Tell the Senate: Pass Sen. Gillibrand's Safe School Meals for Kids Act to ban the pesticide chlorpyrifos from school lunches

Ban brain-harming toxic pesticides in school lunches

The petition to the Senate reads: "Pass Sen. Gillibrand's Safe School Meals for Kids Act to ban the brain-harming toxic pesticide chlorpyrifos from school lunches." Add your name:

The pesticide, chlorpyrifos, is linked to a whole host of developmental disabilities and neurological disorders and is so dangerous that the EPA banned the toxin for home use nearly two decades ago. Yet Big Ag still sprays nearly 10 million pounds of the chemical on food crops, including fruits and vegetables that end up on school lunch tables across the country.Here's a scary and dangerous fact: Millions of school children in the United States could unknowingly be ingesting a brain-harming toxic pesticide just by eating seemingly safe school lunches. A new bill in the Senate could protect school kids from this dangerous neurotoxin. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand recently introduced the "Safe School Meals for Kids Act," which would restrict schools from purchasing food with any detectable amount of chlorpyrifos, effectively banning the chemical from school food.1 Let's build public support behind this bill to ensure children are no longer exposed to this harmful toxin. Tell the Senate: Ban brain-harming toxic pesticides in school lunches. Click here to sign the petition. Chlorpyrifos is the most widely used insecticide in the world and belongs to the same family as sarin nerve gas.2 This toxic chemical poses a massive risk for children, whose brains are nervous systems are still developing. People who have been exposed to the toxin have experienced permanent changes in brain structure, loss of IQ, increased likelihood of children developing ADHD or other developmental and behavioral disorders, reduced lung function, asthma, and cancer.3 The EPA found that children who eat fruits and vegetables sprayed with chlorpyrifos could be exposed to it at levels 140 times what the EPA considers safe.4 And it's not just school children who are affected: Rural children in agricultural areas are exposed to drifting pesticides, and farmworkers, many of whom are immigrants, who apply the toxins on crops are exposed to unsafe levels of chlorpyrifos even when they wear protective gear. Activism to ban this extremely dangerous pesticide is working. Thousands of CREDO activists in New York recently signed petitions to help our allies successfully convince the state legislature to pass ban all chlorpyrifos by 2021, and a similar ban in Hawaii goes into effect in 2022.5 A nationwide ban should have been enacted last year, however, the Trump administration continues to appeal court rulings compelling the EPA to ban the chemical. In the absence of a full ban on chlorpyrifos, Sen. Gillibrand's bill is a critical measure to provide safe food in schools and protect children from this neurotoxic pesticide. We must make sure that every senator who cares about the health and safety of America's children supports this legislation. Click the link below to sign the petition: https://act.credoaction.com/sign/chlorpyrifos-school-lunch?t=9&akid=32482%2E3130208%2EEU63Jo -Josh Nelson, CREDO Action Add your name: References: Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, "Gillibrand Introduces New Legislation To Eliminate Pesticide From Food In School Meals," April 17, 2019. Zoë Schlanger, "The US government is ignoring its own scientists’ warning that a Dow pesticide causes brain damage in children," Quartz, March 30, 2017. Pesticide Action Network, "Chlorpyrifos," accessed May 3, 2019. Earthjustice, "Chlorpyrifos," accessed May 3, 2019. Dan Flynn, "New York steps ahead of Hawaii on agricultural pesticide chlorpyrifos," Food Safety News, May 3, 2019.

Tell Congress: Pass the Climate Risk Disclosure Act

The petition to Congress reads: "Pass the Climate Risk Disclosure Act." Add your name:

Climate change is one of the biggest economic threats the world will ever face. Yet under our financial system, companies are incentivized to ignore it completely. The longer they wait to face reality, the greater the chances that all of us will face what Sen. Elizabeth Warren has called “a global catastrophe that will put the 2008 crisis to shame.”1 That's why Sen. Warren recently introduced the Climate Risk Disclosure Act. The bill would require companies to evaluate and report their climate risks, which would inform responsible investors and deter them from putting money into companies that don't manage them responsibly. Tell Congress: Pass the Climate Risk Disclosure Act. Click here to sign the petition. Our financial system incentivizes behavior that will lead to catastrophic climate change. Not only does the United States subsidize fossil fuel production, but it allows companies to ignore the harm they are causing to the climate and hide the ways that climate change could disrupt their business from investors. The Climate Risk Disclosure Act would help change that. The bill would require every public company to disclose greenhouse gas emissions, fossil fuel assets, plans for managing climate risks and an analysis of how the company's value would be affected by climate change and climate policies.2 It would force companies to be transparent about their environmental impact and give investors the information they need to make responsible decisions about whether they want to invest in companies that are fueling climate change. Under the bill, the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) would set requirements for each business sector and enforce penalties on companies that don't comply. Although the SEC already passed a rule in 2010 that requires companies to include climate risks in their annual filings, the agency has not enforced it and companies have largely ignored the rule.3 We need Congress to take action. Passing progressive environmental legislation like this today will be tough, but we don't have much time to lose. if we start building support for the Climate Risk Disclosure Act in Congress now, we can help make it a reality once progressives are in power. To do that, we need to let our representatives know that we demand that companies be held accountable for the climate risks they are imposing on us all. Along with Sen. Warren, the bill is already co-sponsored by Sens. Brian Schatz, Ed Markey, Sheldon Whitehouse, Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, Kirsten Gillibrand and Jeff Merkley.4 Tell Congress: Pass the Climate Risk Disclosure Act. Click the link below to sign the petition: https://act.credoaction.com/sign/climate-disclosure-act?t=7&akid=30219%2E3130208%2ECxTYUe - Brandy Doyle, CREDO Action Add your name: References: Sen. Elizabeth Warren, "Warren, Colleagues Unveil Bill to Require Every Public Company to Disclose Climate-Related Risks," Sept. 17, 2018. Ibid. Karen Savage, "New Bill Would Require the SEC to Police Companies’ Climate Risks," Climate Liability News, Sept. 20, 2018. Timothy Cama, "Warren wants companies to disclose more about climate change impacts," The Hill, Sept. 14, 2018.

Tell Congress: Postal banking, not payday lending

Petition to Congress: "Protect low-income Americans from predatory Wall Street-backed payday lenders and check cashers by supporting postal banking and the Postal Banking Act." Add your name:

With average payday loan interest rates as high as 338 percent and check-cashing shops charging exploitative fees, more struggling Americans get trapped in inescapable cycles of debt every single year.1 It's no accident: It's the deliberate strategy of Wall Street-backed lenders that vacuum billions of dollars out of low-income communities every year.2 To break the grip of the predatory financial industry we need tough enforcers, strict rules – and a public option like postal banking to serve as a low-cost alternative. Progressive champions like Sen. Elizabeth Warren have championed postal banking for years and pushed the U.S. Postal Service to use its existing authority to launch pilot programs. Now, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand has expanded the fight by introducing new postal banking legislation.3 Tell Congress: Postal banking, not payday lending. Click here to sign the petition. The dirty secret of the payday lending industry is that there is no money in people repaying their loans on time. The key to the whole profit-making engine, the one that makes lenders’ Wall Street backers rich, is tricking people into taking out a loan and then locking them into months or years of debt. Charging hidden fees and demanding sky-high interest rates, payday lenders are little more than legal loan sharks.4 A full postal banking system would offer a low-cost alternative to the most predatory companies. Low-income neighborhoods often lack commercial bank branches, and many struggling families without access to mainstream banks have little choice but to turn to check cashers and payday lenders. Postal banking would offer basic services like check cashing, savings accounts and cheap loans so that one unexpected expense doesn't trap someone in debt for life.5 The USPS has done this before, from 1917 until 1967. In 1947, the post office held nearly 10 percent of commercial savings in the United States.6 The USPS can do a lot to bring back postal banking on its own and many progressive allies have been pushing for just that. Sen. Gillibrand's new bill adds to those efforts by putting postal banking back on the agenda in a big way. Tell Congress: Postal banking, not payday lending. Click here to sign the petition. Some have looked to postal banking as a way to increase revenue for the USPS. But Sen. Gillibrand's bill focuses solely on providing an alternative to payday lenders, thus helping the most vulnerable Americans. The reality is that the USPS's supposed budget woes stem from a deliberate right-wing attempt to sabotage a vital government service by mandating that the agency pre-fund its retiree health care and pension benefits for 75 years – something that no other government agency or private company is forced to do.7 Sen. Gillibrand's bill keeps the attention where it belongs: keeping low-income Americans out of the clutches of a predatory financial industry that wants to trap them into debt and exploit them for all they are worth. Postal banking is an idea whose time has come again, and a big show of support for this bill will provide momentum to every effort to make it real. Tell Congress: Postal banking, not payday lending. Click below to sign the petition: https://act.credoaction.com/sign/postal_banking_payday?t=8&akid=28495%2E3130208%2E1nlW66 - Josh Nelson, CREDO Action Add your name: References: David Dayen, “The Government is Finally Cracking Down on Legal Loan Sharks,” Fiscal Times, March 27, 2015. Ibid. Alan Pyke, "Gillibrand’s post office banking bill bypasses years of careful, quiet work to kill payday lending," ThinkProgress, April 27, 2018. Dayen, “The Government is Finally Cracking Down on Legal Loan Sharks.” Pyke, "Gillibrand’s post office banking bill bypasses years of careful, quiet work to kill payday lending." Campaign for Postal Banking, "Know the Facts: Is Postal Banking a New Idea?" accessed May 1, 2018. Pyke, "Gillibrand’s post office banking bill bypasses years of careful, quiet work to kill payday lending."