Sens. Sanders, Leahy, Gillibrand, and Hassan introduced two bills Thursday to spur formation of more employee-owned businesses:
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), along with Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), introduced two pieces of legislation Thursday to help workers around the country form employee-owned businesses.
Broad-based employee ownership has been proven to increase employment, productivity, sales and wages in the United States. Employee ownership boosts company productivity by 4 percent, shareholder returns by 2 percent and profits by 14 percent, according to a Rutgers University study.
Nationally, there are already nearly 10,000 employee-owned businesses which employ roughly 10 million people.
The WORK Act – modeled on the success of the Vermont Employee Ownership Center – would provide more than $45 million in funding to states to establish and expand employee ownership centers, which provide training and technical support for programs promoting employee ownership. The bill is also co-sponsored by Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and was introduced in the House by Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.).
The second bill introduced today would create a U.S. Employee Ownership Bank to provide $500 million in low-interest rate loans and other financial assistance to help workers purchase businesses through an employee stock ownership plan or a worker-owned cooperative. Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) introduced a companion bill in the House. [...]
“By expanding employee ownership and participation, we can create stronger companies in Vermont and throughout this country, prevent job losses and improve working conditions for struggling employees,” Sanders said. “Simply put, when employees have an ownership stake in their company, they will not ship their own jobs to China to increase their profits, they will be more productive, and they will earn a better living.” [...]
“Studies have shown that employee-owned companies have more productive workers, better working conditions, and greater shareholder returns," Hassan said. "New Hampshire has innovative businesses that are setting a great example of the benefits of employee-owned companies. I am proud to support these two bills that will help encourage these efforts, boost economic growth, and expand opportunity for hard-working Granite Staters." [...]
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At Daily Kos on this date in 2010—Financial Reform: Back to Work:
If the Senate has any prayer of getting through financial reform by the stated goal of the end of this week, they'll have to work at warp speed. Given that warp speed for the Senate is at most a half dozen amendments a day, that goal seems unattainable, particularly since as of the deadline for the calendar, they only had two amendments slated for consideration.
The important amendment up today is Bernie Sanders' fed audit, which Republicans successfully postponed from last week by the critical need to have Bob Bennett in town to vote on it, since it was going to be key to his reelection. We all know how that worked out. The amendment, as modified with the assent of Dodd, has the support of the White House. It also has the grudging support of Ron Paul, a cosponsor of the Grayson fed audit in the House. Also being considered today is Republican Sen. Vitter's substitution for the Sanders' amendment, which will have the same language as the Grayson/Paul amendment. It's unlikely to pass, as support has coalesced behind the Sanders amendment, but with the fed audit existing in the Senate bill that goes to conference, there's more of a chance of a tougher final provision.
Unfortunately, the Kaufman/Brown SAFE Banking Act that would have limited the size of financial institutions failed last week, but a few other pending amendments could still strengthen the final bill. Maria Cantwell is a lead author of an amendment which would restore Glass-Steagall, and has said "I don't think I could vote for cloture without a vote on Glass-Steagall."
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show, the Comey firing fallout continues. Greg Dworkin rounds up those stories, the Russian WH visit, the invention of “priming the pump,” and a curious story to watch out of the Bahamas. Armando has more on Comey, Rosenstein & the collapse of everything decent.
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