The U.S. Congress saw no progresses toward corporate accountability

and reining in corporate influence over public institutions in 2013,

according to the newly released Corporate Accountability Coalition (CAC) Congressional Report Card.

The second edition of the Report Card, which looks at the First Session

of the 113th Congress, focuses on the most relevant congressional

activity, and offers an objective measure of congressional leadership in

creating policy that protects people and promotes accountability and

transparency.



CAC's Report Card includes some alarming new

findings, such as that in 2013 not a single pro-accountability bill even

made it to a vote. Despite the fact that high-profile corporate

malfeasance, from the financial crisis to the Deepwater Horizon spill to

the Rana Plaza disaster, continues to make headlines, many legislative

actions to address important issues regarding corporate responsibility

and necessary limitations on corporate power garnered little, if any,

co-sponsorship.



Surveys have consistently shown concerns with

unchecked corporate influence. In 2013, a Pew Research poll showed that

80% of middle class adults at least partially blamed large corporations

for the difficulties facing the middle class, consistent with earlier

surveys finding that overwhelming majorities of Americans believe that

corporations have too much power in Washington and that there is too

much corporate money in politics.



"As the Supreme Court continues

to privilege corporate rights over human rights, our elected leaders

must stand and protect what's left of the democratic freedoms that

benefit all American citizens, not just the powerful elites." said Katie

Redford, Director and Co-Founder of CAC member EarthRights International.



Only

two representatives and seven senators received a perfect score:

Representatives John Conyers (MI) and Keith Ellison (MN) and Senators Ed

Markey (MA), Bob Menendez (NJ), Jeff Merkley (OR), Jeanne Shaheen (NH).

Tom Udall (NM), Elizabeth Warren (MA), and Richard Blumenthal (CT).



Several

states, however, had entire delegations with zero percent scores,

including Wyoming, Arkansas, Idaho, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Kansas, Utah,

and West Virginia. Less than 10 percent of Congress scored above 50

percent, while three-quarters of Congress earned a score of 25 percent

or less. The average score for Congress even worsened between 2012 and

2013: the average score was only 16 percent down from 25 percent in

2012.



"The Report Card reveals a dangerous reality: corporations

exert tremendous influence over our elected officials. The consequences

of this influence perpetuate the paradigm of profit over people, and

leave us struggling to build meaningful protections for both our

environment and our basic human rights," says Amol Mehra, Director of

the International Corporate Accountability Roundtable, a CAC member.



About the Report Card



The Corporate Accountability Coalition Report Card

represents an attempt to educate the public about Congress's record in

protecting people from the unchecked growth of corporate influence.



The

Report Card presents information on whether Members of Congress have

supported measures that either strengthen or weaken limits on corporate

conduct, regulate or give free rein to corporations when they attempt to

go beyond those limits, and hold corporations accountable or provide

impunity when they disregard those limits.



"The intent of this

report card is to track how Congress votes on holding corporations

accountable for their impact on communities and the environment," said

Pratap Chatterjee, Executive Director of CorpWatch. "The Corporate

Accountability Coalition believes that good laws can help level the

playing field by cracking down on corporations who benefit from

wrongdoing."

The full report is available online at https://www.earthrights.org/cac-report-card



MEDIA CONTACTS:



Katie Redfrod (USA) +1 202-466-5188 x102 katie@earthrights.org

Marco Simons (USA) +1 202-466-5188 x103 marco@earthrights.org

Amol Mehra, (USA) +1 202-296-0146 amol@accountabilityroundtable.org



About

the Corporate Accountability Coalition: The Corporate Accountability

Coalition is a collaboration of the Center for Corporate Policy,

Corporate Accountability International, CorpWatch, EarthRights

International, the Institute for Policy Studies and the International

Corporate Accountability Roundtable.

AMP Section Name: Money & Politics