For several years, Demos and our partners have been working to fulfill our Constitution’s democratic promise by forging a new legal order that is open to money-in-politics reforms, and marshalling the factual and legal arguments that could help the Court move in this direction.
Washington, DC – Today, over 80 community leaders signed a letter urging Mayor Bowser and the members of the DC Council to support the Fair Elections Act of 2017, important legislation under consideration to create a voluntary, small-donor matching program for local elections.
The increased economic anxiety among black and Hispanic workers is not surprising when considering the fact that working-class workers of color tend to be paid less on the job and, therefore, hold less wealth.
No-loan policies at selective institutions can be eye-catching for low-income students that may not have viewed those schools as a viable option said Mark Huelsman, a senior policy analyst at Demos, a left-leaning think tank. But they do little to increase equity in higher education because the group of low-income students educated at these schools is so small, he added.
New York, NY – On Monday, the U.S. Department of Labor released a proposed rule that would change regulations pertaining to the distribution of tips earned by restaurant workers. Demos’ Associate Director of Policy and Research Amy Traub released the following statement.
“The new rule proposed by the Department of Labor (DOL) would allow employers to legally pocket the tips earned by and meant for restaurant workers. This amounts to a backdoor legalization of wage theft.
Indeed, the U.S. racial wealth gap remains largely attributable to public policy decisions driven by resegregation. Demos, a progressive think tank, explains this gap as a product of “the continuing impact of redlining on American home ownership to the retreat from desegregation in public education.”
Katherine Culliton-González is senior counsel at Demos(the people), a New York-based nonpartisan, nonprofit voter-rights group active in litigating voting issues, including Pennsylvania’s voter ID law, ruled unconstitutional in 2014.
“Pennsylvania has a history. And it continues to create barriers to the ballot,” she says, “from lack of language access to a lack of poll worker training, no early voting. It not only complicates voting but it sets up real barriers to voters.”
New York, NY – Today, the Republican-led U.S. Senate voted on strictly partisan lines to approve a new tax plan that will increase taxes on working- and middle-class Americans while lowering taxes on billionaires and wealthy corporations. In response, Tamara Draut, Vice President of Policy and Research at Demos released the following statement:
While some fairly valuable tax breaks for students have been kept from the chopping block, the Senate GOP’s tax bill could go a long way toward decimating funding for public colleges and universities, and community colleges in particular.
New York, NY – As legal disputes continue over who will become the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) acting Director, Tamara Draut, Vice President of Policy and Research at Demos and Demos Action, released the following statement:
According to a 2012 policy paper from the nonprofit public policy research organization Demos, Maryland and New York implemented their laws after the 2010 census, and both have withstood federal court challenges; Delaware and California's laws will take effect with the next census.
Last year, Americans took over 10 billion trips on public transportation. These were trips to work, to school, to stores, to health care, to places of worship, and elsewhere. For millions of Americans, their quality of life rests on the quality of public transit.
