Received this e-mail today from U.S. Senator Joe Donnelly (D. IN):
As a member of the Senate Banking Committee, my priority is to make sure that our economy works for working Hoosiers -- not Wall Street. America needs a Securities and Exchange Commission Chair (SEC) who shares that priority.
That’s the message my colleague Senator Elizabeth Warren and I sent at the confirmation hearing of Jay Clayton, President Trump’s nominee for SEC Chair.
Failures at the SEC have steered companies toward “corporate short-termism,” strategies designed to turn quick corporate profits rather than long-term investments in workforce development and innovation. I believe it's the job of the SEC to look out for regular Americans and their jobs, not only corporate profits -- especially short-term profits that results from investment overseas instead of here at home.
Will you stand with me to tell the SEC to put regular Americans ahead of short-term corporate profits?
I’ll give you an example of the type of “short-termism” I’m talking about, from right here in Indiana. United Technologies Corporation (UTC), a highly profitable conglomerate, announced last year it would lay off more than a thousand workers at its Carrier subsidiary in order to take advantage of cheap Mexican labor.
But at the same time the company was handing out pink slips to Hoosiers, it was rewarding its stockholders through a $16 billion on stock buyback -- a practice that goes unregulated by the SEC. Put simply, a profitable and successful corporation fired our friends and neighbors to reward its activist shareholders.
I raised these concerns with Mr. Clayton and told him that Hoosiers are counting on him to stand up for the working families that make corporations like UTC successful businesses. The SEC can start by increasing its oversight of stock buybacks and letting investors know which companies are putting short-term profits ahead of workers here in the U.S.
Will you join me in telling the SEC to put regular Americans ahead of short-term corporate profits?
My top priority is to make sure all Hoosiers who are able to work have family-supporting jobs. I want to thank you for all your support as I work in the Senate toward making that a reality.
Joe
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