In the News

Youth facing homelessness as they age out of the foster care system soon could have easier access to federal housing vouchers. Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, is joining with Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, a Republican, to propose legislation they say would alter the Family Unification Program to help prevent homelessness for youth aging out of the... Read More

Senator Sherrod Brown has introduced new legislation to reduce the penalties for Americans in a federal program that are trying to save money for emergencies. Brown is looking at updating the rules for the Supplemental Security Income program, which provides financial assistance for the elderly, disabled and blind. Currently, individuals in the... Read More

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown on Wednesday renewed his longtime effort to raise the cap on assets that people who get Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits can have by introducing legislation that would let them accumulate $10,000 for individuals and $20,000 for couples. Currently, the federal financial assistance... Read More

WASHINGTON — Sen. Sherrod Brown reiterated his call for an expansion of a federal tax credit designed to help low-income Americans by dramatically increasing the credit for workers without children. In a speech today at the Center for American Progress, Brown, D-Ohio, said expanding the earned income tax credit to people without children... Read More

WASHINGTON -- Avarice and gluttony are good -- if you want to stoke powerful anger and indignation. That's why U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown is co-sponsoring a screening of the Oscar-contender "The Big Short" on Capitol Hill Wednesday. The movie is based on Michael Lewis's nonfiction book about the people and tricks that brought the nation to the... Read More

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) – Senator Sherrod Brown visited the West Side Community center in Youngstown Friday to let parents know the Summer Food Service Program can help keep give their kids the nutrition they need. This summer meal option is a federal program that is run by the states and provides free and reduced price breakfast and... Read More

Million of Americans-including thousands in Southwest Ohio-will get a smaller tax refund check if Congress does not extend the expanded benefits to the earned income and child tax credits, said U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio. Congressional leaders are in the midst of negotiating a tax extenders deal which will make permanent a tax extender deal... Read More

WASHINGTON, Nov 21 (Reuters) - A top Democratic senator said on Friday he remains concerned about slack oversight of the largest U.S. banks, and that the New York Fed in particular remains too close to the institutions it regulates. "Troubling reports suggest that it is back to business as usual at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York," Ohio... Read More

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown on Friday accused the Federal Reserve Bank of New York of lax oversight and coziness with Wall Street banks that's led to failure to protect consumers. "It is bad enough when banks can capture the agencies that regulate them or the Congress that oversees those agencies," said Brown, who chairs... Read More

A U.S. Senate subcommittee will hold a hearing Nov. 21 on issues of regulatory capture following stories by ProPublica and This American Life about secret recordings made by an examiner at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs and Sen. Sherrod Brown,... Read More

WASHINGTON—Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan is preparing to take one last swing at Wall Street before leaving Congress. The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, chaired by Mr. Levin (D., Mich), announced Thursday a two-day hearing into banks’ involvement in the ownership and trading of physical commodities in late November. The... Read More

The New York Fed tapes are going to get their day on Capitol Hill. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D., Ohio) announced Friday that he will hold a hearing on the issue of “regulatory capture” on Nov. 21 in his Senate Banking subcommittee, with the blessing of the Senate Banking Chairman Tim Johnson (D., S.D.). [UPDATE: New York Fed President... Read More

The financial crisis devastated homeowners and investors in Ohio and across the country. In the years since, we’ve made great progress but we know that the economy cannot fully recover until the housing market does. Cleveland’s Thriving Communities Institute estimates that there are 50,000 abandoned properties in Ohio that have fallen... Read More

Ohio’s two U.S. senators are asking for $100 million out of a $16.65 billion private settlement between Bank of America and the U.S. Department of Justice in order to provide relief for some of the state’s hardest-hit counties, including several southwest Ohio counties. And the plan is to have this money funneled directly to the 22... Read More

WASHINGTON—In a sweeping rebuke to Wall Street, U.S. regulators said 11 of the nation's biggest banks haven't demonstrated they can collapse without causing damaging economic repercussions and ordered them to try again. The Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said bankruptcy plans submitted by big banks make "unrealistic... Read More

Big bankers are usually good at arithmetic. But when it comes to assessing the benefits of their too-big-to-fail status, their calculators tend to go haywire. And yet, taxpayers have a right to know exactly how much their implied guarantees are worth to these huge and politically powerful institutions. So it is unfortunate that the new study by... Read More

Payday lenders are the target of new legislation that would cap the fees they charge low-income customers for short-term loans. The Protecting Consumers from Unreasonable Credit Rates Act would restrict interest rates to no more than 36 percent in a move that would also affect companies that offer consumers other types of credit products.... Read More

In the wake of last week's state Supreme Court victory for payday lenders, Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown urged the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to create rules that will reel in payday lenders not only in Ohio, but across the country. In Monday's letter, Brown urged bureau director Richard Cordray to make sure its payday rules are expansive... Read More

A few weeks ago, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D., Ohio) came to Perrysburg High School to talk about student loans. Enlarge Student loans are supposed to help our young people — help them get in to college and then professional life. What they are doing today, instead, is crippling young people. Mr. Brown has two bills in the works, one of which would... Read More

Ahead of the US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue, two top American Senators have asked President Barack Obama to take immediate and necessary actions to crack down on currency manipulation. In order to protect American jobs and ensure the competitiveness of US manufacturers, Senators Sherrod Brown and Jeff Sessions called for the... Read More