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Who We Are

Welcome to The Center for Economic Justice. CEJ is a 501(c)(3) advocacy and education center dedicated to representing the interests of low-income and minority consumers as a class on economic justice issues. Most of our work is in administrative advocacy on insurance, utilities, and credit – the tools necessary for the poor to pull themselves out of poverty.

The poor do pay more – higher rates for automobile insurance, higher interest rates for credit, and higher telephone rates for piecemeal utility services. Rather than providing direct services to the poor, CEJ attacks the root causes of poverty by addressing the affordability and availability of these goods and services.

Regulated industries spend enormous amounts of money and resources to affect the outcome of agency decisions. Yet, consumers, especially poor and minority consumers, are not represented in agency proceedings. CEJ’s goal is to ensure that regulators not only recognize the interests of low-income and minority consumers, but act to further those interests. Regulatory agencies are supposed to be protecting the interests of their citizens.

In a tumultuous time of deregulation, elimination of many government programs, and increasingly anti-consumer behavior by regulated industries, low-income consumers need a strong advocate on their side. CEJ advocates through an attorney, economist and executive director with the unique credentials, experience, technical knowledge and commitment necessary to succeed on behalf of low-income consumers. All have spent the last six years working to increase the availability and affordability of basic goods and services, particularly insurance. In short, they have the tools and passion necessary to make CEJ an effective voice for low-income consumers.

D.J. Powers, CEJ’s attorney, has devoted his legal career to the representation of consumers in administrative agencies, particularly low-income consumers. Before forming CEJ, Powers was General Counsel at the Texas Department of Insurance under Commissioner Bob Hunter and a staff attorney for the Office of Public Insurance Counsel. He has also represented the interests of Texas telephone and electric utility consumers before the Texas Public Utility Commission and litigated several cases dealing with consumer protection in lending transactions. He received his law degree, with honors, and his undergraduate degree, with highest honors, from the University of Texas.

Powers has authored numerous administrative rules and articles on issues central to CEJ’s mission. Rules he authored include a prohibition against discrimination based on race, religion, color, and national origin; a requirement that insurer underwriting guidelines be related to risk; procedural rules for industry-wide insurance rate cases; and procedural rules for rule making by the Department of Insurance. His article entitled "The Discriminatory Effects Of Homeowners Insurance Underwriting Guidelines" appears in the 1997 book Insurance Redlining. His other publications include "Risk & The Cost of Insurance: Fair and Unfair Underwriting Guidelines," "Barriers To Homeowners Insurance Availability For Minority & Low-Income Consumers," and "Consumer Law in Administrative Agencies."

Birny Birnbaum, CEJ’s consulting economist, is a nationally acclaimed expert on insurance availability, data, and ratemaking issues. Birnbaum has a long history of working on behalf on consumers on energy, economic development, and insurance issues. Before his work for CEJ, Birnbaum was the Associate Commissioner for Policy and Research and Chief Economist at the Texas Department of Insurance and Chief Economist at the Office of Public Insurance Counsel. In those capacities, he provided expert testimony in numerous proceedings regarding insurance rates and availability.

Birnbaum has been an expert witness in dozens of administrative and judicial proceedings on both economic and actuarial issues. In addition to his expertise in insurance rates and risk classification, Birnbaum holds special knowledge of insurance data collection and public access to the data necessary for consumers to hold insurers accountable for their market practices. Birnbaum holds Masters’ Degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in both Management and Urban Studies and Planning. Birnbaum is one of 12 national consumer advocates funded by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) to attend and participate in NAIC meetings, and is on the NAIC’s Board of Consumer Trustees. The NAIC adopts model laws and regulations that many states then adopt as the law for their state.

Board Members

Pamela Brown, President: Ms. Brown is an attorney and the Executive Director of the Hidalgo County Pro Bono Project, a non-profit organization bringing direct legal services to low-income citizens in the Rio Grande Valley.

Robert F. Schneider: Mr. Schneider is a senior attorney and lobbyist with Consumers Union Southwest Regional Office, a non-profit corporation and the publisher of Consumer Reports magazine. Mr. Schneider is the former Associate Commissioner for Consumer Services at the Texas Department of Insurance.

Tom "Smitty" Smith: Mr. Smith is the Executive Director of Public Citizen, a non-profit organization dedicated to advocacy in the public interest.

Dianne Stewart: Ms. Stewart is the Director of the Center for Public Policy Priorities.

Lee Brooks Wilson: Mr. Wilson is an Austin attorney.

Amy Johnson: Ms. Johnson is an Austin attorney who served as the first Public Insurance Counsel in Texas from 1991 to 1994.

Harry Potter: Mr. Potter is an Austin attorney and former Texas Assitant Attorney General who was the lead state’s attorney in litigation against tobacco companies.