PLI Bulletin

Prepaid Card Protection, Lifting Your Narrative, Paid Sick Days and More

Posted on July 21, 2016

Prepaid Card Consumer Protection Act: While the 2009 federal CARD Act imposed restrictions on prepaid gift cards, states can still prohibit expiration dates and fees, and require that customers can get cash when the balance becomes small. That’s what the model Prepaid Card Consumer Protection Act does. Connecticut has enacted all three provisions, including the cash-out section this year.

Texas can’t get enough of harassing women over abortion: This op-ed by PLI President Gloria Totten and Program Manager Aimee Arrambide was published in the Austin American-Statesman newspaper. “Last week, Texas health officials proposed new rules that would require abortion providers to either cremate or bury fetal remains… These laws blatantly harass and bully women for their Constitutional right to decide to have an abortion.” Read the entire Op-Ed on IdeaLog, our blog intended to raise eyebrows and engage minds.

Policy Leadership: Develop Strategy to Lift Your Narrative: Using message best practices as outlined in Voicing Our Values and other online webinars is a first step, but we need a strategy to get our message to the public. Join us for this session to discuss strategy and tactics to change the public narrative around the issues that matter to us.

2016 End-of-Session Legislative Report: Our friends at the State Innovation Exchange recently published a great report about the best and worst of what happened in legislatures during the first half of 2016. The detailed PDF version is here.

Paid sick days resource: The National Partnership for Women & Families offers a comprehensive website dedicated to helping states and localities adopt paid sick days policies. Nearly 4 in 10 private sector workers, and 8 in 10 of the lowest-wage workers, do not have any paid sick days!

New Voicing Our Values Supplement: PLI just published a new short messaging booklet explaining the elements of persuasion—why we recommend specific language for certain issues. This article explains confirmation bias, why people’s minds are hard to change, negative triggers, and some simple rules to maximize your ability to persuade.