Hi, I'm Forrest Brown, senior organizing fellow for the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.
Last week, the Huffington Post reported the White House, led by senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, was trying to strip shareholder proxy power from the financial reform bill -- after both the House and Senate passed bills increasing shareholder power!
The Business Roundtable (which represents CEOs) told Jarrett to stop the measure, so the White House pushed an amendment limiting proxy power to shareholders who own 5% of the company -- effectively making the provision meaningless (most big companies don't have any shareholders who own that much).
The PCCC fought back, launching a petition to Jarrett and the White House. The response has been fantastic, with over 1000 people sending messages to Jarrett in a single day.
Can you help us keep the momentum going?
Tell the White House to stop defending CEOs and stand-up for the people.
Right now, CEOs get to nominate the board members who will oversee them -- who then return the favor by giving the CEOs lavish compensation packages. Giving shareholders proxy power to nominate corporate directors would make corporations more accountable to their shareholders. Harvard professor Lucian Bebchuk explains that "Lowering these impediments would make directors more focused on shareholder interests. The case for doing so is supported by empirical evidence".
Earlier this year, the SEC proposed new proxy powers for shareholders, and the House and Senate bills "affirmed the SEC's authority". The White House even supported these measures back in April when Valerie Jarrett, the same person who's leading the charge to gut shareholder protection now, said "The Senate bill will make it clear that the SEC has unambiguous authority to issue rules permitting shareholders access to the proxy."
Yet today the White House is pushing an amendment that Lucian Bebchuk says would "make shareholders worse off" by undermining SEC authority to grant new proxy powers to shareholders.
The White House is protecting CEO pay over the interests of regular shareholders. As Cenk Uygur explains in the video below, "this is nothing but a 100%, wholesale sell-out".
We'v been lighting up Twitter, but we need your help to keep the pressure on.Can you tell the White House and Valerie Jarrett this isn't change we can believe in? Click here.
Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks does a great job explaining how the White House is supporting CEOs over the people in this video.
The Senate and House haven't voted on this issue in the conference committee yet, so there's still time for your voice to be heard. Let them know you want strong shareholder powers.