Health professionals warn we don’t have enough ventilators to treat the projected number of COVID-19 patients. Tell the Trump administration to use its emergency powers to dramatically ramp up ventilator production.
Health professionals warn we don’t have enough ventilators to treat the projected number of COVID-19 patients. Tell the Trump administration to use its emergency powers to dramatically ramp up ventilator production.
Public Health
Responding to the crisis
In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, now more than ever, we need to work together to ensure that our government has a coordinated, strategic response to safeguard the public’s health, protect consumers from emerging dangers and ensure people can still participate fully in our democracy.
Solid Waste
Philadelphia becomes the latest city to get rid of plastic bags
On Dec. 12, the Philadelphia City Council passed legislation to ban single-use plastic bags after nearly a decade of debate on how to address the city's pollution and litter problems. Learn more about our campaign to phase out the worst single-use plastic items in Pennsylvania.
Solid Waste
The Fix Is In
Our survey found that independent repair shops currently offer many repair options that some manufacturers don’t make available. Apple and others are making it harder for individuals and independent repair shops to fix our devices.
Higher Ed
Automatic Textbook Billing
Textbook publishers continue to add to the financial burden of college through a variety of tactics such as automatically charging students for textbooks on their tuition bill. Many of these automatic billing contracts fail to deliver real savings for students, reduce faculty and student choice, and give even more power to a handful of big publishing companies.
We can't do it without you.
PennPIRG is your advocate for the public interest, speaking out for healthier, safer, more secure lives for all of us.
News & Research
News Release | U.S. PIRG
Never before, not even during the Great Recession in 2008, has the Federal Reserve directed so much money to help so many companies so quickly. Its unprecedented efforts may prove essential. But with unprecedented power comes unprecedented responsibility to inform and engage the public.
News Release | U.S. PIRG
President Donald Trump announced yesterday he was removing the independent head of the federal watchdog panel charged with overseeing disbursement of the $2.2 trillion CARES Act funds, less than two weeks after Congress passed the stimulus bill to deal with the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis. In response, U.S. PIRG Tax and Budget advocate R.J. Cross released a statement.
Blog Post
Rich Cordray, the first director of the CFPB and author of a new book on his six years at its helm, has issued a powerful memo to its current director, Kathy Kraninger, urging her to stop "relaxing" duties on financial firms and to "lose no further time" in "shield[ing] households and families" from the "economic harms" they face as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
News Release | U.S. PIRG
Today, U.S. PIRG delivered 43,000-plus signatures to ventilator manufacturers -- including GE Healthcare, Phillips, Siemens, Drager, Hamilton, Medtronic and more -- calling for the release of all necessary repair information.
News Release | U.S. PIRG
A new investigation by ProPublica, along with reporting by numerous other outlets, has revealed that suppliers are using the COVID-19 public health emergency to drive up prices exorbitantly on medical equipment.
RESOURCE
Coronavirus update
In the midst of the coronavirus outbreak, we’ve taken steps for all of our staff to work remotely for safety reasons. But rest assured, we’ll keep advocating for you as we work for a healthier, safer world.
Learn more about how we can work together to address the COVID-19 pandemic.