Chamber of Commerce

Chamber of Commerce

Commentary

Living Wage has brought good competition to Los Angeles International Airport

L.A.'s Living Wage Ordinance Isn't a Job Killer

September 21, 2011

Despite the dire warnings of former Mayor Richard Riordan, the L.A. Chamber of Commerce and many other business organizations, which opposed requiring airport contractors to pay a living wage, competition for LAX food concessions is more vigorous than ever. More proof that businesses and good wages and benefits for workers can coexist.

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The Chamber of Commerce Does Not Care About Unemployment

July 11, 2011

Today, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce held its "Jobs For America Summit". Consider it part of a continuing campaign to convince the American public that the organization cares about something other than the profits of its largest donors. (It doesn’t.)

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Chamber of Commerce, Wrong Again

May 19, 2011

The California Chamber of Commerce released its hit list of so-called "job killer" bills. Like every year, they oppose every proposal to protect consumers, workers and the environment from irresponsible business practices, or raise revenues to fund public services, or support middle and working class families. 

They were wrong before and they are wrong now.

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US Capitol building

Darrel Issa’s Government Handover

January 05, 2011

By Donald Cohen and Peter Dreier. Posted on Huffington Post. January 5, 2011.

Newly emboldened as chair of the House’s key investigative committee, California Cong. Darrell Issa, the conservative Republican, sent letters to more than 150 business lobby groups, asking them to identify government rules that they want eliminated.

Issa wants to hand the government over to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a who’s who of corporate America. The new Republican Congress is their opportunity to get rid of those pesky environmental laws, consumer product safety laws and even rules to prevent another Wall St. financial train wreck.

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Cry Wolf Quotes

A 1978 article described the fight against the Pregnancy Discrimination Act as lead by "Chamber of Commerce of the U.S., the National Association of Manufacturers and other business groups. They argue that pregnancy, as a 'voluntary" condition', should not be equated with illness…"

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U.S. Chamber of Commerce, The U.S. News & World Report.
07/10/1978 | Full Details | Law(s): Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978

I think you know as well as I do that when you get legislation like this, you very often feel this is the nose of the camel. Okay, they start off with this and then they expand it a little further, and then the next thing you know they are taxing industry to pay for the cost of the regulatory apparatus that’s being established. And the first thing you know, you’re really being asked to preside at your own funeral.

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Thacher Longstreth, president of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce
10/07/1980 | Full Details | Law(s): Philadelphia Worker and Community Right-to-Know Act

[T]he inevitable effect of this legislation will be to create an artificial barrier on job opportunities for women. There will be a strong compulsion on employers to divide their jobs into women’s jobs and men’s jobs and to never hire a person of the opposite sex in those jobs just so they will not have the Department of Labor looking over their shoulders.

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William Miller representative of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Testimony, House Hearing.
04/02/1963 | Full Details | Law(s): Equal Pay Act

Too long have we introduced carelessly into the stream of our national life alien philosophies of government control and foreign ideas of repression of the individual that have no place in this land of freedom. It is time to rout them out. It is time for all of us to realize that we want and intend to have for our own and later generations the American pattern of life and the American freedom of opportunity which these foreign ideas and theories and plans have been shouldering out of the picture.

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Chamber of Commerce Vice President Philip J. Fay
04/28/1936 | Full Details | Law(s): Securities Exchange Act, the Social Security Act
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Backgrounders & Briefs

Industry Repeats Itself on Financial Reform

As the nation approaches the first anniversary of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, opponents are claiming that the new measure is extraordinarily damaging, especially to Main Street. But industry’s alarmist rhetoric bears striking resemblance to the last time it faced sweeping new safeguards: during the New Deal reforms. The parallels between the language used both then and now are detailed in a report released today by Public Citizen and the Cry Wolf Project.

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Resources

U.S. Chamber Watch is a watchdog organization focused on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's agenda and influence.

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