About Keira Thompson

Posts by Keira Thompson:

Americans Agree That They Should Not Have to Subsidize Predatory Schools

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Public Citizen and Americans for Financial Reform have collected more than 21,000 signatures from people in agreement: Students deserve their day in court if universities are ripping them off — and the Department of Education should not facilitate predatory colleges by giving them federal funding.

Click to view individual petitions and signers:

Public Citizen (10,277 signers)
Americans for Financial Reform (11,145 signers)

Three weeks ago, Public Citizen formally petitioned the Department of Education to consider a rule to withhold federal Title IV funding from colleges and universities that bury forced arbitration clauses in students’ enrollment contracts. Our press release can be found here .

These arbitration clauses, usually buried in the fine print of an enrollment contract, bar students from seeking justice in court if the students feel their schools do not live up to their end of the deal. For-profit colleges have been using these clauses to ensure students can’t hold the colleges accountable in court, but are instead subjected to a private arbitration process that favors large corporations and their lawyers. More

Utility Provider Keeps Customers and Shareholders in the Dark on Disclosure

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The Arizona Public Service (APS) Company provides electricity to more than 1.2 million customers, and is regulated by the Arizona Corporation Commission. The Commission is such an ingrained public/private partnership in the state that it, and its five elected commissioners, is accounted for in the Arizona state constitution.

The Commission is tasked with setting rates and regulating the utilities industry – but that probably proves difficult when utility providers get involved in influencing the political process.

In 2014, two nonprofit groups spent $2.3 million on ads and mailings to oppose Commission candidates who would have favored renewable resources like solar energy over traditional, fossil fuel power sources.

By funneling campaign money through nonprofits, corporations and special interests are able to stack the deck in their own favor – they’re lining the pockets of candidates perceived to work in their interests, while hiding the action from their customers and shareholders that are footing the bill.
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Corporate Reform Coalition Response to Vanguard’s Glenn Booraem’s Letter on Proxy Voting

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While the Corporate Reform Coalition appreciates the consideration of concerns raised about proxy voting and the response from Vanguard’s Corporate Governance Program, we find many points in the response problematic. Thus we will continue to push Vanguard, one of the largest investors in the world, to do better. Specifically

  • Glenn Booream Vanguard’s Fund Treasurer writes, “We agree with your assertion that social and environmental issues may affect long term company performance, and the many derivatives of these topics are well within the bounds of our analysis and advocacy” but goes on to explain that Vanguard has historically abstained from environmental and social (ESG) shareholder proposals because “sufficient impact on shareholder value had not been established”. This is precisely our point. Certain issues like political spending and climate change may pose material risk to a company. If there is risk involved, Vanguard should at least support disclosure to fully assess the affects of an issue like political spending or climate change on long-term performance.
  • The letter also states, “Our aim is to influence change that is clearly linked to value creation, and in some cases a simple vote “for” or “against” a proxy proposal doesn’t get to the heart of an issue. In fact, voting is only one part of a broader picture.” We agree with this point, there is a need for multiple strategies. . But,– How can Vanguard effectively engage with corporations they invest in  to assess long term value if they do not call for disclosure of ESG issues as a minimum requirement
    • Furthermore, Vanguard is playing down the power mutual fund proxy voting could have if they chose to engage and vote more proactively. Mutual funds own a quarter of the U.S. stock market and the top few mutual funds, including Vanguard, own an outsized portion of that quarter, which translates to a power to swing shareholder votes.
  • We would also argue that Vanguard’s current proxy voting policies are not consistent with the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI). One of the six principles of PRI is “We will seek appropriate disclosure on ESG issues by the entities in which we invest” and specifically within that category “support shareholder initiatives and resolutions promoting ESG disclosure.”
  • We find the presentation of their proxy voting intentionally misleading. By showing the “% of votes supporting management recommendations” as 51 percent it implies to the average investor that they voted with shareholders the other 49% of the time when in fact they abstained.

In conclusion, this response from Vanguard only confirms where we thought they are getting it wrong. Shareholders need disclosure on issues like political spending and climate change because there is material risk that can affect the bottom line. When Vanguard signed on to PRI they acknowledged this and their guidelines for proxy voting should follow.

The Perils of Privatization

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Privatization is the age-old right-wing response to imagined problems.

But if a public function like preventing plane crashes is transferred to corporations, the result could mean tragedy.

A threat to our wallets and flight safety, the air traffic control privatization effort currently underway in Congress is another move by right-wing lawmakers to deliver a favor for corporate interests while ignoring the consequences for consumers.

This week, Public Citizen joined with our partners in the Americans Against Air Traffic Privatization coalition to deliver more than 130,000 petition signatures to members of Congress demanding that air traffic control stay under federal government purview and not be spun off to a new corporatized entity.

The air traffic control system is neither broken nor bankrupt, and the only uncertainty in its running is the confusion instigated by Congress around Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) funding reauthorizations. The solution to the funding issue is not to privatize air traffic control but to give the FAA the stability it deserves.

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A Plethora of Petitions

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We’ve had a busy few weeks at Public Citizen.

This month we delivered over 2 million petition signatures for five different campaigns for public justice and a more democratic government.

One of the most rewarding parts about working here is seeing how our actions take shape both before and after the petitioning process.

The frustration with pay-to-play politics and greed is always there, but it’s worth it to see the shock on a staff member’s face as we deliver thousands of petition signatures to congressional offices, the crowds that gather to watch millions of voices being heard in front of the White House, or the actions taken across the country to make the system a little more just.

Public Citizen will continue to fight for a stronger democracy and public protections and we will continue to oppose threats to the public interest that reward greed and recklessness.

Here’s what we’ve been up to recently:

Over 200,000 Signatures Delivered to Congress on the #NoRiders #CleanBudget Petition
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