Americans for Paper Access lined up against the Securities and Exchange Commission’s proposed regulation that would make e-delivery the default delivery for sensitive financial documents.
Currently, financial documents must be on paper and mailed unless the customer affirmatively opts in to electronic delivery.
Under the proposed rule, retirement account statements, mutual fund materials, prospectuses, shareholder reports, proxy statements and trade confirmations would be sent by email unless you opt out.
Enter Americans for Paper Access.
The group has a singular mission: to defend the right of every American to choose how they receive their own financial and medical information.
“This isn’t modernization. It’s banks and healthcare companies cutting costs on the backs of the people least equipped to adapt,” said Andrew Langer, spokesman for Americans for Paper Access. “Choice is the whole point. Americans should decide how they receive their most sensitive information — no regulator, and no corporation, should make that decision for them.”
APA said it opposes the change as a consumer-choice issue and not as a paper-vs-digital preference because the rule regulates how investors are permitted to access financial information.
Switching the default would add new obstacles for everyday investors, APA said, particularly seniors, low-income households, persons with disabilities and rural residents, who continue to rely on and prefer physical mail for financial documents and bills.
The group also warned of fraud and security risks because the opt-out mechanism would require investors to click a link to switch back to paper — the exact behavior that anti-fraud education has spent years training people to avoid.
Bad actors could copy these “click here to keep your paper statements” notices.
Anarchist group demands U.S. revoke terrorist label on tech service for antifa
An alliance of largely American anarchist collectives launched a letter-writing campaign to pressure the U.S. government to revoke the terrorist designation of an Italy-based tech service that caters to antifa.
The State Department and Treasury recently slapped the terrorist designation on Autistici/Inventati, which builds and operates the digital infrastructure for antifa cells and other far-left groups across the world.
The State Department described Autistici/Inventati as a “cadre of radical hackers and tech developers” who provide “a full spectrum” of online services.
The services include encrypted chats and email, web hosting, secure video conferencing and streaming, anonymity shields, and a suite of “other technological tools to Marxist, anarchist and other left-wing extremist groups in the United States, Europe and elsewhere.”
The letter from the anarchist groups said the terrorist designation of the Italian online platform was unfair and the infrastructure “was built in response to censorship, covert surveillance and server seizures. It minimizes identifying data, uses distributed systems and treats privacy as a condition of political participation rather than a product.”
The letter said that the federal government did “not publicly show that A/I planned the cited actions, selected targets, directed users or authored hosted material.”
“The designation therefore raises a question extending far beyond one collective: can maintaining privacy-preserving communications infrastructure for disfavored movements itself be treated as terrorism?”
The groups also made several demands, including calling for the “immediate revocation or prompt, transparent review of the designation” and asking for a “clear distinction between providing communications infrastructure and directing the conduct of its users.”
Justices courted to take on EPA air standard rule
A coalition of industry organizations, the Chamber of Commerce and 25 states petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to review and overturn a D.C. Circuit decision upholding the Biden-era standard for fine particulate matter.
The Environmental Protection Agency’s particulate matter standard is the amount of microscopic dirt, soot and smoke particles, measuring 2.5 micrometers or less across, allowed to float in a specific volume of air.
The rule is known as PM2.5.
In February 2024, the EPA finalized a rule changing the national ambient air quality standard for fine particulate matter from a level of 12 micrograms per cubic meter to 9 micrograms per cubic meter, alleging that updating the standard would “save lives,” including 4,500 premature deaths.
The new standard triggers new federal and state regulatory obligations, makes permitting more onerous and imposes compliance burdens on communities and businesses across the country.
The Chamber said the Biden-era rule relied on an abbreviated process.
“Congress established a clear process and the EPA did not follow it,” said Daryl Joseffer, president of the U.S. Chamber Litigation Center. “The agency bypassed important scientific review requirements and failed to account for the consequences of exercising its discretionary authority.”
The Chamber said that over 84% of particulate matter emissions are now a result of nonpoint sources, or contamination that comes from several sources, such as wildfires, construction and road dust, as opposed to one identifiable location.
These nonpoint factors, it said, are extremely difficult for individual regions and states to control, and just 16% come from industrial sources and power plants.
• The Advocates column is a weekly look at the political action players who drive the debate and shape policy outcomes in Washington. Send tips to theadvocates@washingtontimes.com. Click here to receive The Advocates in your inbox each week.
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