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Just the Facts: Canadian Tariffs

Just the Facts: Canadian Tariffs

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Lobbyist Spending Reaches Highest Since 2010

Lobbyist Spending Reaches Highest Since 2010
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The Fulcrum
By The FulcrumJan 28, 2019
The Fulcrum
The Fulcrum staff.
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Lobbying spending reached $3.4 billion last year, the most since the all-time peak eight years ago, according to calculations out Monday from the Center for Responsive Politics.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce was the top spender for the 19th consecutive year, spending $95 million to promote its pro-business agenda – including $26 million in the final three months of 2018, mainly to advocate against President Trump's steel and aluminum tariffs on Canada and Mexico. The National Association of Realtors was second, at $73 million.

But the industry that spent the most, by far, was the pharmaceutical sector at $280 million – hoping to shape public opinion and the work of Congress as the rapid rise in drug prices moves the center of the health care policy agenda. The industry's trade association, known as PhRMA, spent 10 percent of that total. The company that spent the most were Pfizer ($11 million), Johnson & Johnson ($7 million) and AbbVie ($6 million).

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I had a nightmare that my mom was being deported. I dreamed of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents coming to our home and taking her away. The current climate has unlocked a childhood fear. My mom did not become a citizen until 1997, and in my early years, I was afraid that I would go to school and never see her again. I was afraid that I would be left behind.

To see immigration through the eyes of the child is to see separation from your parents, your sense of safety and normalcy. My mother had fled from Nicaragua to the United States during the 1980s during civil unrest in Central America, leaving behind my siblings until they could be reunited many years later. Once reunited, there were years to make up for missed birthdays and missed milestones, and at that point, a blended family with new siblings.

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A group of people arranged in the shape of the United states of America map.

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These caricatures lead us sorely astray. But there is a real America. I work in it every day.

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The African American Mayors Association holds its 11th annual conference, this year in Washington, D.C.

The African American Mayors Association holds its 11th annual conference, this year in Washington, D.C.

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Job Cuts, Climate Threats, and the Power of Now: Black Mayors Seek Strength in Solidarity

WASHINGTON – Black mayors from across the country gathered in the nation’s capital for the annual African American Mayors Association Conference last week and strategized ways to govern their cities despite ongoing federal job cuts and recent actions coming from the Trump administration.

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Innovative Local Solutions Can Ease America’s Housing Crisis
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Innovative Local Solutions Can Ease America’s Housing Crisis

Across the country, families are prevented from accessing safe, stable, affordable housing—not by accident, but by design. Decades of exclusionary zoning, racial discrimination, and disinvestment have created a housing system that works well for the wealthy but leaves others behind. Even as federal cuts to public housing programs continue nationwide, powerful, community-rooted efforts are pushing back and offering real, equity-driven solutions led by local voices.

Historically, states like New Jersey show what’s possible when legal advocacy and grassroots organizing come together. In 1975, the New Jersey Supreme Court’s Mount Laurel ruling established that every municipality in the state has a constitutional obligation to provide its fair share of affordable housing. This landmark legal ruling reshaped housing policy and set a national precedent. Today, organizations like Fair Share Housing Center continue to defend and expand this right, ensuring that local governments are prohibited from using zoning laws to exclude working-class families or people of color.

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