Dolores Acevedo-Garcia on Reducing Child Poverty
House Appropriations Committee and House Ways and Means Committee (March 2020)
The Institute for Child, Youth and Family Policy director testified before the House Appropriations Committee and House Ways and Means Committee.
“We have a responsibility to reduce child poverty by half because we know how to do it,” Acevedo-Garcia said.
Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld on Digital Fabrication
Legislative Briefing on National Fab Lab Network Act (September 2019)
The act supports community fab labs, advancing digital and design literacy in ways that blend new technology and ancient wisdom across urban, suburban and remote rural settings. Professor Cutcher-Gershenfeld discussed combining social and technical systems to make the vision of self-sufficient production possible.
Finn Gardiner, MPP’18, on the Fair Labor Standards Act
U.S. Civil Rights Commission on Subminimum Wage (November 2019)
The Lurie Institute’s communications specialist spoke at a hearing against Section 14c of the Fair Labor Standards Act, which permits employers to pay workers with disabilities less than minimum wage.
“If this were about people in some far-flung country, there would be public outcry at the kind of sweatshop wages people are being paid,” Gardiner said.
David Weil on the Future of Work
House Committee on Labor and Education (October 2019)
Dean Weil said, “The fissured workplace model has allowed employers to shift risks and responsibilities onto workers and incentivized the misclassification of employees as independent contractors. Its impacts on workers span a range of outcomes, including lower wages, fewer benefits, unreliable hours, and limited or no labor and employment protections.”