Building a Better World, Together

What’s at stake: Homeowners are facing an insurance crisis. Extreme weather events and rising construction costs have destabilized the home insurance market, leaving many consumers with skyrocketing premiums, delayed claim payments, and the inability to find coverage when they need it most. More than half of the respondents to CR’s 2024-2025 survey of 23,917 U.S. homeowners insurance policyholders said their premiums had increased in the previous 12 months. Numerous consumers told CR that the cost had doubled or tripled since the previous year. These increases have forced many Americans who own their homes outright to drastically underinsure their property—or go without coverage altogether.

What CR is doing about it: Homeowners insurance is largely regulated by the states, with some states providing better consumer protections than others. CR believes all policyholders deserve basic rights no matter where they live, and—along with other consumer and industry groups—has written them into a Homeowners Insurance Bill of Rights. It calls for stronger protections and more transparency related to, among other things, what information consumers are entitled to see when they shop for or renew a policy, what factors insurers can consider when setting prices, how much notice insurers must provide before changing or canceling a policy, and how much time they have to pay claims.

What you can do: Help CR bring more fairness to the insurance marketplace by signing our petition urging insurance companies to adopt CR’s Homeowners Insurance Bill of Rights.

Every day, the average adult in the U.S. uses 12 personal care products—such as moisturizers, sunscreens, and cosmetics—containing 112 unique ingredients, some of which are linked to cancer, reproductive harm, and other health risks. Under current law, companies that make these products can use almost any ingredient without premarket testing or review. In fact, the Food and Drug Administration has restricted just 15 substances from use; the European Union has banned or restricted more than 2,400.

CR has been working to close this regulatory gap. In February 2025, CR testing revealed a range of toxic ingredients in synthetic braiding hair, and we began urging the FDA to investigate further. We’ve also been pushing state legislators to address the issue, resulting in measures like New York’s proposed Beauty Justice Act, which would ban some of the most toxic substances in the state. And we helped craft the federal Safer Beauty Bill Package, a landmark bill that would remove the most toxic chemicals from beauty and personal care products, increase ingredient and supply chain transparency, and protect the health of salon workers and women of color, who are most affected by toxic exposure.

Please sign our petition urging Congress to pass the Safer Beauty Bill Package.

Ultraprocessed foods such as soft drinks and packaged snacks don’t provide needed nutrients, are engineered to be addictive, and have been linked to health risks including cancer, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes. Yet they are served to students in schools across the country. Last year, CR co-sponsored legislation that would ban the most harmful UPFs from California public schools by 2035 and encourage the schools to provide healthier food. In October, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed it into law.