Washington DC – In an important hearing today on the future of America’s middle class, Democrats on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee made the case for greater public investment, fairer tax policy, and better job creation to stimulate economic growth and support working Americans. Demos, a national public policy research and advocacy center, supports the effort, as families continue to reel from the recession and high unemployment.
America needs an election process that is efficient, trustworthy, and welcoming. We need a renewed sense of citizenship and service, and a government that people can believe in.
New York – This week, the growing practice of employers screening the credit scores of job applicants was dealt a legal blow after the Court of Common Council of Hartford, Connecticut, passed an ordinance prohibiting the practice as part of the city's employment application and promotion process. The legislation is the first municipal ordinance of its kind in the country.
Demos, a national public policy research and advocacy center that supports fair employment and publishes research hiring practices, celebrates the decision.
Election Day Registration (EDR), which allows eligible voters to register and cast a ballot on Election Day, is a reform that reduces the unnecessary disfranchisement of eligible voters that may be caused by arbitrary registration deadlines.
States are failing low-income communities and our nation's democracy by not adequately complying with federal law that requires human services agencies to provide voter registration services.
According to all available data, the voter participation rate of the first Americans, American Indians and Alaska Natives, is among the lowest of any ethnic group in the country. There are complex historical and cultural reasons that make the issue of voting among American Indians and Alaska Natives unique.
In February and March 2012, Demos surveyed a nationally representative sample of 997 low- and middle-income American households who carried credit card debt for three months or more.
On March 15, 2013, the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations held hearings on the London Whale scandal. The indomitable and indefatigable Chairman Carl Levin, ably supported by the brilliant committee chief of staff, Elise Bean, took on six JP Morgan Chase (“JPMC”) current and former executives for four hours and three regulators for two, with support from other Committee members.
New York, NY – Today, the Census Bureau released a new data product that will assist state and local governments in avoiding prison-based gerrymandering, a practice which unjustly gives districts that contain prisons extra representation in the legislature. The Bureau’s accelerated release of 2010 group quarters table was hailed by Demos and the Prison
In the wake of the worst effects of the Great Recession, African Americans, like Americans as a whole, are getting their balance sheets in order and paying down credit card debt. But new research from Demos’ National Survey on Credit Card Debt of Low-and Middle-Income Households finds that African Americans face challenges to their financial security that are unlike those of white households.
New York – Today, Demos, a national public policy and advocacy center that supports pro-voter election reform, applauded Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer for vetoing an anti-voter measure recently passed by the state legislature. The bill, HB 180, would have rescinded Montana’s so-called “late registration” period, a type of "Same Day Voter Registration" which allows citizens to register and vote at county clerks’ offices on Election Day and the preceding 30 days.