Author Archives: Brian Wolfman

“Consumer bureau draws fire for pro-business tilt during crisis”

Read this article by Katy O'Donnell at Politico about the CFPB's activities during the health crisis. Here's an exerpt: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is relaxing rules designed to shield Americans from abuse during the coronavirus crisis, saying the moves are necessary to give businesses flexibility during the pandemic. But with the agency facing an […]

Third Circuit holds, in split decision, that faxes soliciting participation by the recipients in market research surveys in exchange for money are “advertisements” triggering TCPA coverage

Read the Third Circuit's decision in Fischbein v. Olson Research Group. The beginning of the court's majority opinion explains the holding: In this pair of appeals, we are asked to decide whether faxes soliciting participation by the recipients in market research surveysin exchange for monetary payments are advertisements within the meaning of the Telephone Consumer […]

Brian Galle: Well-heeled universities could prevent harm to workers and students in the current crisis if they spent some of their massive endowments, rather than establishing austerity plans

Law prof Brian Galle has written If Not Now, When: Why Won’t Universities Spend Their Money?  In it, he explains why well-heeled universities should not curtail spending during economic downturns. Rather, he says, it makes sense for those schools to spend their money now, protecting the schools' workers and students in the process.

NCLC: How to ensure that COVID-19 stimulus checks aren’t grabbed by debt collectors

Read U.S. Treasury Must Protect Stimulus Payments From Garnishment by Debt Collectors from the National Consumer Law Center. Here's an excerpt: The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act provides for payments to individuals up to $1,200 so that people can pay for food, rent, utilities, medicine, and other basic necessities.  The CARES Act protects stimulus checks […]

New FDA cigarette-pack graphic warnings finalized; slated to go into effect 2021

Jacqueline Howard of CNN explains here that "the US Food and Drug Administration issued a final rule Tuesday that requires tobacco companies to place new graphic health warnings on cigarette packages and in advertisements. Beginning on June 18, 2021, the new cigarette health warnings will be required on cigarette packages and in advertisements, occupying the […]

Why few legislators are interested in Trump’s proposal to suspend the payroll tax

Trump tweeted yesterday that "Only [suspending the payroll tax] will make a big difference!" (my emphasis). Yet Congress appears uninterested. And Trump himself just endorsed Nancy Pelosi's bill, which doesn't touch the payroll tax. For more on why, on policy grounds, Trump didn't get his way, read Why Trump isn’t getting the payroll-tax cut he […]

Congress has overturned Betsy DeVos’s rule drastically limiting student-loan debt relief

Will Trump sign or veto? That topic is addressed in this article by CNN's Katie Lobosco. For other coverage, go here and here. This NYT's piece by Erica Green and Stacy Cowley does a nice job explaining the restrictive DeVos rule. Here's an excerpt from the CNN article: Senate Republicans joined Democrats Wednesday to overturn a […]