To call the timing coincidental doesn't give House Republicans enough credit. Tomorrow, while the fallout from Attorney General Jeff Sessions' testimony about his connections to Russia dominates most Capitol Hill news coverage, the House will vote on H.R. 1215, a bill designed to strip injured patients of their day in court. Last week, the same legislators voted to undermine the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau under the cover of James Comey's testimony about President Trump's ham-fisted attempts to interfere in the FBI's Russia investigations.
Russia is not the story here. A foreign government's interference in our elections is certainly a scintillating and important topic, but in the time it takes our many investigators to sort it all out, patients and consumers in the U.S. stand to lose protections just as fundamental to our self-determination as a secure, trustworthy voting system that's free from nefarious interference or unconstitutional restrictions on participation.
H.R. 1215, the "Protecting Access to Care Act," is a cynical attempt at changing the rules of the game when patients are injured. Federal laws have typically set a floor for medical malpractice litigation – that is, minimum protections for patients that ensure people who suffer injuries get their day in court regardless of ethnicity, age, gender, or class. But H.R. 1215 turns that system on its head, setting ceilings instead. And they're low ceilings. They'll do more to protect insurance companies than they will to protect patients. CPR Member Scholars Thomas McGarity, Sidney Shapiro, and Rena Steinzor identified some particular concerns with the legislation in a letter to members of Congress.
The chief concerns are:
Tomorrow's vote on H.R. 1215 comes on the heels of last week's party-line vote to pass H.R. 10, known to consumer advocates as the "Wrong CHOICE Act." That legislation would decimate the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau by eliminating its independent agency status, cutting into its funding, and wiping out its enforcement and oversight tools. CFPB's record of success in its short life includes recovering nearly $12 billion for over 29 million consumers. Not to put too fine a point on it, but CFPB's record is especially remarkable when you consider how strong its advocacy has been in pursuit of racial justice. A couple of highlights, courtesy of Americans for Financial Reform:
The House voted last week to make these kinds of activities more difficult for CFPB. Tomorrow, members will decide whether injured patients deserve justice and compensation. In both cases, the interests of vulnerable people with limited political clout are coming up against powerful, politically connected corporate special interests. It's not hard to imagine which way this is going.
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Matt Shudtz | June 13, 2017
To call the timing coincidental doesn’t give House Republicans enough credit. Tomorrow, while the fallout from Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ testimony about his connections to Russia dominates most Capitol Hill news coverage, the House will vote on H.R. 1215, a bill designed to strip injured patients of their day in court. Last week, the same […]
Matt Shudtz | June 12, 2017
Susan Bodine, an attorney with significant experience on Capitol Hill and at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is President Trump’s nominee to lead the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) at the agency. She is likely to get a friendly audience tomorrow when she appears before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee […]
Carl Cranor | June 8, 2017
This op-ed originally ran in the Los Angeles Times. Miners carried canaries into coal mines; if the canary died, it was an early warning of the presence of toxic gases that could also asphyxiate humans or explode. The Trump administration has decided to use children and farmworkers as 21st century canaries, continuing their exposure to […]
David Flores | June 7, 2017
President Trump’s historic retreat from the Paris climate accord last week is just the latest installment in the story of how his administration’s anti-science and anti-protections policies with respect to climate change could do grave harm to many aspects of American life. His proposed budget is likely to be the next chapter. While Trump sees […]
Robert Verchick | June 6, 2017
Tomorrow, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs will examine and likely vote on President’s Trump’s selection for Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA). OIRA is the most important government office most Americans have never heard of. It is the depot through which all regulatory freight must pass, the […]
| June 1, 2017
The President’s decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement is a tragedy born of his failure to appreciate the vital importance of U.S. leadership in the world. It’s particularly regrettable coming as it does on the heels of his performance in Europe last week, during which his refusal to embrace the fundamental […]
James Goodwin | June 1, 2017
This post was originally published on The Regulatory Review. Over the last several years, conservative opponents of regulatory safeguards for health, safety, the environment, consumers, and the economy have gradually coalesced around a grand theory for why the supposed balance of policymaking powers between the executive and legislative branches has become so, well, unbalanced. These opponents’ […]
Daniel Farber | May 30, 2017
A sign of the times: Fox News has reported, without comment, that the Kentucky Coal Museum is installing solar panels to save money. This is part of a larger trend. On Saturday, the New York Times reported on shifts in power production in states like West Virginia and Kentucky. For instance, Appalachian Power has “closed three coal-fired plants and […]
Katie Tracy | May 26, 2017
President Trump’s FY 2018 budget request may be DOA in Congress, but it nonetheless offers critical insight into how he expects to pay for his border wall, increase defense spending, offer up a trillion-dollar infrastructure plan, and carry out his other pet projects, all while cutting corporate taxes. The bottom line is that he intends […]