December, 22 2019, 11:00pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Mark Morgenstein, Director of Media Relations, markm@publicinterestnetwork.org
2019 Year in Review: Consumer, Public Health and Environmental Highlights
WASHINGTON
Advocates for consumer, public health and environmental issues made great strides in 2019, while simultaneously defending existing policies that protect Americans from regressive changes by the federal government and unsustainable corporate practices.
"Too many of the federal regulations that keep our water, air and bodies clean and healthy -- or that protect consumers and their financial well-being -- came under attack in 2019," said Andre Delattre, the senior vice president and chief operating officer of The Public Interest Network, a transpartisan national advocacy group. "Whether in the Capitol, courts or corporate boardrooms, we have never had more urgency about the need to protect the public interest."
Despite challenges and setbacks, we have been able to accomplish a great deal this past year. Here is a list of 2019 highlights at the national level from The Public Interest Network's two largest groups, U.S. PIRG and Environment America:
A beef about beef (raised with routine use of antibiotics)
We've been building a network of leading health professional advocates, and urging the country's biggest restaurant chains to stop serving meat raised with routine antibiotic usage, to preserve the effectiveness of these life-saving drugs. This year, we started the "Superbugs Unplugged" podcast with George Washington University's Antibiotic Resistance Action Center, and got more major restaurant chains, from Darden (parent of Olive Garden and Longhorn) to Taco Bell to commit to phasing out routine antibiotic use from its chicken supply chain. We have started focusing on beef production, and after a commitment last December from McDonald's to address the issue in its supply chain, we're optimistic other restaurants will follow suit in 2020.
The CFPB complaint database survives
As of mid-January 2019, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's public database had published nearly 1.2 million consumer complaints, including 257,000 in 2018 alone. That's why, when the new CFPB leadership threatened to take the database offline, we fought for continued transparency. The CFPB eventually not only maintained the visibility of the database, but also promised to enhance and upgrade the site.
Clean cars lawsuits to protect our climate
The Trump administration's attempt to revoke California's ability to set its own tough tailpipe emissions standards wasn't just reckless. It was also illegal, according to two lawsuits filed by Environment America. We joined 10 other organizations in filing suits in federal district court, where we're defending states' ability to do all they can under the law to combat climate change.
Credit freeze information for a public beset by data breaches
After significant data breaches at Capital One, Marriott, Facebook and others, our consumer protection team provided Americans with timely, user-friendly and accurate advice. Through our outreach and extensive media coverage, we provided the information people needed to freeze their credit reports at all three major credit bureaus to keep their data safe from identity theft.
Inadequate infant sleeper recall exposed
Just because a dangerous baby product has been recalled, that doesn't mean it's been removed from local child care centers. After PIRG's Consumer Watchdog team alerted the public to the threat of an inclined infant sleeper, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission proposed a new rule to virtually end the sale of all models. The rule, if adopted, would help protect millions of infants while they sleep. Then, right before the holidays, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Safe Sleep for Babies Act of 2019 with bipartisan support. It bans inclined sleepers and crib bumpers known to be potentially deadly threats to infants. The Senate will hopefully act early in 2020.
Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) permanently reauthorized
By a big bipartisan majority, Congress voted to permanently reauthorize the Land and Water Conservation Fund, America's most successful conservation and recreation program. Environment America had lobbied to save the program ever since it was allowed to expire in 2017. Now that we know the program's future, as 2019 comes to a close, we're calling on Congress to allocate the maximum amount to the chronically underfunded program.
Offshore drilling
We won two votes on the House floor to prevent the expansion of oil and gas drilling off our coasts. HR205 from Rep. Francis Rooney (FL) would make a moratorium on oil drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico permanent. HR1941 from Rep. Joe Cunningham (SC) would block new drilling efforts off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.
The Paris Agreement isn't dead yet... and we're working on a Plan B
While President Donald Trump says he'll remove the United States from the multinational Paris climate accords, we've worked with Congress to ensure that Americans do whatever we can to keep mitigating the climate crisis. The first climate bill in a decade passed in the House of Representatives. HR9, the Climate Action Now Act sponsored by Rep. Kathy Castor (FL), would keep the United States in the Paris Agreement. It would defund any effort to withdraw and require the Trump administration to submit a plan to meet the U.S. commitment to reduce carbon emissions by 26 to 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2032.
Rep. Don McEachin (VA) also introduced the 100% Clean Economy Act of 2019, legislation to empower all federal agencies to do everything in their power to put the U.S. on a path to net zero emissions by 2050. A companion Senate bill is expected in 2020.
PFAS -- the "forever chemicals"
As 2019 comes to a close, we are gratified that Congress heeded our call and compelled the military to phase out its use of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) by 2024. These toxic, carcinogenic chemicals contaminate drinking water sources across the United States. The military has been one of the largest contributors to this widespread drinking water contamination due to its use of toxic firefighting foams; the Pentagon's adoption of safer alternatives will significantly limit pollution going forward. While we had hoped for stronger action to spur cleanup and limit dumping into waterways, we remain hopeful that Congress will pass into law provisions that would utilize the Superfund program and Clean Water Act, respectively.
"Right to Repair" movement takes flight
We testified before federal decision-makers about how manufacturers of cell phones, refrigerators, computers and other products make it hard for consumers to repair the things they own by not sharing the parts and service information required to fix them. We're working with legislators to draft language for state bills, building coalitions and training supporters. In 2019, more than 20 states filed Right to Repair legislation, and we're working to get these bills passed.
U.S. PIRG, the federation of state Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGs), stands up to powerful special interests on behalf of the American public, working to win concrete results for our health and our well-being. With a strong network of researchers, advocates, organizers and students in state capitols across the country, we take on the special interests on issues, such as product safety,political corruption, prescription drugs and voting rights,where these interests stand in the way of reform and progress.
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Video footage broadcast Wednesday by Al Jazeera shows Israeli soldiers gunning down two Palestinians on the coast of northern Gaza, even as one of them waves what appears to be a piece of white fabric.
The footage shows one of the men walking in the direction of an Israeli military vehicle with both hands raised. Despite the absence of any clear evidence that the man posed a threat, Israeli forces shot him from a short distance away. Another man is seen on the ground not far behind.
Al Jazeera's Tareq Abu Azzoum said the killings took place near where World Central Kitchen recently dropped off food aid.
The video then shows Israeli soldiers burying the bodies with a bulldozer.
"Probably certain words should be invented for this sort of thing," Marwan Bishara, AI Jazeera's chief political analyst, said in response to the footage. "I am not sure we have the sufficient vocabulary to describe this sort of twilight zone of Israel's fantasy of being the world's most moral army."
"It's a fantasy that meets the reality of a genocide," Bishara added. "An attempt to kill or destroy much of Palestine and Palestinians and hide the evidence and lie about it. When the Israeli army can do these things and get away with it, it can only then do more of it knowing that it will not meet any punishment."
Watch:
مشاهد حصرية للجزيرة لإعدام جنود إسرائيليين مدنيين فلسطينيين أثناء محاولتهم العودة لشمال قطاع غزة#الأخبار #حرب_غزة pic.twitter.com/QER98mv2n6
— قناة الجزيرة (@AJArabic) March 27, 2024
Richard Falk, former United Nations special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, toldAl Jazeera that the footage provides "vivid confirmation of continuing Israeli atrocities" and spotlights the "unambiguous character of Israeli atrocities that are being carried out on a daily basis."
"The eyes and ears of the world have been assaulted in real-time by this form of genocidal behavior," said Falk. "It is a shocking reality that there has been no adverse reaction from the liberal democracies in the West. It is a shameful moment."
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, whose board Falk chairs, has documented numerous examples of Israeli soldiers conducting close-range field executions in Gaza since October 7, when Israel launched its latest assault following a Hamas-led attack.
In less than six months, Israeli forces have killed more than 32,500 people in Gaza and sparked one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes in modern history.
The video footage emerged just days after the United Nations Security Council approved a resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire in Gaza. The U.S., Israel's leading arms supplier, abstained from the vote and falsely claimed the measure was "nonbinding."
The Israeli government, for its part, immediately signaled that it would disregard the resolution, just as it has ignored orders from the International Court of Justice.
Sophie McNeill, a human rights campaigner, called the footage released Wednesday "horrifying" and demanded that the International Criminal Court "urgently prioritize investigating and charging all those carrying out war crimes in Gaza."
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Lieberman's family said the 82-year-old died at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital after a fall at his home in the Bronx. He served in the Connecticut Senate, as the state's attorney general, and in the U.S. Senate—initially as a Democrat and eventually as an Independent. He was also Democratic former Vice President Al Gore's running mate in the 2000 presidential election.
"Up until the very end, Joe Lieberman enjoyed the high-quality, government-financed healthcare that he worked diligently to deny the rest of us. That's his legacy," said Melanie D'Arrigo, executive director of the Campaign for New York Health, which advocates for universal, single-payer healthcare.
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Noting that Lieberman also lied about the presence of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) in Iraq—which was used to justify the 2003 U.S. invasion—Gunnels asked, "How many people unnecessarily died as a result?"
He was far from alone in highlighting the two defining positions.
The Lever's David Sirota declared, "RIP Joe Lieberman, Iraq War cheerleader who led the fight to make sure Medicare was not extended to millions of Americans who desperately needed the kind of healthcare coverage he enjoyed in the Senate."
The Debt Collective said on social media that "Joe Lieberman killed so many people when he killed the public option. Not to mention all the people he killed by cheerleading every war and every lie that led to war. A truly horrible person with a shameful legacy."
Journalist Jon Schwarz pointed out that Lieberman continued to lie about the WMDs long after the claims were debunked.
FormerMSNBC host Mehdi Hasan noted that Lieberman declined an opportunity to apologize for the disastrous war, sharing a clip from his on-camera interview with the ex-senator in 2021.
And please don\u2019t give me this \u2018don\u2019t speak ill of the dead\u2019 stuff - 1) I\u2019m not speaking ill, I\u2019m stating facts, and 2) public figures are public figures, and their obits reflect their legacies and so we should be honest in our accounts of their legacies. Not offensive but honest— (@)
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Citing Israel's "blatant" human rights violations in Gaza, Ireland's second-highest-ranking official said Wednesday that the country will join the South Africa-led genocide case before the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
Irish Tánaiste Micheál Martin—the equivalent of a deputy prime minister in other parliamentary nations—said that Ireland decided to intervene in the case after analyzing the "legal and policy issues" pertaining to the case under review by the United Nations' top court.
"It is for the court to determine whether genocide is being committed," Martin—who also serves as Ireland's foreign and defense minister—said in a statement. "But I want to be clear in reiterating what I have said many times in the last few months; what we saw on October 7 in Israel, and what we are seeing in Gaza now, represents the blatant violation of international humanitarian law on a mass scale."
Martin continued:
The taking of hostages. The purposeful withholding of humanitarian assistance to civilians. The targeting of civilians and of civilian infrastructure. The indiscriminate use of explosive weapons in populated areas. The use of civilian objects for military purposes. The collective punishment of an entire population.
The list goes on. It has to stop. The view of the international community is clear. Enough is enough. The U.N. Security Council has demanded an immediate cease-fire, the unconditional release of hostages, and the lifting of all barriers to the provision of humanitarian assistance at scale. The European Council has echoed this call.
South Africa's case—which is supported by over 30 countries, the Arab League, African Union, and others—incisively details Israel's conduct in the war, including the killing of tens of thousands of Palestinians, mostly women and children; the wounding of tens of thousands more; the forcible displacement of 90% of the besieged enclave's 2.3 million people; and the inflicting of conditions leading to widespread starvation and disease. The filing also cited numerous genocidal statements by Israeli officials.
On January 26, the ICJ issued a preliminary ruling that Israel is plausibly committing genocide in Gaza and ordered its government and military to prevent genocidal acts. Palestinian and international human rights defenders say Israel has ignored the order.
A draft report
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