October, 30 2020, 12:00am EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Don Owens, dowens@lawyerscommittee.org, c. (202) 934-1880
Marc Banks, NAACP, dbanks@naacpnet.org, (443) 608-4073
Lon Walls, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, lwalls@wallscomm.com, (301) 996-1669
Phoebe Plagens, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, pplagens@naacpldf.org, (212) 965-2235
Teresa Candori, National Urban League, tcandori@nul.org, (212) 558-5362
National Black Civil Rights Groups to Gather Ahead of Expected Push to Vote on Election Day 2020
Black leaders will provide updates for increased election participation and voting that is free from harassment or disenfranchisement.
WASHINGTON
Leaders of some of the nation's largest and longest-tenured civil rights and Black empowerment organizations will gather on Friday, Oct. 30 at 11:00 a.m. EDT, for a telephone press conference to discuss how they are mobilizing voters in states and what to expect on Election Day in communities nationwide.
The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, NAACP, National Urban League, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation have all been on the frontlines of fighting voter suppression while encouraging Black people and other communities of color to get involved in the election process and express their voices at the ballot box.
WHO: Kristen Clarke, president and executive director, Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
Melanie Campbell, president/CEO, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation
Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.
Derrick Johnson, president and CEO, NAACP
Marc Morial, president and CEO, National Urban League
WHEN: Friday, Oct. 30, at 11:00 a.m. EDT
WHERE: (877) 876-9173
Verbal Conference ID: "BLACK VOTERS"
The Lawyers' Committee is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, formed in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy to enlist the private bar's leadership and resources in combating racial discrimination and the resulting inequality of opportunity - work that continues to be vital today.
(202) 662-8600LATEST NEWS
Unions: Trump Attack on Labor Safety Agency 'Will Take Working Conditions Back Centuries'
The coalition urged Congress to "ask President Trump to reinstate all NIOSH divisions and their staff," and warned "that "the cost of inaction will be severe and excruciating for individuals and society."
May 01, 2025
The AFL-CIO and 27 labor unions on Thursday marked May Day with a letter calling on members of Congress to push U.S. President Donald Trump to reverse his gutting of a key federal agency.
The Trump administration last month made major cuts to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), a "small but mighty agency" that "aims to ensure safety in a wide variety of occupations, such as mining, construction, agriculture, firefighting, and among healthcare, service, and office workers," according to the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
While May 1 is International Workers' Day, April 28 is Workers' Memorial Day, "a poignant reminder of the real human cost of unsafe workplaces," notes the letter to U.S. lawmakers. "We remember all we have lost on the job and recommit ourselves to fulfill the promise of a safe job, so that every loved one returns home unharmed at the end of each shift."
"The most recent data show that 385 people still die each day in the U.S. because of their jobs—more than 5,000 from job injuries and an estimated 135,000 from job illnesses, annually," the coalition continued. "These staggering numbers are completely unacceptable and entirely preventable; these deaths are a systemic failure. Behind every life lost each day is a family across the United States mourning a parent, sibling, child, neighbor, or friend."
The letter highlights that Congress created NIOSH alongside the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Mine Safety and Health Administration, and how it "saves lives daily, in ways that OSHA and MSHA cannot."
NIOSH has the expertise to "provide initial and ongoing certification of respirators and other lifesaving equipment," and to "test other equipment like cleaning booths in mining, fluid resistance of gowns in healthcare, hydraulic winches in fishing, and robotic equipment in manufacturing, as well as explosive environments, dangerous mining conditions, and rescue technologies, and many others."
The agency also helps "employers and worker representatives identify unknown exposures in workplaces such as clusters of cancers, digestive issues, respiratory disease, and other phenomena that occur closely in one worksite," and facilitates "medical care and compensation for workers under the World Trade Center Health Program (WTCHP) for 9/11 responders and survivors and the Energy Workers Program for (Cold War civilian veterans) exposed to deadly hazards."
Yet, Trump's so-called Department of Government Efficiency "functionally dismantled NIOSH—one of the most critical and impactful agencies to every worker in America, their families, and to industries alike," the letter states. "More than 85% of NIOSH staff were placed on administrative leave, to be terminated in June."
The labor coalition argued that "this decision must be immediately reversed as it will take working conditions back centuries, when chronic occupational diseases and fatalities skyrocketed with no government agency to help identify causes and research interventions."
"On this week of Workers' Memorial Day, we urge you to take immediate action by sending letters and making phone calls to ask President Trump to reinstate all NIOSH divisions and their staff," the coalition urged lawmakers. "The cost of inaction will be severe and excruciating for individuals and society. Safe jobs are a fundamental right for every worker in America, and NIOSH is necessary to make this right a reality."
Demonstrating how pressure from Congress may be effective on this front, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) told The Washington Post that she implored Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to reverse job cuts that led to NIOSH suspending the Coal Workers' Health Surveillance Program—and on Tuesday, the newspaper reported, the admistration "temporarily reinstated dozens of fired federal workers who help screen coal miners for black lung."
"Capito said between 30 and 40 fired NIOSH employees would be temporarily brought back to the agency. She added that she had heard from coal miners who were anxiously awaiting word from NIOSH about whether they could receive federal black lung benefits," according to the Post, which noted the administration's plans to ultimately "form a new entity called the Administration for a Healthy America."
Unions that signed on to the new letter include the American Postal Workers Union (APWU), Communication Workers of America (CWA), National Nurses United (NNU), Service Employees International Union (SEIU), United Auto Workers (UAW), United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), and United Steelworkers (USW).
Some signatories have challenged other Trump administration policies in federal court, such as the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), American Federation of Teachers (AFT), and American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).
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Warren Asks If Bezos 'Subservience' to Trump Involves Tariff Quid Pro Quo
"What happened in that call?" asked the Democratic senator. "I'm pressing for answers."
May 01, 2025
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Wednesday pressed Jeff Bezos for answers after the Amazon founder abruptly ditched a reported plan to display tariff costs to customers following a phone call with President Donald Trump.
On Tuesday, the White House lashed out at what Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called "a hostile and political act" following reporting by Punchbowl News that Amazon "will display how much of an item's cost is derived from tariffs—right next to the product's total listed price."
"Yesterday's activity appears to be another example of Big Tech working together with President Trump to seek special favors."
However, after Trump and Bezos spoke over the phone, the president called the multibillionaire "a good guy" who "solved the problem very quickly."
In a letter to Bezos, Warren (D-Mass.) wrote that "these reports raise questions about the nature of your conversations with President Trump, acnd what promises or favors you may have received in exchange for your subservience to him."
"Yesterday's activity appears to be another example of Big Tech working together with President Trump to seek special favors or support his policies in what can appear to be a quid pro quo," the senator continued—an assertion refuted as "inaccurate" by an Amazon spokesperson.
Amazon had plans to show customers how much Trump tariffs are raising prices. Then Bezos got on the phone with Trump and reversed course. What happened in that call? I'm pressing for answers.
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— Elizabeth Warren (@warren.senate.gov) May 1, 2025 at 7:58 AM
"If Amazon had followed through on any plans to provide transparency on tariff costs, it could have provided important information for consumers, allowing them to find out for themselves some of the true costs of President Trump's broad and chaotic tariff policies," Warren added.
Approximately 70% of the products sold on Amazon made in China, which Trump recently hit with a 145% levy on a sweeping range of imported goods. China retaliated with a 125% tariff on U.S. imports. Economists are in near-universal agreement that such tariffs are a regressive tax on consumers. According to reports citing Chinese state media, the Trump administration has reached out to Beijing seeking talks on de-escalating the mutually destructive trade war.
Warren previously pressed Apple CEO Tim Cook over the Trump administration's massive tariff exemptions for company products including iPhones, computers, and microprocessors.
"My concerns about the potential for tariff-related corruption to benefit Big Tech firms—who provided millions in donations to the Trump inaugural committee—and other insiders as the president rolls out, reverses, and modifies his policies have become more acute with each passing day," the senator said in her letter.
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Democrats Call for Probe Into 'Golden Dome' Defense Contract That Could Benefit Musk
SpaceX has emerged as a front-runner for the contract.
May 01, 2025
Democratic lawmakers on Thursday wrote to the acting inspector general of the U.S. Department of Defense, warning that SpaceX emerging as a front-runner to win a contract to build a proposed missile defense system raises major concerns over whether the proposal is "an effective way to protect Americans" or is simply "meant to enrich" Trump ally Elon Musk.
As Reutersreported last month, Musk's rocket and satellite company is partnering with two other firms on a bid to build parts of the Golden Dome, which would launch at least 400 and as many as 1,000 satellites across the globe to detect and track missiles.
A separate component of the Golden Dome, which could be put to use starting as early as 2026, would launch 200 attack satellites to bring enemy missiles down.
The Democrats, led by Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), called on DOD acting Inspector General Steven Stebbins to examine "any involvement" by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk—now a "special government employee" of the Trump administration and a top donor to the president's 2024 campaign—in the Pentagon's process of awarding the defense contract for the Golden Dome.
The news that Musk's company is a front-runner to build key parts of the system, which is expected to cost hundreds of billions of dollars, raises "serious concerns about potential conflicts of interest in the process," reads the letter sent by the lawmakers, who also included Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.).
The lawmakers noted that in the "deeply troubling" Reuters report two weeks ago, a source was quoted as saying the talks surrounding the Golden Dome contract were "a departure from the usual acquisition process."
"There's an attitude that the national security and defense community has to be sensitive and deferential to Elon Musk because of his role in the government," the source told Reuters.
The letter also notes that as a special government employee, Musk is subject to Office of Government Ethics regulations such as 5 CFR § 2635.702, which prohibits using public office for private gain.
"Mr. Musk is also subject to the criminal prohibition in 18 USC § 208 against participating in a particular matter in which he has a financial interest, which carries a penalty of up to five years in prison," said the Democrats.
As the lawmakers wrote to the DOD inspector general's office, government watchdog Public Citizen also spoke out against the "useless and wasteful contract."
Experts have raised concerns about the feasibility of creating the Golden Dome system, especially on the accelerated timeline that has been reported—one that could benefit Musk's company but "result in a faulty end product that wastes billions of dollars and leaves our country with a false sense of security," wrote the lawmakers.
They quoted retired Rear Adm. Mark Montgomery, who toldCNN recently that creating a ballistic missile defense system "could take 7-10 years, and, even then, would have severe limitations."
Reuters also reported last month that SpaceX has proposed a "subscription service" for its involvement in the creation of the Golden Dome, with the government paying for access to the technology rather than owning the system. The proposal could allow the system to be rolled out faster by circumventing Pentagon procurement rules.
"The Golden Dome contract comes at a time when the Pentagon has failed to ever pass an audit, and this year's budget is already expected to top $1 trillion," said the Democrats.
The lawmakers called on Stebbins to refer the case to the Department of Justice for a criminal investigation, should his office find that Musk used his role in the federal government to secure a contract for SpaceX.
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