What's New
President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and other top White House officials are touring the United States to promote the administration's plan to privatize Social Security. They are holding carefully orchestrated "town hall" meetings with hand-picked audience members in order to give the impression of widespread support. In fact, the more people learn about the President's privatization plan, the more they dislike it. In the coming weeks, the President may try to shift the way he talks about his proposal to privatize Social Security, but it doesn't change what his proposal will do: undercut a lynchpin of retirement security in the United States. More.

How You Can Help
Please take a moment to tell your Senators to reject the President's drastic proposal to privatize Social Security.

Brief Summary
Deceptive and exploitative practices by companies commonly deprive Marylanders of their money and their privacy. Unsafe toys, playground equipment, and other products are widespread health and safety threats. These are just some of the challenges in creating a fair marketplace.

Maryland PIRG's consumer program works to protect consumers against unfair fees, error-filled credit reports, invasions of privacy, exploitative marketing schemes, and dangerous products. Maryland PIRG exposes these problems, advocates for solutions, and alerts consumers to how they can protect themselves.

Our consumer protection agenda:

Consumer Privacy & Identity Theft
Maryland PIRG works to give consumers control over who sees their personal information. We support measures that prevent banks and other companies from selling, trading or sharing consumers' financial information without the consumer's consent. More.

Fair Rx Drug Prices
Many Marylanders are struggling to meet the skyrocketing costs of prescription drugs. Unnecessarily high drug prices squeeze millions of dollars from Maryland's taxpayers and consumers, making needed medications unaffordable for many Marylanders. Bulk purchasing and basic consumer protections can lower the real cost of these lifesaving medications for consumers and state government alike. More.

Product Safety
Maryland PIRG alerts the public to unsafe products. Our annual toy and playground safety reports have spurred over a hundred product improvements and safety actions. Drug companies should make more of their research public to prevent the next drug safety catastrophe like the Vioxx scandal.

Credit Card Debt
Maryland PIRG is working to make aggressive credit card marketing on college campuses under control.

Fair Lending Practices
Maryland PIRG is your watchdog on unfair business practices like:
- Excessive fees on bank services, gift cards, and other transactions.
- Deceptive practices like payday lending and tax refund anticipation loans.
- Debt management counseling that pushes people further into debt.