perfectly safe and high-quality service on the medical equipment they use. And as it turns out, U.S. PIRG Education Fund also found that two-thirds of surveyed medical repair professionals reported that they fixed a device that the manufacturer itself could not repair.
Congress is working toward passing a new coronavirus relief package before the end of 2020. We need to make sure that medical right to repair makes it into this legislation — it could be lifesaving for sick patients across the country.
As COVID-19 cases surge across the U.S., the stakes couldn’t be higher — we need to eliminate these unnecessary restrictions on medical device repair so that hospitals can focus on saving lives.
Take action today by telling your U.S. representative to support medical right to repair legislation in the next coronavirus relief package.
While we have seen some progress — namely a handful of ventilator manufacturers who released previously restricted service information for their devices last April — there’s much more work to be done. And to compound the problem, many manufacturers that have maintained repair restrictions on their equipment are now no longer sending representatives to hospitals for repairs due to coronavirus travel restrictions.
But repair of medical equipment can be a matter of life or death for a patient in need -- and that’s why it’s so crucial that hospital technicians are allowed to put their skills and training to use maintaining the devices that help them save lives.
Tell your U.S. representative: Support legislation giving hospitals the right to repair their own equipment in the next coronavirus relief package.
Hand sanitizer shouldn't make us sick
These days, many of us are using a lot more hand sanitizer than we used to. We need to be able to count on it being safe.
But in just the past few months, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has identified a disturbingly high number of hand sanitizer brands that may be contaminated with toxic chemicals that can make you sick — or worse.
Despite that, the FDA still doesn’t require companies to test their sanitizers for contamination. Join us in calling on the FDA to implement strong testing requirements.
Contaminated sanitizers are seriously dangerous. In Arizona, contaminated sanitizers have killed at least four people and hospitalized dozens of others. One person even went blind.
All of these people used sanitizer products that tested positive for methanol, a chemical used to make antifreeze that is toxic when absorbed through the skin. Since June, the FDA has warned consumers about more than 80 brands of hand sanitizer that may be contaminated with methanol.
In August, the FDA recommended that companies do a better job of testing their sanitizers for contamination — but a non-binding recommendation just isn’t enough when it’s our health and safety at stake.
Tell the FDA to require testing of hand sanitizers.
When you buy something from the store — especially something to protect your health, such as hand sanitizer — you shouldn’t have to worry that it might kill you, blind you or make you sick. The FDA needs to step up and protect consumers by requiring companies that manufacture hand sanitizer to test their products for contamination in certified labs.
Tell the FDA: Require — don’t just recommend — that companies test their hand sanitizers for dangerous contamination.
As electronic waste piles up, we still don't have the right to repair our own devices
When manufacturers make it so we can’t repair our electronic devices, the unnecessary waste piles up — literally. Last year, we generated almost 59 million tons of e-waste worldwide. To put that massive number in perspective, it’s 162 times the weight of the Empire State Building.
It’s hard to say exactly how much of that waste could have been avoided, but we know it’s a lot. Manufacturers have an incentive to keep us buying new products instead of repairing the ones we already have, and they often make repair difficult or impossible.
Tell legislators in your state to support our right to repair our own devices.
Take cell phones, for example. Here in the U.S., we discard 416,000 cell phones every single day. But what other choice do we have when manufacturers make it unnecessarily hard for us to repair them?
One particularly egregious example: Last year, when the California Legislature was considering a Right to Fair Repair bill that would make it easier to repair our own devices, Apple sent lobbyists to convince lawmakers to abandon it.
Tell your legislators to listen to consumers, not manufacturers, and give us the Right to Fair Repair.
E-waste poses all kinds of environmental and health hazards. But even setting that aside, it’s just common sense — and it’s only fair — that we should be able to repair the stuff we own.
Join us in calling on your state legislator to support the Right to Fair Repair.
We need fair protections for our credit during this crisis
Americans shouldn’t have to worry about emerging from the current economic crisis with their credit reports seriously damaged.
But, whether due to financial struggles brought on by the pandemic or costly mistakes in their credit reports, many are at risk of suffering long-standing damage to their credit. Congress needs to step up and ensure that we won't be paying the consequences of an economic crisis with our credit for years to come.
Tell your senators: Pass a ban on negative credit reporting to help protect consumers during the COVID-19 crisis.
Credit reports matter — they’re used by lenders to decide whether or not to offer you a loan and at what price. They’re sometimes even used by employers to decide whether or not to hire you for a job. Bad credit can seriously cost you — negative information stays on your credit report for seven years.
As the dual public health and economic crises caused by the COVID-19 pandemic rage on, American consumers are facing unprecedented financial vulnerability. If someone chooses to pay for food and other essentials instead of paying credit card bills on time, credit reporting agencies shouldn’t be allowed to penalize them for it.
We also shouldn’t pay the price for negative credit reporting caused by mistakes by credit bureaus. An analysis by U.S. PIRG and Frontier Group found that consumer complaints to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) about credit reporting mistakes have seen a massive 86 percent surge in the months since the onset of the pandemic, compared to the same five-month period in 2019.
Add your name to Fair Share's call for Congress to ban negative credit reporting while Americans continue to struggle with the current economic crisis.
Record numbers of complaints to the CFPB since the beginning of the coronavirus crisis serve as a clear indicator of the huge financial challenges brought on by the pandemic. Yet neither Congress nor the CFPB have enacted strong enough policies to help struggling consumers protect their credit.
Under the Trump administration's appointees, the CFPB has not been doing its job when it comes to leveling the playing field for consumers. Rather, the agency has chosen to roll back key regulations on financial institutions and policies meant to shield consumers from predatory financial practices.
Congress, too, ultimately failed to include meaningful protections from negative credit reporting during the pandemic in the CARES Act, the federal coronavirus relief package passed in March.
But although Congress missed its first opportunity to fully protect our credit, there’s still time to give consumers the help they deserve. Tell your senators to step up for American’s financial health and support a ban on negative credit reporting during the coronavirus crisis.
Tell Google to end its ban on independent repair shops
How is this fair? Manufacturers can advertise on Google’s search engine, but Google bans independent repair shops from doing the same.
We need to have options when it comes to repairing our devices — it saves us money and reduces electronic waste. Sign our letter to Google asking it to end its ban on independent repair companies.
The ban came out of Google’s attempt to crack down on scammers posing as repair companies. To keep legitimate repair businesses from being shut out, Google said it would create a verification system that would allow them to resume advertising. But Google ultimately just blocked all repair and service companies from running ads.
Manufacturers can still advertise, but the problem with taking your device to the manufacturer for repairs is that the incentive for manufacturers is often to persuade you to replace the device rather than repair it. That’s more money out of your pocket and one more electronic device that’s now waste.
Independent repair services offer an alternative, but people have to be able to actually find them. Google is by far the biggest search platform and most important place for those repair shops to run ads and get noticed.
Debt collectors are harassing people during the pandemic
We’re in the middle of a global pandemic and an economic crisis. The last thing any of us needs right now is to be hounded every few hours by out-of-control debt collection companies.
But unfortunately, that’s what’s happening to thousands of people. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has received more than 6,000 complaints from people being harassed by debt collectors since March 1.
The CFPB was created 10 years ago to protect people from these kinds of predatory practices, and it has the power to stop them.
Join us in calling on the CFPB to stand up for people who are being harassed by debt collectors.
Millions of people have lost their jobs over the past four months. Many more have been forced to leave their jobs or work part time in order to care for their children. Now more than ever, we need protection from predatory debt collection practices.
But, as the many complaints filed with the CFPB show, debt collectors are still resorting to abusive tactics. One person in New Jersey reported being called every two hours by a debt collector whom they’d already informed that they’re out of work due to the pandemic. A person in New Mexico was served a court summons by a collector without any prior warning.
These are just two stories among thousands.
People who are wondering how they’re going to make rent and put food on the table shouldn’t also have to deal with this kind of harassment.
Tell the CFPB: Crack down on predatory debt collection practices.
The debt collection industry has lobbied to continue collecting throughout the pandemic, so it’s critical that we speak out. While some states and agencies have taken some action against bad debt collection practices, what we really need is a strong federal response from the CFPB, which has the authority to rein in exactly this kind of harassment and abuse.
Tell the CFPB to protect people from debt collection harassment.
It's time to shut down, start over and do it right
There's been so much death already; why are we continuing to insist on "reopening our economy" when we know that will directly result in further outbreaks?
It's clear that the only way we can hope to contain this virus is for our country to shut back down in order to mitigate the effects of the devastating new outbreaks that have resulted from reopening. We also need more testing, more tracing, and more PPE for our frontline workers.
Join us in calling on our leaders to shut down, start over and do it right.
For a fair and safe election we need vote-by-mail
COVID-19 has turned mass gatherings into a serious public health risk. And yet, this April, Wisconsin went ahead with in-person voting in its primary elections -- forcing voters to choose between their health and their ballot.
We should be able to participate in our democracy without risking our health. Tell your governor to enact universal vote-by-mail during the COVID-19 crisis.
Come November, this pandemic could still pose a serious threat to public safety.
Enacting universal vote-by-mail is the best way to ensure everyone’s voice is heard, while keeping us all safe. But planning and organizing a secure, remote election takes a lot of time and effort. States need to start now if they’re going to be ready on time.
Fortunately, we won’t be rebuilding our voting infrastructure from scratch. Every state already allows some degree of mail-in voting, and five states -- Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah and Washington -- even conduct elections entirely by mail.
And vote-by-mail has bipartisan support: Gov. Mike DeWine (Ohio), Gov. Gavin Newsom (Calif.) and others have recently announced steps to encourage more mail-in voting in the upcoming elections.
We need every state to follow their lead. Join the call: Tell your governor that universal access to vote-by-mail should be a key part of our country's plan to ensure safe voting during COVID-19.
Help us stop predatory payday loans
It happens: you hit a rough patch, bills pile up, and all of a sudden you can’t make your car payment on time. You should have access to credit that can help you weather the storm.
But for many Americans, their only options are predatory “payday” loans, with sky-high annual interest rates averaging 400 percent and short repayment periods that trap people in a cycle of debt that’s incredibly difficult to break.
We should be giving Americans down on their luck a chance to get back on their feet, not turning their hardship into a long-term crisis. We’re supporting a bill that will make these predatory loans a thing of the past.
Tell your representative: Support the bipartisan Veterans and Consumers Fair Credit Act (VCFCA), which would cap interest rates on payday loans.
The payday loan industry doesn’t want this bill to succeed, and it’ll lobby to stop it. We know this bill can help prevent people from getting trapped by debt. But we’ll need as many people as possible to call on our legislators to support it if we want it to become law.
The VCFCA would do away with unfair interest rates by setting a cap of 36 percent APR. We know caps like this work: More than a dozen states have already passed rate caps that are saving consumers money. And the Military Lending Act has capped interest rates for service members at 36 percent for more than a decade.
Tell your representative to support the VCFCA now.