Today, Groundwork Collaborative released a new report exposing how corporate consolidation and a lack of basic price transparency in the funeral industry are driving up costs and forcing grieving families into debt at one of the most vulnerable moments of their lives.

The new report, Death, Debt, and Paperwork: How the Business of Dying is Burying American Families by Groundwork’s Associate Director of Policy and Advocacy, Zoe Butler, analyzes Bureau of Labor Statistics data to find funeral costs have skyrocketed in recent decades, rising 310% since 1986 and now exceeding $7,700 on average, with many services topping $10,000. These costs are often due within days of an individual’s passing, even as families’ assets remain tied up in probate for months and are subject to administrative and legal fees. As a result, more families are forced to take on debt just to bury a loved one. The share of grieving family members taking on debt after a loved one’s death rose from 14% in 2024 to 37% in 2025.

At the same time, the industry operates with little transparency or competition. Corporate consolidation has allowed large firms to raise prices while fewer than one in five funeral homes post prices online, leaving families to make urgent financial decisions without clear information or the ability to comparison shop.

Groundwork’s President and CEO, Lindsay Owens, said:

“No one should be forced into debt just to bury a loved one, but as corporations exploit families at their most vulnerable moments, more and more grieving loved ones are being driven to the brink to pay for a dignified death. Funeral companies are raising prices, hiding costs, and taking advantage of a system that gives grieving families no time and no transparency. Policymakers must act to bring down prices, increase accountability, and ensure families can access what is already theirs without delay.”

Just a day after MPs voted against taxing fossil fuel profits in the 2027 budget, TotalEnergies is today reporting obscene profits. Civil society stands united to denounce this handout to oil companies while a large share of French households are struggling to make ends meet. This morning, 350.org, Action Justice Climat Paris, Attac France and Extinction Rebellion – Carnage Total staged a visual action near the National Assembly to say loud and clear that yesterday’s vote does not settle the debate. Taxing fossil fuel profits remains an urgent priority.

Today, TotalEnergies reported a net income of $8.2 billion for the third quarter of 2026 (opens in a new tab), up 124% year on year. Since January, the multinational has raked in $19.5 billion in profits, nearly twice as much as over the same period in 2025, without these windfall gains being subject to any additional tax whatsoever.

350.org has criticised TotalEnergies for using household affordability as leverage against taxation while pursuing a strategy of expanding oil and gas production and increasing shareholder payouts.

Against a backdrop of energy price volatility and escalating climate impacts, the figures raise urgent questions about who benefits from fossil fuel markets and who pays when prices rise. While households face higher costs and governments are left to fund public support, essential services and climate recovery, fossil fuel companies retain considerable control over production decisions and the distribution of their profits.

Joined by feminist organisations, students, trade unions and yellow vest activists, 350.org calls on political leaders to tax profits of fossil fuel companies without delay, in order to free up resources to fund public services, speed up the ecological transition and support households facing the rising cost of living. Yet every amendment to this effect was rejected by MPs yesterday in the vote on the 2027 budget for France.

Fanny Petitbon, France Manager, 350.org

“Hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets across France this month because they can no longer afford to live. Their anger is rooted in our dependence on fossil fuels. Every time oil and gas prices spike, households pay more at the pump and on their bills. And every time, TotalEnergies cashes in.

“In a year of war, price shocks and social anger, TotalEnergies is making a fortune and doesn’t even pretend to be embarrassed about it. It claims to support households with affordability while threatening to withdraw fuel discounts if it is taxed, expanding fossil fuel production and promising shareholders ever-bigger payouts. When prices rise, ordinary people are told to tighten their belts and governments are expected to pick up the bill.

“Yet the government still refuses to tax TotalEnergies’ soaring profits, and yesterday MPs rejected every amendment that would have done so in the 2027 Finance Bill. That vote was a missed opportunity, not the end of the fight. Political leaders must make polluters pay, so that those profiting from the crisis help protect people and fund a fair transition to affordable, renewable energy.”

Rukiya Khamis, East Africa Programme Manager, 350.org

“TotalEnergies’ years of impunity while driving human rights and climate violations across Africa must end. To add insult to injury, Total continues to announce record profits while frontline communities face an escalating climate and social crisis. France must take a strong stance by taxing Total’s super profits, creating a precedent for every region where the company operates. Big polluters like Total must be held accountable and pay for the harm they inflict on people and the planet.”

Photos from the action are available here (opens in a new tab).

Today, Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) Chair Rep. Greg Casar (TX-35) and House Financial Services Committee Ranking Member Rep. Maxine Waters (CA-43) co-led the introduction of a resolution warning of the economic risks posed by an artificial-intelligence-related asset bubble, opposing a bailout of corporations or their business executives impacted by the collapse of an A.I. bubble, and affirming their support for aggressive federal action to protect workers, retirees, and low-income communities who will be harmed by an economic downturn.

They were joined by Representatives Danny Davis (IL-07), Chris Deluzio (PA-17), Valerie P. Foushee (NC-04), Jesús “Chuy” García (IL-04), Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), Analilia Mejia (NJ-11), Delia Ramirez (IL-03), André Carson (IN-07), Jan Schakowsky (IL-09), Brad Sherman (CA-32), and Rashida Tlaib (MI-12).

“Big Tech billionaires are making increasingly reckless bets on A.I. They got richer off Trump’s deregulation and Republican tax breaks. Now they expect taxpayers to bail them out if those bets go bad. We won’t let them," said CPC Chair Casar. "A.I. companies that fail should go bankrupt, and executives who commit fraud should be held accountable. Federal help should go to workers and retirees.”

“Big tech and Wall Street are taking enormous risks with billions in borrowed money to fuel the AI boom, despite growing warning signs of a dangerous bubble and if it all comes crashing down they should not expect taxpayers to rescue them,” said Ranking Member Waters. “We saw what happened in 2008 when reckless Wall Street practices brought our economy to its knees. The banks got bailed out while millions of hardworking Americans lost their jobs, homes, and retirement savings. We cannot let history repeat itself. The American people should never again be forced to foot the bill for billionaires’ reckless bets.”

In the resolution, the Democratic lawmakers note that “artificial intelligence-related firms hold trillions of dollars in debt, much of which is raised in opaque and unregulated private credit markets,” and “the price-to-earnings ratio of the stock market is currently almost as high as it was at the peak of the 1990s tech bubble.”

The Democratic legislators also point out that “federal regulators have avoided applying robust scrutiny and oversight regarding enormously complicated debt and equity schemes used by artificial intelligence firms” and highlight the Trump White House’s deregulatory focus and conflicts of interest related to A.I.

The resolution’s cosponsors commit to avoiding a federal response similar to what occurred during the financial crisis of 2008, where the financial sector received trillions of dollars in liquidity without accountability for senior executives involved in illegal and fraudulent behaviors. Meanwhile, 10 million homeowners lost their houses and tens of millions of workers went years without adequate employment while too-big-to-fail banks enjoyed a massive bailout.

The resolution urges the Federal Government, including Congress and key Federal agencies to oppose:

• Any measure to rescue insolvent artificial intelligence-related firms or to shield their senior executives from accountability for reckless conduct;
• Special assistance like emergency lending or direct capital infusions to prop up insolvent A.I. companies’ operations or prevent their orderly resolutions through ordinary bankruptcy processes;
• “Golden parachutes” for corporate executives involved in risky or illegal behaviors that lead to their firms’ insolvency, instead requiring them to be held fully accountable under civil and criminal law and be obligated to return ill-gotten gains like mansions, vacation homes, private planes and yachts, and other assets.

The resolution also calls on the Federal Government to support:

• Aggressive, direct federal action to support ordinary Americans through federal spending to create jobs, protect state and local government services, and robust unemployment insurance, nutrition support, and housing assistance;
• The protection of pension and retirement fund holders who may face devastating losses in the event of a collapse of an A.I. bubble;
• Far-reaching reforms to prevent future speculative bubbles, including additional transparency and accountability requirements;
• Automatic economic stabilizers—investments in people that start to flow immediately in the event of an economic downturn—that support workers and consumers when financial crises, asset bubbles and other harms create downturns and recessions.

The resolution was endorsed by American Federation of Teachers, American Economic Liberties Project, Americans for Financial Reform, the Center for Responsible Lending, Demand Progress Action, Future of Life Institute, Guardrails Action, Indivisible, Interfaith Centre on Corporate Responsibility, Investor Alliance for Human Rights, Jobs With Justice, P Street, and Social Security Works.

“Americans are already paying for the AI build-out through higher power bills and a stock market propped up by a handful of companies,” said Morgan Harper, Director of Policy & Advocacy for American Economic Liberties Project. They should not pay a second time with a bailout. When Wall Street’s bets went bad during the financial crisis, the banks got rescued and ordinary people got foreclosure notices. Congressional members are right to reject AI bailouts in advance, and commit to saving real help for those who will be left holding the bag—the American people.”

“Tech billionaires and their Wall Street backers are using dangerous tactics reminiscent of the 2008 financial crisis to make trillion dollar bets on AI—and they are putting working people’s money at risk,” said Maya Jenkins, a senior policy analyst at Americans for Financial Reform. “This resolution charts a critically important path for defending people’s economic security from the bubble’s blast radius, opposing billionaire bailouts, and holding corporate executives to account. This is the kind of approach needed to confront mounting financial risks and emerge from the aftermath of the AI bubble with an economy that is fairer and more stable.”

“When the housing market collapsed in 2008, the financial industry was prepared to act to ensure that there was a bailout that benefited them,” said Dean Baker, senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research. “It is important that the Congressional Progressive Caucus is stepping forward to make sure that any bailout from the collapse of the AI bubble is designed to benefit the country as whole, rather than the billionaire AI boys who created the problem in the first place.”

“Chair Casar, Ranking Member Waters, and the Progressive Caucus should be praised for this resolution and recognized as being at the tip of the spear in ensuring that AI policy focuses on working-class impacts and isn’t simply left to the desires of the handful of billionaires and their courtesans in Congress, said Maya Handa, Senior Advisor, Guardrails Action. “The AI industry is trying to buy our elections and write their own regulations while its biggest players line up IPOs at record valuations. If this turns into a bubble, working-class Americans must not be forced to pay the tab for big tech CEOs’ recklessness and greed. Simply put: there can be no bailout for big AI execs or their financial enablers.”

“AI companies and their billionaire executives shouldn’t get to gamble with our economy and democracy, then expect working people to bail them out when their bets on AI go bust,” said Andrew O’Neill, National Advocacy Director of Indivisible. “We learned in 2008 what happens when the government puts impunity for corporate corruption ahead of working families. This resolution draws a clear line: will lawmakers protect AI tech bros or the people they’re supposed to represent?”

Read the resolution here.

Corporate political spending in the 2026 midterm elections has reached approximately $737 million, a 60 percent increase from what was spent on the 2024 presidential election, according to newly filed federal campaign finance data analyzed by Public Citizen. Spending this cycle accounts for 40 percent of the $1.8 billion corporations have spent on federal elections since the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision.

Cryptocurrency, online betting, and Big Tech interests — including companies involved in AI and data centers — have collectively contributed $391 million toward the 2026 elections. This accounts for more than half of corporate political spending reported this cycle.

Corporate political spending has grown substantially since Citizens United. Corporations contributed $12.8 million during the 2010 election cycle, $84.9 million in 2012, and $117.9 million in 2016. The current cycle’s $737.3 million total underscores the scale of corporate spending in federal elections.

“Corporations are exploiting Citizens United to drive their political spending to unprecedented levels,” said Robert Weissman, Public Citizen co-president. “These corporations aren’t investing this money because they are civic minded or want to advance a particular viewpoint. They are spending to buy influence, determine outcomes and shape policy. This election cycle shows beyond any doubt that we desperately need a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United and put the people, not corporations or the super rich, back in charge of elections.”