News Coverage
Democrats urge Social Security Administration to keep field offices open
Democratic lawmakers, led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts), are urging the Social Security Administration to keep open its field offices and demanding transparency about potential closures in a new letter. In addition to Warren, 65 House members and 40 senators signed the letter to acting Social Security commissioner Leland Dudek on Wednesday, requesting that he commit to keeping open the field offices and tell them if the agency intends to close any. The request came after the … Continue Reading
April 23, 2025
Warren Warns of ‘Backdoor Way’ Trump and Musk Want to Gut Social Security
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) released a new video on Wednesday warning seniors that Donald Trump and Elon Musk “are taking a chainsaw to your Social Security.” In the video, recorded as a Q&A-style explainer and posted on YouTube, Warren details the carnage that’s unfolding at the Social Security Administration (SSA) — thanks to Musk, the world’s richest man — and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency. DOGE has led efforts to fire thousands of workers at the SSA and shutter … Continue Reading
April 23, 2025
Senate Democrats seek answers from inspector general on Social Security cuts
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (New York) and four other Senate Democrats are urging the Social Security Administration’s inspector general’s office to investigate the impacts of the U.S. DOGE Service’s dramatic restructuring and sweeping cuts to the government agency. The letter sent to the inspector general’s office Wednesday is part of a broader Democratic effort to defend Social Security from what they describe as a reckless government downsizing campaign spearheaded by Donald … Continue Reading
April 18, 2025
Boston Globe: Senator Warren demands documents outlining basis ‘or lack thereof’ of Tufts’ student’s immigration detention
In a letter sent Thursday, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren demanded documentation from the federal government explaining its rationale for detaining Rümeysa Öztürk, the Tufts graduate student from Turkey who was apprehended by masked immigration enforcement agents while walking to dinner in Somerville last month. In the letter addressed to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Warren said it has been three weeks since Öztürk was arrested on March 25 and still the federal government has not … Continue Reading
April 17, 2025
CNBC: Trump’s tariffs are ‘inviting corruption,’ Democrats tell Bessent, Lutnick
Dozens of Democratic lawmakers are warning that President Donald Trump’s tariff-heavy trade agenda is quickly starting to resemble a “corrupt scheme to enrich administration officials and those loyal to them.” The Trump administration’s tumultuous rollout of a spate of new tariffs is “rife with opportunities to unduly influence President Trump and other administration officials,” the Democrats wrote in a letter shared first with CNBC on Thursday. The letter, signed by 47 House and Senate … Continue Reading
April 15, 2025
New York Times: Senators Investigate Private Equity Role in Soaring Fire-Truck Costs
As fire departments around the country report soaring prices and waiting times for new fire engines, two United States Senators are investigating the effect on public safety and the role that private equity investment has played in disrupting the firefighting equipment industry. The senators — Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, and Jim Banks, Republican of Indiana — reported on Tuesday that they had heard from dozens of fire departments about delayed deliveries, defective parts and … Continue Reading
April 15, 2025
NOTUS: Democrats Accuse Intuit of ‘Misleading’ Taxpayers Into Paying for TurboTax
Some Democratic lawmakers are accusing TurboTax owner Intuit of misleading taxpayers as the company advocates for shuttering the government’s free direct tax filing program. TurboTax, which currently dominates the tax preparation market, promises free tax filing services for eligible individuals. But a new analysis by Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s staff found TurboTax covertly switched their sample taxpayer from the free edition, ultimately charging $128 for services they could file for free with … Continue Reading
April 15, 2025
SEN ELIZABETH WARREN: Social Security is under attack. Gutting it is a broken promise
Gutting Social Security isn’t "efficient" — it’s a broken promise. Democrats and Republicans should stand up and fight back to protect it. Social Security is not charity. Americans pay in, paycheck after paycheck, over a lifetime of hard work. When they get older, they get that money back to help them retire. That’s the iron-clad, take-it-to-the-bank promise that America makes to workers. But right now, Social Security is under attack like it has never been before. Billionaire Commerce … Continue Reading
April 14, 2025
Democratic senators press Social Security Administration on reports of ‘dangerous’ employee cuts
Several Democratic senators are demanding answers from the Social Security Administration following reports that the agency may make staff cuts to a significant department within the agency. The Social Security Administration is reportedly considering additional workforce reductions, including a potential 50% cut in the Office of the Chief Investment Officer. The department, otherwise known as OCIO, is responsible for protecting sensitive data, maintaining benefit claims processing systems, … Continue Reading
April 14, 2025
ABC News: Democrat-sponsored bill seeks ethics checks on special government employees like Elon Musk
A new legislative push led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Rep. Melanie Stansbury, D-N.M., is seeking to bar special government employees like tech billionaire and senior Trump adviser Elon Musk from communicating with government agencies that interface with their companies, and would require federal employees like Musk to meet new ethics requirements. Warren and Stansbury introduced a bill this week in the Senate and House, respectively, that would prevent special government employees … Continue Reading
April 11, 2025
The New Yorker: Elizabeth Warren Is Trying to Stop “The Dumbest Financial Crisis Ever”
When I caught up with Elizabeth Warren, the senior Democratic senator from Massachusetts, by telephone on Wednesday evening, it seemed like she didn’t know whether to laugh or scream. Hours earlier, Donald Trump had caved to pressure from the financial markets and announced, via social media, a ninety-day pause on many of his tariffs. On Wall Street, stocks shot up. Later in the afternoon, Warren, who sits on the Senate finance and banking committees, had spoken from the floor of the upper … Continue Reading
April 10, 2025
NBC News: Drastic staffing cuts at the Education Department to be reviewed
The Education Department’s Office of Inspector General plans to conduct a “series of reviews” into the recent mass layoffs at the department, according to a letter obtained by NBC News. The Trump administration has sought to dismantle the Education Department, which President Donald Trump has long wanted to do but cannot fully achieve without congressional approval. That has not stopped him from trying. In March, Trump signed an executive order directing Education Secretary Linda McMahon … Continue Reading
April 10, 2025
Anxiety grows in Mass. over Social Security staff cuts, errors, long wait times
President Trump’s promises that Social Security benefits will not be cut are providing little reassurance to Massachusetts residents, advocates and employees who are witnessing changes to the program firsthand. The Trump administration has slashed the nearly 90-year-old agency’s workforce as part of an effort to downsize the federal government. Though no cuts have been made to individual benefits, service delays and staffing reductions are creating anxiety for people across the state. WBUR … Continue Reading
April 10, 2025
Scoop: Top Senate Dems propose emergency Social Security payment boost
Top Senate Democrats plan to unveil legislation that would provide an emergency $200 monthly increase in Social Security benefits through the end of the year, Axios has learned. Why it matters: It's the party's latest effort to highlight the Trump administration's tariff policies and now-scrapped DOGE-driven plans for service reductions to the popular benefits program. Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) will introduce the Social Security … Continue Reading
April 10, 2025
Bloomberg Tax: Warren Seeks More Ethics Commitments from Trump Tax Nominee
President Donald Trump's nominee to oversee federal tax policy should take additional steps to sever his decades of tax lobbying from his next government job, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) wrote to him in a letter obtained exclusively by Bloomberg Tax. Warren asked that Kenneth Kies, Trump's pick to be assistant secretary for tax policy at the Treasury Department, to divest from holdings in companies that lobby the agency, recuse himself during Trump’s entire term from business related to … Continue Reading
April 09, 2025
Warren, two Senate colleagues demand answers on Social Security website problems, agency cuts
After reports of repeated crashes and other problems with the US Social Security Administration’s website last week, Senator Elizabeth Warren and other lawmakers are demanding answers about the disruptions following moves by the Trump administration to downsize the agency and cut workers. In a letter to Acting Social Security Commissioner Leland Dudek on Monday, Warren, along with Democratic Senators Mark Kelly of Arizona and Ron Wyden of Oregon, said they are concerned the website problems … Continue Reading
April 08, 2025
Social Security wrongly told disabled people and some seniors their benefits ended, causing alarm
The Social Security Administration last week wrongly informed some recipients of Supplemental Security Income (SSI), the federal program that provides financial assistance to disabled Americans and low-income senior citizens, that they were no longer receiving benefits. The agency's website informed some SSI recipients they are "currently not receiving payments," according to an April 7 letter from senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Ron Wyden of Oregon and Mark Kelly of Arizona to … Continue Reading
April 08, 2025
Democrats confront SSA about disruptions to constituent SSI accounts
After standing up a Social Security War Room to respond to what some Democrats are calling a “prelude to privatization” at the Social Security Administration, three Senate Democrats are pressing the agency to respond to reports from their constituents that they’ve had problems with online accounts used to manage Supplemental Security Income benefits. “It would be outrageous if the Trump Administration, either due to incompetence or nefarious planning, is already disrupting, or threatening to … Continue Reading
April 08, 2025
Reuters: Democratic US senators question Google and Microsoft's AI deals
Two Democratic U.S. senators demanded information from Microsoft (MSFT.O), and Google (GOOGL.O), about their cloud computing partnerships with artificial intelligence companies, expressing concern the arrangements could stifle competition in the cutting-edge industry. U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Ron Wyden of Oregon, the ranking Democrats on the Senate banking and finance committees, respectively, asked Google for details, about its partnership with AI startup … Continue Reading
April 07, 2025
USA TODAY: Warren hits Trump nuclear weapons nominee over qualifications, China business ties
On the eve of his confirmation hearing before a Senate panel, President Donald Trump's nominee to lead the National Nuclear Security Administration faces scrutiny from one of the lawmakers he will face Tuesday. Trump's pick, Brandon Williams, is a former Navy submarine officer who served one term as a Republican congressman from New York. During a nearly six-year Navy stint, Williams completed the rigorous Naval Nuclear Power School and served aboard the USS Georgia missile submarine. But … Continue Reading