BP Should Suspend Dividend Payments, Marketing Campaigns, Say House Democrats

By Robert Hune-Kalter
Talk Radio News Service

Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and other House Democrats today called on oil company BP to suspend making dividend payments and creating marketing campaigns.
A letter sent by Welch to BP CEO Tony Hayward earlier this week contained the following statement:

“As BP presides over one of the greatest environmental and economic catastrophes of our time, we find it troubling that your company plans to divert financial resources to shareholder dividends and slick marketing campaigns."

Despite the fact that Hayward told the House Transportation Committee that his company had a plan in place to deal with large spills, Cohen charged on Wednesday that this was not the case. The Tennessee Democrat said BP's legacy will forever be tied to the ongoing spill.

“We’re two days after World Ocean Day and we’re polluting one of our most precious bodies of water and possibly destroying the economic vitality and future of the Gulf Coast. BP is going to be known in the future as Biggest Polluter,” he said.

Rep. Lois Capps (D-Calif.) suggested that the best public relations campaign for BP would be transparency and responsibility, putting its profits in reserve to meet its obligation to the Gulf Coast.

“The public does not like these ads, and when they hear of these dividends they’re going to see right away how terrible this is, that a company would be thinking so much of its shareholders when so many people are suffering on the Gulf Coast,” she said.

Cohen said Democrats are hoping to put BP into receivership so that the company cannot escape its financial responsibility through bankruptcy.

“I believe that they will eventually go bankrupt. I see BP pulling out, just like they pulled out of New Orleans after Andrew Jackson went to New Orleans in the Battle of Britain. The losers will be the people who obligations are due to,” he said.

House Judiciary Committee Tackles Issues Facing Newly Released Criminals

Sarah Mamula - Talk Radio News Service

The House Judiciary Committee is seeking new approaches to facilitate the reentry of released criminals into society by ending the funding of inefficient programs and diminishing the collateral consequences of conviction that contribute to recidivism.

“Over 95% of currently incarcerated individuals will be released into communities and about 2/3 will recidivate within 3 years,” said Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), Ranking Republican Member of the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security.

At a hearing on Wednesday, the barriers facing ex-offenders were discussed, in addition to possible solutions to the issue.

Federal law requires background checks, and mandates disqualification of applicants based on convictions in almost every field of occupation. However, a recent study done by the Department of Justice revealed that 50% of criminal records are inaccurate.

Ex-offenders are also denied access to education education and housing because of criminal records.

Expungement of criminal records, excluding sex offenders, was a widely discussed solution. House Judiciary Committee member Steve Cohen (D-Tenn) proposed the “Fresh Start Act.” If passed, it would expunge the record of individuals convicted of non-violent crimes after a period of 7 years in an attempt to end collateral consequences.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) reiterated the importance of criminal rehabilitation and reentry into society, and announced his plans for a full committee hearing in Detroit during the recess in August.

House Democrats Introduce “Equal Employment For All” Legislation

By Learned Foote- Talk Radio News Service

House Democrats on Tuesday introduced H.R. 3149, otherwise known as the “Equal Employment For All Act,” which aims to reduce the burden of unemployment on individuals with poor credit scores.

The bill would prohibit employers from using credit reports to guide hiring decisions and from asking applicants to voluntarily provide this information.

Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), who wrote the legislation, said that 43% of employers use credit checks during the hiring process.

Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (D-Ill.), a co-sponsor of the bill, called such credit checks “unnecessary barriers to employment.” Rep. Cohen cited a study by the American Psychological Society, and said that unless the job “involves significant financial responsibility,” these credit reports have “no relevance to a person’s qualifications or ability to do jobs.”

Some employers would be exempt from the legislation, including financial institutions and some governmental agencies.

The congressmen argued that bad credit reports often result from factors that cannot be controlled by the individuals in question, including medical issues and job loss during troubled economic times. Rep. Cohen cited studies emphasizing that racial minorities often have worse credit report ratings than whites. “We shouldn’t allow for credit reports that don’t help employers, but only aggravate circumstances in parts of the communities most hurt,” he said.

Rep. Gutiérrez said that “too many Americans are caught in the preventible cycle of debt.” He said that “they’ve fallen into bad credit and as a result they cannot do the one thing that would enable them to climb out: get a job, work hard, and earn a better score.”

The bill has 31 cosponsors, most of whom are members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.