Dodd-Frank Rollbacks, the Immigration Ban, Worker Benefits, and More

1. Trump’s Gift to Wall Street

Roosevelt Fellow Mike Konczal weighs in on today’s executive orders calling for a review of the Dodd-Frank law and a delay of the Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule for financial advisers, telling NBC News the action is “nakedly pro-industry” and Mic that the administration can weaken the law through lax enforcement.

2. A New Approach to Worker Benefits

How can workers obtain traditional benefits such as pensions, health care, and workers’ compensation when the nature of work is rapidly evolving? Roosevelt VP Nell Abernathy and Rebecca Smith of the National Employment Law Project take on this question in our new paper, “Work Benefits: Ensuring Economic Security in the 21st Century.”

3. The Truth About Trump’s Immigration Plans

Roosevelt Senior Associate Aman Banerji and the Center for Community Change Action’s Kica Matos dispense with the “alternative facts” the Trump administration has used to justify its immigration policies, writing that immigrants are a diverse group of people who actually pose less of a criminal threat than those born in the U.S.

4. Repeating History’s Mistakes

Writing for The Irish Times, Roosevelt Senior Fellow David Woolner notes that Trump’s decision to restrict Muslim immigration echoes past policies that excluded Asian and Jewish immigrants, which helped give rise to anti-Western sentiment in Japan and kept the country from accepting more refugees fleeing Nazi Germany.

5. The Right (And Wrong) Way to Do Infrastructure

Roosevelt Program Manager Rakeen Mabud compares the details of the Trump administration’s infrastructure plan with the Senate Democrats’ blueprint, explaining why a limited view of what counts as infrastructure and a financing scheme that relies on corporate tax breaks may do more harm than good.

What We’re Reading:

FiveThirtyEight examines the potential impact of Trump’s immigration plans on college and universities whose students’ freedom of movement may be restricted, which could not only hamper the schools’ ability to function but also harm the U.S. economy.

Event:

On February 15, join us for a breakfast conversation between Roosevelt Fellows Andrea Flynn and Dorian Warren, where they’ll discuss why progressives should not abandon identity politics in favor of a class focus, but must instead do both.