Common Cause and other public interest groups called on student loan giant Sallie Mae today to make detailed financial disclosures of its lobbying activity.<\/p>
At Sallie Mae’s annual shareholders meeting in Newark, DE., Common Cause’s Marilyn Carpinteyro told company leaders that shareholders “need to be able to asses if a membership in and lobbying with trade associations accurately represents our corporate interests and policy positions.” She urged shareholders to adopt a resolution committing the company to disclose the details of its lobbying. <\/p>
Although Sallie Mae’s website asserts that the company exists to help “students and their families save, play, and pay for college,” the firm has fought since it went public in 2011 to keep the cost of post-secondary education in the US rising. Disclosure advocates contend that this lobbying negatively impacts the student borrowers Sallie Mae professes to protect and deprives shareholders of essential information about its activities.<\/p>