Podcasts about consumer policy

Send us a textIn this episode, we dive into the study that found 95% of tested products—including 97% of vapes—were made using synthetic processes rather than naturally extracted cannabinoids. Some even contained kratom and hallucinogenic mushrooms!

Martin Abrams knows a little something about information privacy and consumer policy. Over the course of the last 40-plus years, Abrams has had his hands in a number of initiatives, including as co-founder and president of the Center for Information Policy Leadership and founder of the Information Accountability Foundation. He took part in the development of the APEC Cross Border Privacy Rules and the OECD's Working Party on Information Security and Privacy. Abram's work on transparency and accountability has been influential on policy makers around the world. At the latest Global Privacy Assembly in Bermuda, Abrams announced he was retiring from his full-time position at IAF and taking more time to be with his family. IAPP Editorial Director Jedidiah Bracy caught up with Abrams to take a look back at his career, the changes he's seen in information policy and where he thinks data policy and regulation are heading.

Season 3 of Trust and Trade kicks off with an in-depth look at the heated turn in the relationship between the Federal Trade Commission and Congress, which broke into public view during a July oversight hearing by the House Judiciary Committee. Host Anant Raut and guest host John Villafranco welcome Katie McInnis (Chief Democratic Counsel to the subcommittee) and Nina Frant (former counsel to Commissioner Wilson) to discuss their insights from the hearing - what was said, how Chair Khan responded, and what this might mean for the FTC going forward. With special guests: Katie McInnis, Chief Democratic Counsel, House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust and Nina Frant, Vice President for Consumer Policy, U.S. Chamber of Commerce Hosted by: Anant Raut, John Villafranco, and Greg Fortsch

A House oversight subcommittee asked regulators and industry leaders on Tuesday to explain what they are doing to stop cryptocurrency fraud and other scams perpetrated on consumers. Illinois Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, head of the Economic and Consumer Policy subcommittee, asked leaders of the Treasury Department, Securities and Exchange Commission, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and Federal Trade Commission for more information on the steps they are taking to curb the growth of fraud and consumer abuse linked to cryptocurrencies. The inquiries come as the cryptocurrency market has seen immense volatility, as bitcoin lost nearly half its value at one point this year and other cryptocurrencies fell even more. “Despite these vulnerabilities, the federal government has been slow to curb cryptocurrency scams and fraud. Existing federal regulations do not comprehensively or clearly cover cryptocurrencies under all circumstances," reads one letter addressed to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. Five of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges were also sent inquiry letters, requesting documents on company policies regarding the removal of fake accounts.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A House oversight subcommittee asked regulators and industry leaders on Tuesday to explain what they are doing to stop cryptocurrency fraud and other scams perpetrated on consumers. Illinois Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, head of the Economic and Consumer Policy subcommittee, asked leaders of the Treasury Department, Securities and Exchange Commission, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and Federal Trade Commission for more information on the steps they are taking to curb the growth of fraud and consumer abuse linked to cryptocurrencies. The inquiries come as the cryptocurrency market has seen immense volatility, as bitcoin lost nearly half its value at one point this year and other cryptocurrencies fell even more. “Despite these vulnerabilities, the federal government has been slow to curb cryptocurrency scams and fraud. Existing federal regulations do not comprehensively or clearly cover cryptocurrencies under all circumstances," reads one letter addressed to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. Five of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges were also sent inquiry letters, requesting documents on company policies regarding the removal of fake accounts.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Seresto Flea and Tick Collars for dogs and cats have been sold to Americans since 2013. During that time, the EPA has received approximately 100,000 reports of illnesses and 2,500 reports of deaths of animals that wore a Seresto Flea and Tick collar, by far the most reports received about any flea and tick treatment on the market. In this episode, hear testimony from scientists about the Environmental Protection Agency's disturbingly lax review processes for pesticides in pet products and learn why your vote in November is likely to determine if these popular but dangerous products will stay on American shelves. Please Support Congressional Dish – Quick Links Contribute monthly or a lump sum via PayPal Support Congressional Dish via Patreon (donations per episode) Send Zelle payments to: Donation@congressionaldish.com Send Venmo payments to: @Jennifer-Briney Send Cash App payments to: $CongressionalDish or Donation@congressionaldish.com Use your bank's online bill pay function to mail contributions to: 5753 Hwy 85 North, Number 4576, Crestview, FL 32536. Please make checks payable to Congressional Dish Thank you for supporting truly independent media! Listen to the latest episode of Jen's new podcast with Andrew Heaton and Justin Robert Young — We're Not Wrong Episode 12: About The Never Ending Ukraine War, Biden's COVID and Mike Pence (LIVE FROM BERLIN) To report an incident directly to the EPA via email Report.Pesticide.Incident@epa.gov View the shownotes on our website at https://congressionaldish.com/cd256-poisonous-pet-collars Executive Producer Recommended Sources CD200: How to End Legal Bribes Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Alastair Smith. The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics. Public Affairs: 2011. Background Sources Recommended Congressional Dish Episodes CD254: Baby Formula Shortage CD234: AWOL Recall: The Rock and Play Sleeper Reports on Seresto and Pesticides “Oversight Subcommittee Report Reveals EPA Failed to Protect Pets, Owners From Dangerous Flea and Tick Collar.” Jun 15, 2022. House Committee on Oversight and Reform. House Committee on Oversight and Reform, Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy. June 2022. “Staff Report: Seresto Flea and Tick Collars: Examining why a product linked to more than 2,500 pet deaths remains on the market.” Lauretta Joseph. May 19, 2022. “Notification of Evaluation: The EPA's Response to Reported Incidents of Unintended Effects from Pet Collar Pesticides, Project No. OSRE-FY22-0120” Johnathan Hettinger. Sept. 24, 2021. “Is your pet wearing a Seresto flea collar? Company reports thousands more adverse incidents.” USA Today. Jordan Liles. Mar 8, 2021. “Did Seresto Flea Collars Cause 1,698 Dog and Cat Deaths?” Snopes. Johnathan Hettinger. Mar 2, 2021. “Popular flea collar linked to almost 1,700 pet deaths. The EPA has issued no warning.” USA Today. Jen's highlighted copy Lawrence J. Dyckman et al. July 1995. “Pesticides: EPA's Efforts to Collect and Take Action on Exposure Incident Data, GAO/RCED-95-163.” U.S. Government Accountability Office. Lobbying “Lobbyist Profile: Ryan Canfield.” 2022. Open Secrets. “Employment History: Ryan Canfield.” Open Secrets. “Elanco Animal Health.” Open Secrets. The Hearing Seresto Flea and Tick Collars: Examining why a product linked to more than 2,500 pet deaths remains on the market June 15, 2022 Committee on Oversight and Reform, Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy Witnesses: Faye Hemsley & Omarion Hemsley, Owners of Deceased Pet Thomas Maiorino, Owner of Deceased Pet Jeffrey Simmons, President and Chief Executive Officer, Elanco Animal Health Incorporated Nathan Donley, Ph.D, Environmental Health Science Director, Center for Biological Diversity Karen McCormack, Former Scientist, Policy Analyst, and Communications Officer (ret.), Office of Pesticide Programs, Environmental Protection Agency Carrie Sheffield (minority witness), Senior Policy Analyst, Independent Women's Voice Clips 1:20 Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL): As early as 2015, just a few years after the collar entered the US market, an EPA investigation found that among similar products, the Seresto collar “ranked number one” by a wide margin in terms of total incidents, major incidents and deaths, even after factoring in companies' relative sales. Those findings weren't enough to drive the makers of Seresto collar or the EPA to act. 1:50 Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL): In 2016, Canada's equivalent of the EPA known as the PMRA, concluded based on a review of the same American data available to the EPA that the collar posed too great a risk to pets and their owners to be ever sold in Canada. 2:10 Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL): Even as the death count rose, the EPA allowed Seresto to remain on the market here without even so much as requiring additional warning labels that regulators mandated in places ranging from Australia to Colombia to the European Union. 2:30 Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL): The companies that manufactured the Seresto collar first Bayer animal health and then later Elanco were also aware of the risks, the incidents and the deaths, but they too failed to act. Instead, they hired third party industry insiders to conduct so-called independent reviews of the incident data, which ended up protecting their $300 million a year market but ended up endangering pets. So the Seresto collar stayed the same and so did the consequences. 4:15 Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL): This particular collar has caused 100,000 incidents reported to the EPA and over 2500 pet deaths reported to the EPA. 4:30 Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL): The steps that we are asking for today are crucial, because it's important to protect our pets and our families, too. I now call upon my distinguished colleague, Mr. Cloud for his opening statement. Rep. Michael Cloud (R-TX): Thank you, Chairman. This is the first hearing of the Economic and Consumer Policy Subcommittee this year, and we've been in session for 52 days this year. And our first hearing is on pet collars. And I do realize that our pets are a huge part of our lives, they enrich our families, they provide companionship for my kids, they've helped foster responsibility and compassion and care, important ethics we need in our society. Just recently, our family mourned the loss of our guinea pig, biscuit. And so pets are a huge part of our family lives. But I have to admit that when I saw that this was going to be on the agenda for this week, I cannot help but be concerned, especially coming from South Texas about the 1000s 10s of 1000s of human lives that have passed away due to fentanyl and due to an open border and due to the policies of this administration to continue to aid and abet cartels. And I realized that this is the economic and Consumer Policy Subcommittee. And so I think about economic policy happening right now and where the minds of the American people are. Gas is now averaging $5 A gallon nationwide. For the first time in history. We have not had a hearing. Inflation is at a 40 year high. We have not had a hearing, the American people cannot find baby formula. We still haven't had a hearing. I've mentioned fentanyl is killing Americans, especially our teens at unprecedented rates. We have not had a hearing. Biden's systemic elimination of the safe and secure border he inherited has led to the worst humanitarian and national security crisis in this country's history. We have not had a hearing this term, we could talk about how inflation is affecting the cost of owning a pet, including the increased cost of food, toys, accessories, but we're not talking about that either. Instead, we're holding a hearing on the pet collar, which fights fleas and ticks. And as any pet owner knows fleas and tick management is an essential part of pet care. But I'm not sure it's an essential part of congressional oversight, especially when we take in mind where the American people are at. And frankly, I've talked to a number of people in my district and others who live in other parts of the country and they are really surprised that this has risen to one of the top priorities of commerce at this time in juncture. The subcommittee Republicans would rather explore efforts to help American consumers during these trying times, we would gladly have joined the chairman in holding a hearing on the shortage of baby formula. Moreover, we have welcomed the chance to explore TikTok's troubling practice of showing dangerous content to minors, an investigation you all started last year. In fact, it's now come to light that teenagers are using tick tock and other social media platforms to purchase illicit drugs including unknowingly in many cases, in most cases, fentanyl. Social media platforms are also using it to recruit young people into the gig economy of human trafficking. A hearing on that crisis could be incredibly important. And on the subject of our nation's youth, CDC bureaucrats have actively pursued an agenda to close schools during the pandemic instead of following the science damaging our children's financial, mental, physical, emotional, and also their learning for years to come. But we still have not had a hearing. Americans are facing incredible economic issues which require us as elected officials to listen and to respond. I do appreciate the fact that our pets play an important part of our lives. We should be kind to animals and we should teach our children to do the same. But I do care immensely more about the human lives that we were elected to serve. 10:20 Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL): A recorded vote has been requested — we will pause while the we will get the clerk out. 12:00 Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL): Mr. Chairman, it's already been about what? A minute and a half. Where's the clerk? Is the clerk on lunch and not here today? Rep. Krishnamoorthi (D-IL): I think the clerk is on the way Mr. Donalds, thank you. Rep. Donalds: Is the clerk sitting in the side office just hanging out? I mean, come on, Mr. Chairman. 21:20 Clerk: Mr. Cloud? Rep. Michael Cloud (R-TX): Yes Clerk: Mr. Cloud votes yes. Mr. Keller? Rep. Fred Keller (R-PA): Yes Clerk: Mr. Keller votes yes. Mr. Franklin? Rep. C. Scott Franklin (R-FL): Yes Clerk: Mr. Franklin votes yes. Mr. Clyde? Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA): Yes. Clerk: Mr. Clyde votes yes. Mr. Donalds? Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL): Yes Clerk: Mr. Donalds votes yes. 26:31 Thomas Maiorino: My name is Thomas Maiorina. I reside in Mount Laurel, New Jersey with my wife Monica. I am the father of three boys. My youngest son, Robert turned 12 in 2011. After years of asking for a dog, he wore us down and we decided to rescue a dog from a southern shelter for my son's birthday. After researching online, we adopted a mixed breed mutt that Robbie and his two other brothers named Rooney. Rooney swiftly became a loved member of our family. A bit rambunctious, she was just what a 12 year old boy needed. She loved the run and chase anything the move in the yard. By all measures, we took great care to ensure Rooney had a healthy and happy life. We took her on daily walks, sometimes three a day, hikes on park trails. We monitor her diet and made sure she was seen by the veterinarian as needed, and she received all of her shots. Because she was a bit rambunctious and we lived in a wooded area where there's a lot of wildlife, we were constantly concerned about the problems of fleas and ticks. We consulted with a veterinarian after getting Rooney to determine the best way to protect her against this. We use a variety of prevention methods for the first few years and when we changed veterinarians in approximately 2013 or 14, the new veterinarian strongly recommended that we use the Seresto flea and tick collar, based on all of our options. We heeded that advice and purchased Seresto collars from our local PetSmart. The collars were intended to provide protection for up to eight months. We noticed that after fixing a collar to Rooney's neck, she began to itch and first had that treated and tested for allergies. We took her to the vet several times during 2018 seeking to find the cause for the ever increasing itching. After several visits and multielement medications, they were unable to determine the cause and we switched to a specialist in 2019 to seek further assistance, where they provided allergy shots and other medications to address the worsening itching and related symptoms. Rooney's behavior then became more erratic as the months wore on she began linking her paws so feverishly they would bleed. She also developed bleeding patches on her stomach. Ultimately, in October 2020, Rooney suffered horrendous grand mal seizure in the presence of myself and my wife. The damage done by the seizure was irreversible. She was a shell of her former self and ultimately, the family decided the most humane thing would be to put Rooney to sleep at the age of nine. In early March 2021, I read an article online about Seresto pet collars resulting in the deaths of 1700 Pets without any warnings from the EPA or the manufacturer. I sought out legal representation not because I wanted financial compensation, but because I took great pains to care for Rooney. The final 18 months of her life were agonizing to watch if I could help prevent another family from going through what my family went through. I wanted to act. I'm here today in furtherance of that effort. I appreciate the committee taking the time to investigate this matter. And thank you for your time. 33:30 Jeffrey Simmons: There are a few points I'd like to emphasize upfront. First, the EPA approved Seresto following more than 80 safety and toxicity studies, all of which show that Seresto and its ingredients have a strong safety profile. Second, more than 80 regulatory bodies around the world have approved Seresto. Seresto is widely used and more than 80 million collars worn over the past decade to protect dogs and cats from fleas and ticks around the world. 34:00 Jeffrey Simmons: Third, adverse event reports are not intended to be, and in fact are absolutely not, proof of causation. Reports require further investigation and analysis to determine cause. And after years of review, our pharmacovigilance team made up of veterinarians and other experts who study adverse event reports has not identified a single death caused by the active ingredients in the collar. 36:45 Jeffrey Simmons: No product is without risk. What matters is whether those risks are reasonable. And in light of the benefits and numerous studies and the incident report data for Seresto demonstrate the product does not pose an unreasonable risk and has a strong safety profile, which is why the American Veterinary Medical Association opposed canceling Seresto's EPA registration. 38:05 Nathan Donley: My name is Dr. Nathan Donley. I'm the science director for the Environmental Health Program at the Center for Biological Diversity. I have a PhD in Cell and Developmental Biology from Oregon Health and Sciences University. The last seven years of my professional life have been spent researching how pesticides impact people and the environment and the regulatory failures that can actually facilitate harm rather than prevent it. I published three peer reviewed scientific articles and five technical reports on this subject. I've authored over 100 technical scientific comments to the EPA on pesticide documents, including flumethrin and imidacloprid, the two active ingredients in the Seresto collar. I've read through 1000s of pages of FOIA documents I requested on matters related to the approval and continued use of Seresto. 39:40 Nathan Donley: While other agencies like the FDA have robust systems in place to surveil harms from products under their purview, EPA only requires minimal information be submitted four times a year and they delegate this responsibility to the pesticide industry itself. The limited information that is collected includes only the pesticide product name, where the incident occurred, and the severity of the incident. That's it. Oftentimes, the agency doesn't even know if the incident involves a dog or a cat. Even though the EPA determines what incident information it collects, it then turns around and laments that the incident data are insufficient to take regulatory action to protect public health, the environment and our pets. It's a system designed to achieve nothing other than maintaining the status quo. Worse yet, reported incidents significantly underestimate the true scope of harm. The EPA recently estimated that only one in 25 pesticide incidents involving another pesticide called Kamba was actually reported to the authorities. That's only a 4% reporting rate. Given that 100,000 people have reported their concerns about Seresto, this is very alarming because the true number of harmful incidents to pets could be potentially far higher. 41:05 Nathan Donley: The EPA's counterpart in Canada was so concerned about Seresto incidents and harms of pets and humans that it denied Seresto approval in 2016. Canada analyzed U incident data and determined that Seresto collars had an incident rate 50 times greater than the average flea collar and 36 times greater than Canada's trigger for review. 41:25 Nathan Donley: EPA has no trigger for review of any pesticide product, no matter how much harm is being reported. And because the agency has no mandated trigger for reviewing pesticides like Seresto, rather than choosing to use incident reporting data to inform a robust regulatory process and take dangerous products off the market, EPA routinely chooses to do nothing at all. And that's especially troubling when you consider that Seresto is just one of 18,000 pesticide products currently approved by the EPA. 42:40 Karen McCormack: My name is Karen McCormack. At the present time I am a retired government employee after working over 40 years at the Environmental Protection Agency. During my career at EPA, I first worked in an EPA laboratory as a research coordinator. And in that capacity, I conducted research on numerous pesticides. Later I transferred to EPA headquarters in Washington DC, and worked in various positions in the pesticide program as a scientist, policy analyst, and a communications officer. I also worked in a number of offices at EPA including the Office of the Assistant Administrator for Pesticides and Toxins. Although I'm retired from EPA, I'm still closely following a number of environmental topics and one of those topics of interest to me has been the impact of flea and tick pet products on cats and dogs. 43:30 Karen McCormack: The US Environmental Protection Agency is charged with regulating products that contain pesticides and in ensuring that all pesticide products are safe to use. Before 1996, EPA did not consistently require manufacturers to conduct animal safety studies for pet products containing pesticides. Because pet products with pesticides were available readily in commercial stores, consumers thought they must be safe. This is not necessarily the case. Flea and tick products are designed to kill insects, and they often contain poisonous chemicals. When combined with pesticides that are used outside the home and in the water and food that people drink and eat, the aggregate risks from all these sources of pesticides can be high, especially for children who are vulnerable to toxic chemicals -- much more vulnerable than adults. And it wasn't until the passage of the 1996 Food Quality Protection Act that EPA began to examine the risks from sources other than food, including risks from pet products containing pesticides. After the passage of FQPA, pesticide manufacturers were required to submit to EPA animal safety studies and incident reports showing harm to animals and humans exposed to pesticides and pet products. Between 2012 and the present time the EPA received an increasing number of incident reports related to the use of flea and tick pet collars for dogs and cats. The toxic effects that were described in these many incident reports from the use of certain pet collars ranged from mild effects, such as skin irritation to more severe effects such as intense tremors, seizures, paralysis, organ failure and death. The largest number of incident rate counts that EPA received during this period were from the use of pet collar called Seresto. 45:35 Karen McCormack: Between January 2012 and the present time, EPA has received over 100,000 incident reports, and these incident reports include human incidents as well as pet incidents. These reports also include at least 2300 reports of pet deaths. The number is most likely a very low estimate of the actual number of incidents that are occurring since many pet owners do not know that they can report incidents to EPA and they may not know how to correlate the adverse effects in their pets with a particular pet product. 46:30 Karen McCormack: There are no independent organizations that rank the safety of pet products. And the sales data which is needed to rank the safety of pet products is considered confidential business information by the manufacturers. EPA's risk assessments also do not tell the full story of what pet products are safe, as they rely heavily on industry generated studies that were conducted on mice and rats rather than dogs and cats. And EPA's risk assessments also are based mainly on studies that were conducted with only one pesticide in Seresto rather than the combined pesticides in this pet product. 47:10 Karen McCormack: Although the original manufacturers of Seresto, Bayer, did conduct a number of efficacy and safety studies in dogs and cats treated with Seresto, the company did not conduct two very critical studies that are important for determining the safety of a pet product. These tests include a pet transferable residue study, a petting study, to determine the exposure of humans to Seresto. And they did not conduct a study that measures the amount of pesticide that gets in the blood of treated dogs and cats. 48:45 Carrie Sheffield: My name is Carrie Sheffield and I'm a senior policy analyst at the Center for Economic Opportunity at Independent Women's Forum. We are a nonprofit organization committed to increasing the number of women who value free markets and personal liberty. 2:44:20 Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL): Let me just show you some analysis that was conducted by Elanco, which we would just refer to as well as the EPA, as well as the Canadian equivalent of the EPA, which is called the PMRA. Essentially, we look at this chart here, and we see that at the top Elanco computed that 0.51% of pet deaths were “possibly or probably” caused by the Seresto collar. The PMRA in Canada, looking at a sample of pet deaths concluded that 33% of those pet deaths were possibly or probably caused by Seresto collars. And the EPA here, concluded that 45% were possibly or probably caused by pet by the Seresto collar. Now, sir, I think originally, you said that there is no scientific evidence, no evidence of a causal link, this is clearly evidence, it was so compelling that the Canadian equivalent of the EPA never allowed for Seresto collars to be sold in Canada, correct? Jeffrey Simmons: Yes, I'm aware of that decision. I would also add that 80 other countries have approved this product, we've had over 80 million collars actually used. I'm not familiar with this data comparison, but what I can say is following the EPA regulatory process around the oversight, that we have pharmacovigilance, close to 200 veterinarians and staff on our team, looking at the data through the way the EPA wants us to we have not seen a linkage from the active ingredients. Rep. Krishnamoorthi: I understand that sir, I understand you haven't seen the linkage, although other authorities have and their scientists who are not paid by you have done so. 2:46:25 Nathan Donley: This is what we commonly see, quite frankly, when the regulated industry is doing their own research. It commonly finds that their products are safer than when government agencies or academic scientists take on a similar analysis. 2:46:55 Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL): We have FOIA documents from the EPA, and emails internal to the EPA talking about the Seresto collar. Here's just one of them. This is from an employee who basically voiced their opinion about recent coverage of the Seresto controversy, he said, “looks like the sh*t has hit the fan….will be interesting seeing where this goes. I hope there is a FOIA for all communications on this so that our emails are made public. We have been screaming about Seresto for many years.” I presume that you've heard some of these screams and concerns, correct, Ms. McCormack? Karen McCormack: That's correct. A number of EPA employees have contacted me and given me detailed descriptions about what's happening with Seresto and they were very upset that EPA refused to do anything about it. 2:48:25 Karen McCormack: A number of the scientists, and this is not unusual, feel that the decision makers are not considering the science and they're making decisions based on political reasons. I don't know if I have time to talk about this, but I did look at the science that the Canadian government did, the causality analysis. They looked at the consistency and toxicity of effects from exposure of pets to Seresto. And what they found was very disturbing. It was so disturbing that they decided the risks were too high to approve Seresto and they could not be mitigated by putting a label statement on the product or by issuing warning labels, so they refused to approve Seresto. 2:49:25 Rep. Michael Cloud (R-TX): Thank you, Ms. McCormack, for acknowledging that the EPA sometimes makes political decisions, so that's something we'll definitely be coming back to next term. 2:55:05 Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA): Are the active ingredients for Seresto in the United States different from the active ingredients for Seresto collars in other countries? Jeffrey Simmons: No, I do not believe they're any different than the other 80 countries. Rep. Porter: In other countries like in Colombia and Australia, the warning labels for Seresto collars classify the collar as highly toxic and as poison. 2:55:50 Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA): Does the label in the United States have language? Like highly toxic or poison? Yes or no? Jeffrey Simmons: It does not. Rep. Porter: Okay. So the warning label here in the United States, though does say that mild reactions may occur and mentions hair loss, scratching and redness. The most severe symptoms listed are eczema and lesions. This is the warning label: does it mention the potential for death? Jeffrey Simmons: It does not. Rep. Porter: So a pet owner looking at this label that we're looking at would have absolutely no reason, no way to know that Seresto may have caused roughly 100 pet deaths. That's what both the Canadian Pest Management Agency, the PMRA, and the EPA found. Will you change this label, so that it includes deaths as a possible side effect? Jeffrey Simmons: Congresswoman, we do not believe the scientific data warrants a label change. And again, that is not just the 80 studies were submitted. There's been 20 additional added studies since and all of the oversight data that's been done on the 33 million pets over the 10 years. So again, following an EPA regulated process, we're always open if a data warranted, some need for a change, we would do that. 2:57:30 Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA): The EPA encouraged both your predecessor, Bayer, and your company, Elanco, to update the warning label. Yet, you just said that you never have. So the federal government did in fact advise you to update the label and you failed to do so. Is that correct? Jeffrey Simmons: I do not believe that is correct. We are in regular engagement with EPA. We have not received any formal…there's no data that warrants that and there's been no formal engagement on that. 2:58:15 Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA): The EPA asked Bayer, the predecessor here, in 2019 to help the agency collect data on adverse incidents for cats and dogs using the Seresto collar. EPA asked Bayer to split the registration for cats and dogs, so the agency could better understand and evaluate the risks for each type of pet. They refused, saying that change might have, “an adverse impact on sales” and they also said, “it would be a substantial increase in work.” Mr. Simmons, are you willing to make that change and split the registration for cats and dogs as the EPA requested? Or do you believe it's too much work? Jeffrey Simmons: I am willing to engage with the EPA on anything that the scientific data and the engagement under the regulatory body of the EPA merits the right thing to do. We believe the 80 studies and all of the pharmacovigilance data that we've submitted to them stands that this is a safe product. 3:00:10 Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA): I feel obligated to begin by stating the obvious this afternoon. Today's hearing is a colossal waste of time and resources. 3:13:25 Rep. Henry Johnson (D-GA): And the only reason that the public knew about the harm caused by this pesticide is because the Center for Biological Diversity publicly petitioned the EPA to cancel registration for Seresto flea collars. If they had not bought this to light, do you think we would even know of the dangers presented by these collars? Nathan Donley: No, we wouldn't. You know, the investigation that came out in USA Today in 2021 really brought this to the public attention. And if there wasn't that amount of pressure from the public, this would just still be completely unknown. EPA, for the last 10 years, has not done anything to alert consumers to the harms associated with this product or any other pesticide products where there are a very high number of incidents. 3:15:10 Karen McCormack: I think some of the people at EPA are programmed to go along with whatever industry says. It makes life easier for you, you can go home earlier and you can also get promoted easier if you go along with what industry says. It's unfortunate a problem there. And I've seen it over the years and it's very hard to do something about it. 3:15:40 Karen McCormack: Canada's analysis was very scientific. It was not only based on incident data and sales data, it was based on the toxicity of the two pesticides in Seresto. And they looked at the consistency and what happened eventually with the pets that were exposed to Seresto. 3:19:20 Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL): And so because of the tremendous number of pet incidents, the tremendous number of deaths, even when factoring in sales, I sadly have no choice but to recommend that the EPA commence a notice of intent to cancel proceedings and to fully investigate what's going on with the Seresto collar, and I respectfully request Elanco to voluntarily recall these collars at this time, pending this further investigation. Cover Art Design by Only Child Imaginations Music Presented in This Episode Intro & Exit: Tired of Being Lied To by David Ippolito (found on Music Alley by mevio)

Understanding the rule-makers as well as the rules is vital. In our latest Meet the Regulators series podcast, we speak to some of the UK's most important regulators, taking a deep dive into their policies and priorities and their impact on industry in an increasingly regulated world.In this third episode, Neil Baylis, Partner in the firm's Competition Group, is joined by Executive Director of Enforcement at the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), Dr Michael Grenfell.We learn more about the new powers given to the CMA following the Government's Competition and Consumer Policy consultation and how the CMA is working with other regulators and the European Commission and what this means for businesses today.Our guest also speaks about what the future may hold for the CMA in the competition and consumer regulatory space.Visit the Academy for more learning, events, videos, podcasts and reports.

This was a joint 3CL/Cambridge Private Law Centre event. Additive layer manufacturing, better known as 3D-printing, is a manufacturing technology which has been evolving steadily over the last few decades, and has now advanced to the point where it can make the leap from niche technology to mainstream application. Its potential is such that it could change where and the manner in which many types of goods are produced. An interesting aspect of 3D-printing is that it allows for the unbundling of the production process. In this paper, I intend to explore what this could mean for the laws on the humble contract for the sale of goods, and whether the potential of 3D-printing requires developments in the law. Christian Twigg-Flesner LL.B. PCHE Ph.D. (Sheffield) is Professor of International Commercial Law at the University of Warwick (since September 2017). Previously, he was Professor of Commercial Law at the University of Hull, having joined there as Lecturer in 2004, and he previously taught at the University of Sheffield and Nottingham Trent University. His research and teaching interests are in the areas of Commercial, Consumer and Contract Law, with a particular focus on the implications of digitalisation. His research covers English, European and International dimensions. He is a Fellow of the European Law Institute, an Associate Academic Fellow of the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, and one of the Law editors for the Journal of Consumer Policy. He has been a Senior International Fellow at the University of Bayreuth (2016-18), and visiting professor at the universities of Münster, Bielefeld, Osnabrück, and City University Hong Kong. He has spoken at conferences throughout Europe, as well as in Hong Kong and Japan. He has published extensively, particularly on EU Consumer and Contract Law. His books include Foundations of International Commercial Law (Routledge, 2021), Rethinking EU Consumer Law, with Geraint Howells and Thomas Wilhelmsson (Routledge, 2017), The Europeanisation of Contract Law (2nd ed, Routledge, 2013) and A Cross-Border-Only Regulation for Consumer Transactions in the EU – A New Approach to EU Consumer Law (Springer, 2012). He has edited the Cambridge Companion to European Union Private Law (Cambridge University Press, 2010), and the Elgar Research Handbook on EU Consumer and Contract Law (Edward Elgar, 2016). He is also an editor of the 13th and 14th editions of Atiyah and Adams' Sale of Goods (Pearson, 2016; 2020; with Rick Canavan). 3CL runs the 3CL Travers Smith Lunchtime Seminar Series, featuring leading academics from the Faculty, and high-profile practitioners. For more information see: https://www.3cl.law.cam.ac.uk/centre-activities

This was a joint 3CL/Cambridge Private Law Centre event. Additive layer manufacturing, better known as 3D-printing, is a manufacturing technology which has been evolving steadily over the last few decades, and has now advanced to the point where it can make the leap from niche technology to mainstream application. Its potential is such that it could change where and the manner in which many types of goods are produced. An interesting aspect of 3D-printing is that it allows for the unbundling of the production process. In this paper, I intend to explore what this could mean for the laws on the humble contract for the sale of goods, and whether the potential of 3D-printing requires developments in the law. Christian Twigg-Flesner LL.B. PCHE Ph.D. (Sheffield) is Professor of International Commercial Law at the University of Warwick (since September 2017). Previously, he was Professor of Commercial Law at the University of Hull, having joined there as Lecturer in 2004, and he previously taught at the University of Sheffield and Nottingham Trent University. His research and teaching interests are in the areas of Commercial, Consumer and Contract Law, with a particular focus on the implications of digitalisation. His research covers English, European and International dimensions. He is a Fellow of the European Law Institute, an Associate Academic Fellow of the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, and one of the Law editors for the Journal of Consumer Policy. He has been a Senior International Fellow at the University of Bayreuth (2016-18), and visiting professor at the universities of Münster, Bielefeld, Osnabrück, and City University Hong Kong. He has spoken at conferences throughout Europe, as well as in Hong Kong and Japan. He has published extensively, particularly on EU Consumer and Contract Law. His books include Foundations of International Commercial Law (Routledge, 2021), Rethinking EU Consumer Law, with Geraint Howells and Thomas Wilhelmsson (Routledge, 2017), The Europeanisation of Contract Law (2nd ed, Routledge, 2013) and A Cross-Border-Only Regulation for Consumer Transactions in the EU – A New Approach to EU Consumer Law (Springer, 2012). He has edited the Cambridge Companion to European Union Private Law (Cambridge University Press, 2010), and the Elgar Research Handbook on EU Consumer and Contract Law (Edward Elgar, 2016). He is also an editor of the 13th and 14th editions of Atiyah and Adams' Sale of Goods (Pearson, 2016; 2020; with Rick Canavan). 3CL runs the 3CL Travers Smith Lunchtime Seminar Series, featuring leading academics from the Faculty, and high-profile practitioners. For more information see: https://www.3cl.law.cam.ac.uk/centre-activities

Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) joins Bob Levi on NAPS Chat to talk about postal performance, legislative efforts to sustain the agency and his perspective on the future of the Postal Service. The congressman introduced H.R. 2230, the so-called DeJoy Act, which is intended to maintain current postal service standards.Rep. Krishnamoorthi is a member of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, and chairs its Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy.

Subramanian Raja Krishnamoorthi is an American businessman and politician who has been the U.S. Representative for Illinois's 8th congressional district since 2017.  The Congressman is a member of the Democratic Party and serves on the House Oversight Committee and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. He is also Chairman of the Oversight Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy. Krishnamoorthi attended Princeton for his engineering degree and went on to Harvard Law School, after which he served on two of Former President Obama's congressional campaigns.South Asians have shaped the Congressman's career — from his campaigns to his policy agenda — a reality discussed we discuss in this episode. Congressman Krishnamoorthi details his path to policymaking, from serving on Former President Obama's congressional campaigns to catering to a constituency that can't always pronounce his name, endearingly calling him “Raja.” In a whirlwind of an election year, where policymakers must consider how to forge unity in the face of polarization and pandemic, this is an episode you don't want to miss.Visit our website, southasiantrailblazers.com. For more content, subscribe to our newsletter at trailblazers.substack.com. Follow us @southasiantrailblazers on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

What’s the best way to get fast, reliable and affordable broadband during lockdown? With millions of us now working from home due to Covid-19, and children relying on the internet for online schooling, decent broadband is more important than ever. So how to be sure you're getting the right deal? What offers are available? How easy is it to move to a new provider - and what can you do if your current deal is about to end and you can't get through to your provider? We'll also have top tips on how to make the most of your existing broadband. Our panel of experts is ready to answer your questions and offer their advice. Email us with your broadband woes and wins: moneybox@bbc.co.uk Guests: Adam French, Senior Consumer Rights Editor at Which? Selina Chadha, Director of Consumer Policy at Ofcom Producer: Sally Abrahams Editor: Emma Rippon

On today’s show, PAVe moms Meredith Berkman and Dorian Fuhrman interview Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois, a leader in the fight against the youth vaping epidemic. As chairman of the House Oversight Subcommittee on Economics and Consumer Policy, Krishnamoorthi has held multiple hearings about JUUL (and other e-cigarette companies), holding them publicly accountable for preying on minors and breaking FDA regulations. Krishnamoorthi, who has called on FDA to remove all e-cigarettes from the market during the pandemic, is now going after Puff Bar, the new JUUL.

BE SURE TO SEE THE SHOWNOTES AND LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE HERE. Eve Picker: [00:00:09] Hi there. Thanks so much for joining me today for the latest episode of Impact Real Estate Investing.   Eve: [00:00:15] My guest today is Melissa Koide, the founder of FinRegLab, a pretty new research organization. Melissa describes herself as a policy entrepreneur. While working in government she saw the critical need for an independent research organization, an honest broker of sorts, to test financial methodologies and new technological tools. Through FinRegLab, Melissa hopes to inform policymakers and financial institutions. Their ultimate goal is to advance financial inclusion.   Eve: [00:00:58] Be sure to go to evepicker.com to find out more about Melissa on the show notes page for this episode. And be sure to sign up for my newsletter so you can access information about impact real estate investing and get the latest news about the exciting projects on my crowdfunding platform, Small Change.   Eve: [00:01:21] Hello, Melissa and thank you so much for joining me.   Melissa Koide: [00:01:24] Good morning. Thanks, Eve, for reaching out to me. I'm looking forward to our conversation.   Eve: [00:01:28] Yeah, me too. So you launched a company called FinRegLab with the goal of helping to create a more inclusive and safe financial marketplace and I'm wondering how Fintech - because I think that's what FinRegLab does, financial technology - helps to meet the unique needs of the unbanked and the underbanked.   Melissa: [00:01:52] Absolutely. I'd love to tell you a little bit about why I stood up FinRegLab, if you'd like to hear a little bit of the origination story.   Melissa: [00:02:02] I was in the U.S. Treasury Department, in the Obama administration, and my office was the Office of Consumer Policy. And I jokingly say, being the head of the Office of Consumer Policy meant that I got to engage in virtually any and all policies that touched people, which meant that we had an important role to play across lots of important policy areas, which was a priority for Treasury and the administration at that time, which was really around financial inclusion and thinking about how public policy and the financial sector could be ensuring support of access, or financial inclusion, for households and families and small businesses who lack access to safe and affordable financial products and services. So that might show up in our financial inclusion agenda, it would very much show up in the work that we were doing looking at some of the consumer protection policies that were being developed. This was after the creation of the CFPD, but there were still a lot of developing policies that the administration was very thoughtful about in the consumer protection area, whether it was housing and mortgages, auto financing all the way to the other end of the spectrum that Treasury focused on, which was making sure that our financial system was safe from bad actors, whether it would be bad actors trying to use a financial system for fraudulent purposes all the way to really bad actors who, you know, would potentially be trying to fund things like financing for terrorists through the financial system. All of those different policy areas were under the purview, or are under the purview of the Treasury Department and all of them, in fact, have real implications for people because people are clearly who make up and who use our financial system.   Eve: [00:04:13] Probably, you know, Small Change and what I built it on comes right out of those policies.   Melissa: [00:04:20] Say more.   Eve: [00:04:21] Oh, the Jobs Act, I mean, the Jobs Act of 2012 and the Regulation Crowdfunding which allows access to anyone over the age of 18 to invest, is pretty much part of opening up that whole financial system to everyone.   Melissa: [00:04:36] That's exactly. Yep, that's absolutely right. And you're putting your finger on another important aspect of what the work we were doing at Treasury and then what was the impetus for creating FinRegLab. So this was back in 2012, 2011, when this notion of something called Fintech was really just coming online and it was post the Dodd-Frank Act but it was definitely something that was thought about in the Jobs Act. And that was: wait a minute, how can new technologies and new data uses potentially enable the creation of access to financial products and services that can be delivered to individuals who may be harder to serve, may be more non-traditional? I can talk about examples around this, but, whereas tech and data potentially able to level the access to the financial sector especially for individuals who may, for a variety of reasons, not be able to get into the more mainstream financial system. And whereas tech and data enabling the innovative and creative new providers of financial products and services who may not be banks, they may not be depositories. We saw the rise of new marketplace lenders who are generally non-bank financial institutions, who in the beginning, and it sounds like you know this well Eve, really doing a level of matchmaking with data between those who were interested in providing resources and funds for borrowers and then the borrowers on the other side who were in need of funds for a variety of purpose. And it was these intermediaries that really, sort of, were at the forefront of this onslaught of new types of non-bank actors. What we now, shorthand is Fintech firms, who are bringing in access to things like credit where that kind of access hadn't been available especially, I think it's an important distinction, credit that is affordable and non-predatory. And it doesn't mean that there aren't predatory marketplace lenders, there are some of those out there, but the use of the technology and the data, I think, helped to really create a ecosystem of providers of credit that are doing it at a much more affordable price for consumers. And small businesses, actually.   Eve: [00:07:17] Yes. That's been your background and then, how does your organization FinRegLab play a role in all of this? You launched 2017, right?   Melissa: [00:07:28] Yeah, and so the punch line in terms of, you know, what I was doing at Treasury and what's FinRegLab is, what we didn't have while I was sitting at Treasury for four and a half years, was any independent organization that didn't, frankly, have a particular advocacy agenda. While sitting at Treasury we would hear from the banks, we would hear from consumer advocates, we would hear from merchants, we would hear from Fintech. And everybody had a vested interest in how policy evolves in light of any particular data or technology use. And that's completely reasonable and understandable. But as policymakers, what we needed, and what policymakers still require, is an independent, non-advocacy, empirically-driven resource or answers that are empirical and non-advocacy driven. That really help to evaluate what are the implications? What are the implications for people from a new type of data use? What are the implications for the financial sector when a new data use might be brought online? And what does that then mean for public policy? What does it mean for the existing rules and laws that we already have in place that may need to evolve and may need to change in light of what a particular new data application may mean for consumers, small businesses and the financial market? And so, while sitting at Treasury, we didn't have any independent organization to turn to to just get that empirical evaluation.   Melissa: [00:09:09] And so after leaving Treasury at the end of the Obama administration, I spent some time for about six or seven months talking to my policy colleagues who I had worked with, especially the regulators, about this idea of standing up. Would it be valuable to them and what would they like to see evaluated? But to stand up a non-profit research organization that could go about, in a fairly sophisticated way, creating actual empirical evaluations of particular data or technology applications and then, importantly, providing a space for the dialogue for all of the different stakeholders who both need to learn from what the empirical research offers, but then they have a dialogue about what does that data use, now that we understand from an empirical standpoint, what does that mean in terms of the evolution of our policies and our laws? And so that's, after six months talking with the regulators in particular and identifying a host of particular data applications or technology uses that would be of value for us to study, I then began to explore some of the different philanthropic funders who would be interested in supporting this kind of organization. And we found the Omidyar Network was particularly interested in being supporting for a non-profit to do this kind of research.   Melissa: [00:10:45] I then stood up FinRegLab to go about, frankly year one - and it sounds like, Eve, you've run a nonprofit too - year one, what sort of proof of concept is the idea that we're putting forth, you know, will it succeed? Can we deliver what we're promising to deliver? And so year one, year one and a half was really first test case. Can we get industry to share the type of data that we need in order to do a genuinely independent empirical assessment? Will we be able to get the regulators to join in the dialogue discussions and all of those industry stakeholders, consumer advocates, the big banks, the Fintechs? And so it was a really exciting year for both building this new organization and undertaking that research. And I'm pleased to say it was a really productive project.   Eve: [00:11:38] I want to maybe know in a little more detail how these projects work. What happens in your lab?   Melissa: [00:11:42] Sure. I'll tell you some of the projects that we've done and some of the things that we have underway that I think are pretty important for the moment that we're in today. The way that we work is, again, we engage the regulators, consumer advocates and the broader financial market to identify what are emerging data or emerging data uses or emerging technologies that those may have real scale effects for the financial sector? But importantly, and this is FinRegLab, our true north, but that also may have real benefits and power for advancing financial inclusion. We are talking to the financial sector, the Fintechs, the banker, the investors, the regulators constantly to really keep tabs on what are trends in the market in terms of data that are being used or that are being thought about being used, or that present as having real scale effects potential? And then we go about essentially constructing a research project that would enable us to be able to then get the level of data or the access to the technology that we need in order to then evaluate it. And so I'll use our cash flow research as a sort of tangible way to explain it. So there is a lot of conviction, for very good reason, that we need more affordable and safe credit access. There's also a fair bit of, I think our research bears this out, concern that our existing credit evaluation process may not sufficiently evaluate the credit risk of underserved consumers and small businesses. And so this may be, in this country alone we have between 40 and 60 million Americans who are considered, that they have insufficient credit history or they have no credit history at all. And therefore, because we rely on credit history, the current approach for underwriting isn't able to successfully evaluate their credit risk.   Eve: [00:14:00] I actually went through this years ago because when I moved from Australia a long time ago, we just didn't use credit cards there in the way that they were used here. We didn't have any credit history.   Melissa: [00:14:11] Exactly.   Eve: [00:14:12] And the mortgage lenders were completely baffled. They didn't know what to do with us. It was a bizarre experience.   Eve Picker: [00:14:17] How did you find your way through that?   Eve: [00:14:20] I think, my husband had a job with the university and they were supportive in the background. They provided some hand money. You know, this was a long time ago. So somehow we convinced the lenders that we were a reasonable risk. And honestly, part of that is we're white. I think that when you're a minority in this country, perhaps that convincing isn't as easy, right?   Melissa: [00:14:49] Yep, yep. Yep. There is definitely, you know, we see a lot of access issues, especially among low to moderate income communities and individuals who also happen to be minority. So, it is absolutely a need in this country to make sure that financial access is extending to minority communities and minority communities, especially who are low and moderate income. So, absolutely.   Eve: [00:15:18] And that redlining goes away, because it still exists. It exists strongly. And it's astounding to me that it still does. But there it is.   Melissa: [00:15:28] Well, just to digress on that point for a minute, back in the 70s, we had significant redlining in Chicago, across the country. But there was research that, empirical work, that clearly identified the type of redlining that had been happening in this country. And we ended up with a law put in place, the Community Reinvestment Act, which, in essence, it sounds like you're familiar with it, says, you know, if you are going to be taking deposits from these communities you need to be serving these communities. With credit, in particular credit access. And I think it's a really interesting question to bring it back to technology and data today. There is a general belief that that law is too dated in light of how financial products and services are delivered now, where people are going to get and sign up for bank accounts to credit access. And there's also important questions around, that law specifically covers are depositary, our banks. Should that law be updated so that some of these new types of financial service providers are also included, right? I mean, there are questions around should non-banks who are providing financial products and services have some obligation around that. There's a lot of complexity and things that have to be considered but I think the general notion of where people are getting their financial needs met, what then are the obligations in terms of the financial system and making sure that people are fairly served and accessing credit and other, ultimately what are wealth building opportunities, right? Credit and your...   Eve: [00:17:16] Yeah. But the problem is, the poorest people who need that credit, it costs them the most. So the opportunity to build wealth becomes even harder. Whereas the more you have in this country, the less it costs you to make more money and to get better credit. And that's that's really scary.   Melissa: [00:17:40] Yeah. Yeah. We thought about this a lot while sitting at Treasury and we thought about it, I think it's important also to be thinking about it, quite holistically. For one, in the financial sector, in the credit decisions, as I said, we've got 40 to 60 million people who are quite possibly credit-worthy, but we just can't tell from the existing way that we evaluate them. And that's what that cash flow research looked at. And we actually did find that other types of data, in particular bank account transaction information, is able to distinctfully evaluate credit risk, distinct from using a FICO Score or a VantageScore. So just put a pin in that, right? That there are other ways to evaluate people who really are credit-worthy, who haven't been able to get the credit under traditional means. But this bigger, real problem that is in front of us is, it's not just the credit system that has to be astute in tackling access issues, we also have much bigger, more foundational needs that would help to lead down the path, if we could fix these issues, for equality. And that means thinking about our higher education, and what does it take to get a good education? And can we deliver a good education with how...strapping people down with debt that may encumber their ability to then be able to acquire other things like a home, as a for instance. Income. Huge issue, right?   Eve: [00:19:21] Right.   Melissa: [00:19:21] Are people getting their basic needs met, are they able to do so with the income they make? And that list would go on. I mean, there is that tax system to think about. We spend a lot of time thinking about how we could be potentially driving savings in a way that is very efficient, very streamlined at virtually no cost. And when I was sitting at Treasury we built a product called the myRA, which was the starter retirement account. This was a Roth-structured IRA product that we set up for the millions of households who aren't able to save in a traditional employer-sponsored retirement plan. So I think that there are other really important levers like retirement, like higher education financing, like really focusing on income that are so critical to giving everybody the opportunity to have some financial security and financial stability, which, let's face it, all our families need.   Eve: [00:20:27] Small business lending and I consider, you know, small real estate development to be small, small business as well, is very difficult and really geared towards a very distinctive population. White men. You know, all these businesses that are built on credit cards, which is very expensive, you know, by women and minorities or immigrants. I know we've tried to shift that, but that is a really big hairy goal. Like, I'll give you an example. My parents were immigrants to Australia, and when they arrived, they were refugees from the war. They had absolutely nothing. You know, I grew up with these people who worked really hard to build a life and to make sure their kids had a good education. In a sense, immigrants like that are self-selected because they are driven enough to pick themselves up and go to another country and make something happen to better their lives. So I'm puzzled why we treat them so badly, you know, and that's around lending for small businesses. Is that a credit issue? Is that, you know, is... I don't know.   Melissa: [00:21:41] Yeah. I think that there are some presumed limitations on being able to serve immigrants and undocumented individuals that aren't there but, you know, maybe sort of inhibitors that people decide to put in place themselves.   Eve: [00:22:03] Well definitely with undocumented, but there are plenty of immigrants who are documented, right?   Melissa: [00:22:10] Yep.   Eve: [00:22:11] Anyway, now we're going down a very different path here. It's the culture around lending and credit and everything that..   Melissa: [00:22:19] It sounds like you've actually, sort of, studied this particular area in terms of some of the decisioning and the culture around lending for small businesses.   Eve: [00:22:27] Well around buildings. But that's a slightly different culture, you know, that is around...I don't know enough about banking to really be able to understand this completely, but over the last 15 or 20 years, first of all, the number of banks has been greatly reduced in this country - I think it was 15,000 and now it's under 5,000.   Melissa: [00:22:49] No, we'r a little under seven.   Eve: [00:22:51] In a sense, community banking has been a little squashed, right? And along with that, what I noticed in real estate, and I'm sure it's true in business, is that if you're doing a project that is slightly different in an underserved neighborhood, let's say it's the first 10 affordable housing units, or retail on a street that hasn't had any new investment in 10 years. banks just really shy away from that. They want to appraise it. They want to see that it's happened before, you know, at least three times. And they want to be really comfortable with a product that they completely understand. And in my mind, that squashes innovation and an improvement in our country, because if you keep supporting the same, how do you grow better?   Melissa: [00:23:43] Yeah, we haven't studied the real estate market, but we did do a deep dive study looking at small business lending by marketplace lenders. And we did do some level of, sort of, where are the banks relative to the marketplace lenders? I think one of the interesting takeaways that has some resonance in light of the concerns you're raising are, as we are moving to, and I think this environment with Covid emphasizes this even further, as we're moving to a much more online and data driven decisioning process and even a more autonomous evaluation process, including for small business lending, I think generally it's perceived that's going to help in terms of any type of bias or explicit sort of discriminatory perspectives or behaviors that lenders would apply, right? Because it's all about what's the data tell you? On the other hand, it also puts a lot of pressure on, do the data tell you enough? And I think one of the things that I hear you're asking is, is there enough openness and risk-taking by lenders and banks in the financial sector generally, to allow for and appreciate the diversity that may be coming through, depending upon what the particular small business may be selling, who that small business is, what the geography is that the lender is sort of evaluating. I think it's a, I think you're absolutely putting your finger on an interesting question is, you know, that sort of risk taking, are we clamping it down further? We may be mitigating some of the explicit discriminatory bias that we have seen historically, because now it's really, you know, how long is that business been a business or what is that, sort of, expected small business planning to do? Now we have the ability for lenders to think about a small business idea of, look across the country to compare what's that business endeavor look like in another marketplace? And what are the factors then that you would want to consider when making a decision to make a loan? On the other hand, is it further driving away the willingness to take risks? And clearly lending and small business is a lot about risk taking, right? I mean,   Eve: [00:26:26] Absolutely.   Melissa: [00:26:26] A lot of small businesses, you don't make it. And no doubt we have, you know, too many small businesses right now struggling.   Eve: [00:26:34] Oh, it's awful.   Melissa: [00:26:35] But yeah.   Eve: [00:26:36] And this is the rise of equity crowdfunding, which is really barely an industry at this time. It's very nascent but, you know, the fact that people will take a risk in other people rather than a financial institution between them is, is a really direct and interesting idea because, you know, people in my neighborhood would band together and buy a house to stop it falling into the hands of a slum-lord.   Melissa: [00:27:03] In Australia?   Eve: [00:27:04] No, no in Pittsburgh, in Pittsburgh.   Melissa: [00:27:06] In Pittsburgh? That's great.   Eve: [00:27:09] That's a very direct relationship with a place you're in. Maybe it's a direct relationship with a developer. Maybe it's a direct relationship with a business, you know?   Melissa: [00:27:19] Well, and what's interesting about what you just said there is it's all human relationships too, right? It's your relationship with your neighbor, your sort of shared interest and commitment to taking a risk together all the way to having a relationship with somebody who's a developer in the neighborhood who's going to join you in, yeah, taking some level of risk. Yeah, it's a good question, Eve, I think, you know, how do we make sure that we don't both lose the sort of human aspect of this, the willingness to take risks because there is such importance and diversity of who the small business owners are, what they provide. Who gets to take advantage of whatever they happen to be building or selling?   Eve: [00:28:05] So what's your big hope for, big hairy goal for FinReglab? How do you think, or how might you like to change the world?   Melissa: [00:28:14] Goodness. We know to be, we are a small and mighty team,   Eve: [00:28:23] Small and mighty, I like that.   Melissa: [00:28:25] But we are taking on, I think, some of the big and important questions when it comes to technology and data being used to make decisions in consumers financial lives. Our ambition is to sort of be looking around the bend and really, sort of, keep an eye on what are the technology or data applications that will have real scale impact for bringing more people into the financial system? And also being really careful in recognizing there are real risks, too, potentially. We want to grow up and we want to be effective at informing across the entire financial marketplace. I think we have been quite good so far. We're still pretty little, pretty young. But I think we've been good at, sort of, being able to spot what are trends where there is real opportunity, but also the need to assess the risk. Cashflow data was one particular type of data. And I think we did a good job of that evaluation. We're now actually turning to look at some of the technologies and in particular some of the algorithms, the more sophisticated machine learning algorithms that are being considered for credit underwriting, right? This gets to this whole question of, to what extent is the decision engine for who gets credit and who doesn't q black box??And so we're really honing in on this question of, well, is that black box explainable?   Melissa: [00:30:01] And so we've embarked on a research project. We're partnering with a team from Stanford to evaluate some of the explainer technologies that may help to determine how was a credit decision made, if it was a machine learning algorithm that was applied? Is the information able to be explained to a consumer, right? How is the information, is it able to be explained to a regulator? And then, really importantly, how is what's coming out of that machine learning algorithm understandable for making sure that we are not perpetuating bias? And differences between protected classes and non-protected classes. And so, again, there is, the academic literature suggests there's real promise in using what I call fancy math. We also really need to make sure that we are able to assess it and understand what comes out of those black boxes so that our policy objectives, our societal objectives are able to be met. So one day at a time for us, but..   Eve: [00:31:18] It sounds like you're shooting for the stars and  I can't wait to see what comes out of your...   Melissa: [00:31:24] Oh, thank you.   Eve: [00:31:25] ...Small and Mighty Team next. And thank you, thank you very much for talking with me.   Melissa: [00:31:31] Absolutely. Thank you so much for reaching out to me. I'm glad we've done this.   Eve: [00:31:54] That was Melissa Koide. FinReglab is tackling a fundamental issue, the need to create a more inclusive and safe financial marketplace for everyone. Melissa believes that technology can solve some of the problems of the inequitable marketplace we operate in now. And she wants FinRegLab to be looking around the bend to identify technology that can advance financial inclusion. While her team is still small, they are tackling a mighty big problem. Small and mighty is how she describes them.   Eve: [00:32:36] You can find out more about impact real estate investing and access the show notes for today's episode at my website, evepicker.com. While you're there, sign up for my newsletter to find out more about how to make money in real estate while building better cities.   Eve: [00:32:53] Thank you so much for spending your time with me today. And thank you, Melissa, for sharing your thoughts. We'll talk again soon but for now, this is Eve Picker signing off to go make some change.

Bio Bärí A. Williams is an attorney and startup advisor, previously served as Vice President of Legal, Policy, and Business Affairs at All Turtles, an artificial intelligence studio. Her primary practice areas include emerging technology transactions, privacy and data protection, and terms of service. She is the former Head of Business Operations Management for North America at StubHub, where she was responsible for business planning and operations to manage and oversee technical internal and external metrics, product innovation, and partnerships and drive P&L results across the company. Prior to StubHub, Bärí was a senior commercial attorney at Facebook supporting internet.org connectivity efforts, building drones, satellites, and lasers, and supporting the company's supply chain. She also successfully took on the passion project of creating and implementing Facebook’s Supplier Diversity Program, launched in October 2016. She has served as an advisor to startups in the enterprise and e-commerce space, including Blavity (and AfroTech), Bandwagon, Owl, and Telepath.    Bärí is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley (BA, Mass Communications), St. Mary’s College of California (MBA), the University of California, Los Angeles (MA, African-American Studies), and the University of California, Hastings College of Law (JD). She is also a published author with bylines in the New York Times, WIRED, Fortune, and Fast Company. She recently gave congressional testimony on bias in AI in financial services in Feb. 2020. Her book, Diversity in the Workplace: Eye-Opening Interviews to Jumpstart Conversations About Identity, Privilege, and Bias, will be released on March 31.     Resources Human Interest Bärí Williams, Diversity in the Workplace: Eye-Opening Interviews to Jumpstart Conversations about Identity, Privilege, and Bias (2020) Bärí A. Williams News Roundup   Tech responds to coronavirus   Tech giants are responding to coronavirus fears as Amazon reported that an employee contracted the illness.   Facebook has cancelled its annual participation in SXSW. The social media giant has also pledged to give the World Health Organization as many free ads as needed to combat the virus.   And Google has canceled its annual I/O developer conference which was scheduled for May 12th and 14th. Google has also halted international travel for employees.   NYPD to remove innocents’ DNA profiles from its database   The New York City Police Department has said that it will remove DNA profiles of individuals who haven’t been convicted of any crimes. The New York Times reports that some 82,000 DNA profiles in the NYPD’s database belong to non-criminals. NYPD had detained and collected DNA evidence from kids as young as 12. The Times reports that officers once offered a 12-year-old a soda during questioning then collected the boy’s DNA from the straw. Many other individuals who were merely questioned, who weren’t convicted or in many cases not even arrested, also had their DNA collected. The database will be purged in the coming weeks and, going further, the NYPD will collect DNA from children only in cases involving felonies, sex crimes, gun charges, and hate crimes.   House seeks info from Ring on surveillance     Raja Krishnamoorthi, the Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy wrote Amazon VP of Public Policy Brian Huseman requesting extensive information regarding its home security subsidiary Ring’s partnerships with law enforcement to surveil communities with Ring’s footage. Back in August, Ring began disclosing the police departments it has been working with which, as of today, includes some 967 police departments nationwide. In the DC area, participating police departments include Takoma Park, Bladensburg, Seat Pleasant, Prince George’s in Maryland, and, in Virginia, Alexandria’s Police Department is working with Ring.   Judge: Instacart cannot misclassify workers as independent contractors   A San Diego judge has found that Instacart cannot misclassify workers as independent contractors. In granting a preliminary injunction against Instacart, the judge ruled to enforce the new AB5 law which seeks to ensure that gig workers are classified as employees in order to access benefits and have the right to form a union. NBC News has more.   Democrats split on cybersecurity   The Hill reports that Democrats are split on what to do about reauthorizing the USA Freedom Act, the cybersecurity bill put in place following Edward Snowden’s revelation that the National Security Agency was storing millions of Americans’ phone numbers. Adam Schiff and Jerrold Nadler are spearheading efforts to reauthorize the bill while more liberal Democrats, including Zoe Lofgren, are seeking more privacy protections. Many of Schiff’s allies during the impeachment hearing are now opposing his efforts to reauthorize the cyber bill and, interestingly, the White House has also weighed in saying the President, including Attorney General Barr, wants the full bill reauthorized without changes. The disputed changes involve the extent to which there should be more transparency in how the FISA court operates with regard to surveillance.  

This week Louise Cooper asks how you can negotiate the best broadband deal. How do you know if you’re paying too much? What’s the best way of securing a better deal? What are your rights if you’ve been overpaying? What are the best deals available at the moment? Guests: Selina Chadha: Director of Consumer Policy at Ofcom Adam French: Consumer Rights Editor at Which? Guy Anker: Deputy Editor at Money Saving Expert Email questions for the panel or top tips to moneybox@bbc.co.uk Producer: Ben Carter Editor: Emma Rippon

‘How Data Mapping Can Save Moms’ Lives’ with Licy Do Canto (Ep. 218) Bio As Managing Director of BCW Healthcare in the firm’s Public Affairs and Crisis practice, Licy Do Canto (@LicyMD) leads policy and public affairs strategy for the firm’s healthcare clients in North America across public and corporate affairs, government relations, communications and reputation management on a diverse and broad range of healthcare issues. He also oversees the BCW Healthcare Team in Washington, D.C.  An expert in health and healthcare policy, with twenty five years of experience at the national, state and local levels across the nonprofit, philanthropic, corporate and government sectors, Licy is an accomplished, values-driven leader with unparalleled experience in developing and leading integrated public affairs campaigns combining strategic communications, public relations, political and legislative initiatives, policy, coalition building, grassroots/grasstops efforts and direct advocacy.  Before joining BCW, Licy built and lead a nationally recognized minority owned strategic public affairs and communications firm, served as Health Practice Chair and Principal at The Raben Group, was the Chief Executive Officer of The AIDS Alliance for Children, Youth and Families, and managed and helped set the leadership direction for strategic policy, communications and advocacy investments in executive and senior government affairs roles for the American Cancer Society and the nation’s Community Health Centers.  Before joining the private sector, Licy served as health policy advisor to U.S. Rep. Barney Frank and served in several stints in the Office of the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy. During his extensive tenure in Washington, D.C., Licy has played a leading role in efforts to draft, shape and enact many pieces of legislation and policy affecting public health, health care safety net and the U.S. health care system.  Licy is a graduate of Duke University and holds a certificate in public health leadership from the University of North Chapel Hill—School of Public Health and Kenan Flagler Business School, and is the recipient of multiple industry awards and citations for his leadership, policy and public affairs acumen, including being named to The Hill Newspaper list of most influential leaders in Washington, D.C. consecutively over the last ten years. Resources BCW Global S.3152 – Data Mapping to Save Moms’ Lives Act News Roundup Zuckerberg says new content policies will ‘piss off a lot of people’  Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg continues his crusade to be the standard-bearer of free speech even if his company’s policies “piss off a lot of people”. Zuckerberg told CNN that he plans to draw a line in the sand when it comes to censorship as he thinks Facebook is taking on too much of that responsibility. He says that the company will continue to remove the most harmful content and also discussed plans to ramp up encryption on Facebook’s messaging service. Zuckerberg has remained steadfast in maintaining Facebook’s policy of leaving up false statements by politicians in their ads. Study: Using pre-trial risk assessment tools to book criminal defendants increases the likelihood they’ll considered a flight risk Courts routinely use pre-trial assessment tools to determine the likelihood that a defendant will flee if they’re released on bail. The higher the flight risk, the more pre-trial supervision the court will impose. The data these tools rely on includes data on past arrests.  But a new study from the Human Rights Data Analysis Group and San Francisco Public Defenders Office notes that many of those arrests lead to acquittals. But despite the acquittals, the study found, courts recommended a higher level of pre-trial supervision in 27% of cases that include prior arrest data in their pre-trial assessment tools. ACLU: Puerto Rico’s online voting plan is too risky The American Civil Liberties Union is pushing back against legislation in Puerto Rico that aims to bring voting fully online by 2028. The ACLU is asking Puerto Rico’s Governor Wanda Vázquez to veto the bill after it passes the Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico, which is expected to happen this week. Lawyers for the century-old advocacy organization argue that the plan is extremely susceptible to hacks and poses significant cybersecurity risks that threaten to undermine Puerto Ricans’ trust in the government. House Oversight Committee seeks answers from dating apps on kids’ privacy The House Oversight Committee’s Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy launched an investigation into dating platforms’ failure to prevent underage users from signing up. Members of the subcommittee wrote Bumble, Grindr, The Meet Group, the Match Group, Tinder, and OkCupid seeking documents pertaining to any policies they have in place to prevent underage users pretending that they’re over 18 and sex offenders from lurking on the platforms. The documents are due to the subcommittee on February 13. Health records app pushed opioids Bloomberg reports that in the midst of the opioid crisis, between 2016 and 2019, electronic health records company Practice Fusion pushed alerts encouraging opioid treatment on 230 million separate occasions.  A Vermont federal court says the company has agreed to pay $145 million in civil and criminal damages.

Creating effective education and awareness programs is a fundamental aspect of an effective security strategy. In this episode, we talk about the importance of integrating behavioural economics and psychology into the creation of effective education and awareness programs, and the strategy behind them. A conversation with Robert Madelin, former Director General of Health and Consumer Policy at the European Commission Robert Madelin brings a distinguished career and experience to the conversation in Episode 4 of Re-Thinking the Human Factor. Robert has been focused throughout his career on policy generation, awareness and education, and as part of that, designing policy so the odds are stacked in favour of those who comply with that policy.  Why behavioural economics and psychology is relevant to education and awareness programs Join Bruce and Robert in this episode as they each draw from a well of extensive experience to converse around: Fast and slow thinking and how each influences how we behave in society The importance of integrating behavioural economics and psychology and choice-architecture when it comes to the design of EFFECTIVE education and awareness strategies and programs The “uncomfortable truth” that people do not respond rationally when given data and how recognizing that truth is key to guiding policy creation and choice architecture efforts How cultural differences in the cybersecurity space have more to do with digital literacy, age, principles and values rather than one’s passport, or “passport culture”, as Robert refers to it The role of culture or the context within people live their lives, and how that may have an effect upon: the policy itself how you raise awareness within institutions or even nation-states, as in Robert’s experience The importance of international cooperation in efforts to raise awareness and influence behaviour "It's the human factor that makes us vulnerable." RESOURCES AND SUBJECTS MENTIONED: World Economic Forum: GLOBAL RISKS REPORT DG CONNECT (Communication Networks, Content, and Technology) EU Health and Food Safety (SANCO) FOR FURTHER RESEARCH: Daniel Kahneman Thinking, Fast and Slow (by Daniel Kahneman) Behavioural Economics and Psychology Choice Architecture ABOUT ROBERT MADELIN Chairman, Fipra International // Director General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (CONNECT) // Director-General for Health and Consumer Policy (SANCO) // A negotiator in international trade and investment, first for the UK, and then for the EU // Served in the Cabinet of European Commission Vice-President Leon Brittan. CONNECT WITH ROBERT: LinkedIn    Please subscribe to the podcast in iTunes, and if you enjoyed this interview, please share with your friends and colleagues and leave a 5 star rating and review.   Thanks for listening.   Bruce & The Re-thinking the Human Factor Podcast Team

www.jenhemphill.comI am going to be very honest with you, this episode is so surreal to me still! Today I am introducing to you Ms. Melissa Koide, Deputy Assistant Secretary to the Office of Consumer Policy at the U.S. Department of the Treasury! Yes you read that right the U.S. Treasury.  Ms. Melissa Koide was truly a pleasure to interview and I know you will love her! What you'll learn about in today's episode:  Her background and why her path took her all the way to serving as a senior official at the U.S. Treasury (and the influence her boys have had) The one key characteristic your personal finance system should have The number one reason behind the launching of the myRA, what it is and who it is for A behind the scenes insider as to what we can be looking out for from the U.S. Treasury next!

www.jenhemphill.com I am going to be very honest with you, this episode is so surreal to me still!   Today I am introducing to you Ms. Melissa Koide, Deputy Assistant Secretary to the Office of Consumer Policy at the U.S. Department of the Treasury!   Yes you read that right the U.S. Treasury.     Ms. Melissa Koide was truly a pleasure to interview and I know you will love her!   What you'll learn about in today's episode:   Her background and why her path took her all the way to serving as a senior official at the U.S. Treasury (and the influence her boys have had) The one key characteristic your personal finance system should have The number one reason behind the launching of the myRA, what it is and who it is for A behind the scenes insider as to what we can be looking out for from the U.S. Treasury next!

www.jenhemphill.com I am going to be very honest with you, this episode is so surreal to me still!   Today I am introducing to you Ms. Melissa Koide, Deputy Assistant Secretary to the Office of Consumer Policy at the U.S. Department of the Treasury!   Yes you read that right the U.S. Treasury.     Ms. Melissa Koide was truly a pleasure to interview and I know you will love her!   What you'll learn about in today's episode:   Her background and why her path took her all the way to serving as a senior official at the U.S. Treasury (and the influence her boys have had) The one key characteristic your personal finance system should have The number one reason behind the launching of the myRA, what it is and who it is for A behind the scenes insider as to what we can be looking out for from the U.S. Treasury next!

Turning up the heat: the new energy companies breaking into a market dominated by big established firms. Evan Davis meets two small entrants to the sector to find out how they're gaining market share. Is the strategy to compete on price, customer service or green credentials? He'll discuss the role of the price comparison websites in encouraging customers to switch providers and hear how some smaller companies are cutting gas and electricity bills when their bigger rivals aren't. Guests: Dale Vince, Founder and CEO, Ecotricity Stephen Fitzpatrick, Founder and Managing Director, Ovo Energy Ann Robinson, Director of Consumer Policy at uSwitch.com Producer: Sally Abrahams.

Susan Grant is Director of Consumer Protection at Consumer Federation of America, a nonprofit association of some 300 non-profit consumer groups that was established in 1968 to advance the consumer interest through research, education, and advocacy at both national and state levels. Ms. Grant works specifically in the areas of privacy, deceptive marketing, online safety and security, fraud, electronic and mobile commerce, and general consumer protection issues. She coordinates CFA's Fake Check Task Force, conducts CFA's annual Consumer Complaint Survey, and is a recognized authority on combating consumer fraud and deception. Ms. Grant is also involved in global consumer protection issues through her work in the Trans Atlantic Consumer Dialogue, a group of consumer organizations in the United States and the European Union countries that provides input on cross-border consumer issues to the U.S. and EU governments, and her participation in the U.S. government delegation to the Committee on Consumer Policy at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. She began her career in consumer protection in 1976 as an investigator and Director of the Consumer Protection Division in the Northwestern Massachusetts District Attorney's Office. In 1993, Ms. Grant became Executive Director of the National Association of Consumer Agency Administrators, a professional organization for the heads of government consumer protection agencies. From 1996 to 2007 she served as Vice President of Public Policy and Director of the Fraud Center at the National Consumers League before joining the CFA staff in 2008.