Vowing to 'Padlock Revolving Door' in DC, Warren Teases New Anti-Corruption Legislation

“Change is coming,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) declared Tuesday at a War on Regulations symposium hosted by the Coalition for Sensible Safeguards and Georgetown University Law School. In her live-streamed speech, Warren revealed plans to introduce anti-corruption legislation to protect the American public from the Trump administration’s corporate-friendly deregulatory agenda.

“This is our time, our responsibility, our chance to build a country where government works, not just for the rich and powerful, but government that works for the people.”
—Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)

“When we send a message that corporate profits and powerful interests cannot overpower the health, safety, and economic well-being of hardworking families, we fire a warning shot,” she said. “This is our time, our responsibility, our chance to build a country where government works, not just for the rich and powerful, but government that works for the people.”

In her 30-minute address, Warren highlighted the Trump administration’s efforts to defang the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), an agency she helped establish. “The agency is under attack now. The Trump administration and an army of lobbyists are determined to rig the game in their favor, to boost their own profits—the cost to consumers be damned,” she warned.

“But it’s not just the CFPB that is under attack. In agency after agency across the federal government, powerful corporations and their Republican allies are working overtime to roll back basic rules that protect the rest of us,” Warren continued. “Giant corporations and wealthy individuals are working in the shadows to make sure that government works for them, not for the people.”

As an example, Warren pointed to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt. “Corruption oozes out of his office, from wasting hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to cutting deals to make himself rich to doing the bidding of the highest-paid lobbyists,” she said, noting his attacks on the Clean Water Rule, pesticide safety, the Clean Power Plan, vehicle emissions caps, and methane emissions limits.