Don’t Let Wall Street Buy Access to Workers' Pensions

Trump’s SEC just moved to let Wall Street firms pour campaign cash into the coffers of politicians who help decide where trillions of dollars in workers’ retirement savings are invested.

The agency wants to scrap a longstanding “pay-to-play” rule designed to stop investment firms from using political donations to gain influence over public pension business.

The rollback is not final yet. That means workers and retirees still have a chance to stop Wall Street from buying more political access to their pensions.

Tell the SEC: Keep Wall Street money out of workers’ retirement savings.

Teachers, firefighters, nurses, and other public workers spend their careers earning those pensions. Their retirement money should be managed by firms chosen because they deliver the best results — not because they wrote checks to the right politicians.

The current rule restricts investment firms from collecting fees from government clients after certain contributions to officials who influence pension contracts. Now Trump’s SEC wants to eliminate that safeguard.

Wall Street already spends enormous sums influencing our political system. Giving investment firms more freedom to fund politicians who control pension contracts creates an obvious path for money and political influence to shape decisions involving workers’ life savings.

And because the SEC’s proposal is still pending, public pressure can help stop this rollback before it becomes policy.

Workers earned their pension money. Wall Street shouldn’t get to buy access to it.

Add your name now and demand the SEC withdraw its proposal and keep strong pay-to-play protections in place.

The petition to the Securities and Exchange Commission reads:

“Withdraw the proposal to eliminate the SEC’s pay-to-play protections for investment advisers. Keep strong rules in place to stop Wall Street firms from using political contributions to influence who gets to manage workers’ public pension funds.”