News Coverage
Sens. Warren and Wyden demand info on SSA reassignments
SSA workers say the recent decision to involuntarily reassign 1,000 field office employees to man the 1-800 number flies in the face of leadership’s rosy pronouncements and further degrades service. A pair of Democratic senators on Monday fired a bevy of questions to Social Security Commissioner Frank Bisignano about the agency’s decision last week to reassign 1,000 field office employees to help answer calls to the agency’s 1-800 number, despite purported gains in customer service … Continue Reading
July 03, 2025
ABC News: 175+ Democrats supporting NAACP suit against dismantling Department of Education
More than 175 Democratic members of Congress are filing an amicus brief on Thursday opposing the Trump administration's overhaul of the U.S. Department of Education. “The law couldn't be clearer: the president does not have the authority to unilaterally abolish the Department of Education,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren wrote in a statement first obtained by ABC News, adding, “Donald Trump is not a king, and he cannot single-handedly cut off access to education for students across this … Continue Reading
July 01, 2025
Politico: Senators slam Lloyd Austin over new consulting firm
Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Rick Scott are blasting former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin for starting a D.C. consulting firm after saying he would not become a lobbyist after leaving the government. "[T]his move is particularly disappointing because you made a clear promise during your nomination hearing to uphold the public trust," the bipartisan duo said in a letter to Austin on Monday obtained by POLITICO. … Read the full story … Continue Reading
July 01, 2025
Politico Pro: Morning Tech: FIRST IN POLITICO: ANSWERS, PLS
In an 11th-hour blitz of letters to top tech CEOs last night, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is demanding they disclose how much their companies stand to benefit if a key tax break is restored as part of Trump's megabill. Tech emerged as a massive winner from Trump's 2017 tax cuts, and Warren warned it could walk away with a windfall again. She accused Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Apple’s Tim Cook, Alphabet’s Sundar Pichai, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and even Tesla’s Elon Musk of extensive lobbying to … Continue Reading
June 27, 2025
Advocate: A bipartisan effort looks to rectify tax inequities for same-sex married couples
A bipartisan group of lawmakers has introduced legislation helping bring financial equality to same-sex married couples. Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine reintroduced the Refund Equality Act on Thursday, the 10-year anniversary of the landmark Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme Court ruling, which legalized marriage equality as a constitutional right. … Read the full story … Continue Reading
June 27, 2025
USA Today: How long will you wait for Social Security help? Why it's anybody's guess.
Members of Congress and advocates say the Social Security Administration is providing the public with misleading information about how long it will take to resolve their problems. Over the last several weeks, the agency has stopped making public 34 real-time performance metrics about things like how long they will have to wait to reach a live person on the phone, and how long applications for new senior benefits or social security benefits take to be approved. The metrics have been used for … Continue Reading
June 26, 2025
How long will you wait for Social Security help? Why it's anybody's guess.
Members of Congress and advocates say the Social Security Administration is providing the public with misleading information about how long it will take to resolve their problems. Over the last several weeks, the agency has stopped making public 34 real-time performance metrics about things like how long they will have to wait to reach a live person on the phone, and how long applications for new senior benefits or social security benefits take to be approved. The metrics have been used for … Continue Reading
June 26, 2025
HuffPost: Trump Will Decide If Millions Of Workers Are Eligible For Overtime Pay
Democratic senators are calling on the Trump administration to follow through on a plan to expand overtime pay to millions of workers now that the reform’s future is unclear. The rule put in place by former President Joe Biden would make vastly more workers eligible for time-and-a-half pay when they work more than 40 hours in a week. But a federal judge appointed by Donald Trump during his first presidency blocked it from going into effect last year, and the Trump administration has chosen … Continue Reading
June 26, 2025
The Guardian: Elizabeth Warren presses oil companies on tax break lobbying for Senate bill
Democratic lawmakers led by the Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren are pressing two energy companies about their efforts to “win a $1.1bn tax loophole” in President Trump’s so-called “big, beautiful bill.” The proposed exemption, which Senate Republicans inserted into their version of the reconciliation mega-bill this month, would exempt fossil fuel companies from paying a tax codified by Biden in 2022. “It’s an insult to working people to give oil companies a massive tax handout while … Continue Reading
June 26, 2025
Wbur: Mass. lawmakers press ICE for answers on use of Burlington office for detainees
The Massachusetts congressional delegation is demanding answers from federal immigration officials about conditions at an administrative office in Burlington where immigrants have been detained, often for days at a time, since at least early May. In a letter dated Wednesday to Todd Lyons, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Patricia Hyde, acting ICE Boston field office director at the Burlington facility, the lawmakers said they're "alarmed by reports" of how … Continue Reading
June 25, 2025
Financial Times: Elizabeth Warren demands information on PE firms’ lobbying efforts for tax breaks
US Senator Elizabeth Warren has demanded that some of the country’s biggest private investment groups give up information about their lobbying efforts to secure tax breaks in Donald Trump’s spending bill, as debate intensifies about the landmark legislation’s winners and losers. The senator from Massachusetts, one of the leaders of the Democrats’ liberal wing, called on Blackstone, KKR, Apollo Global Management, Bain Capital and Thoma Bravo to provide details on any lobbying and political … Continue Reading
June 24, 2025
CNN: Pressure builds on Kennedy’s vaccine panel ahead of first meeting
Ahead of the first meeting of newly appointed vaccine advisers to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, lawmakers are sharing fresh concerns about the panel’s membership and last-minute actions that could see Covid-19 and influenza vaccines thrown into question. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, sent a letter Tuesday to US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., exclusively obtained by CNN, about the agency’s abrupt dismissal of all 17 members of … Continue Reading
June 23, 2025
Lawmakers Seek to Close VA Loophole That Funnels Billions to Private Medicare Insurers
A bipartisan group of lawmakers is aiming to close a loophole that allows large healthcare insurers to charge Medicare billions of dollars to cover veterans who get some or all of their treatment through the taxpayer-funded U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs health system. The group introduced legislation Monday in the House and Senate that would permit the VA to charge private health insurers in the Medicare Advantage system for medical care that it provides for the insurers’ members. The … Continue Reading
June 20, 2025
The Guardian: Elizabeth Warren demands answers over reports of $500m deal for controversial Gaza Health Foundation
Elizabeth Warren has confronted the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, over reports that the state department is considering redirecting $500m from USAID to the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). In a letter addressed to Rubio and USAID’s acting administrator, Kenneth Jackson, the Massachusetts senator argued that the GHF, a self-proclaimed aid organisation that is backed by the Israeli and US governments, “marks an alarming departure from the professional humanitarian … Continue Reading
June 12, 2025
Boston Globe: Warren, Markey call for probe into ‘escalating aggression’ by federal agents in immigration raids
Massachusetts Senators Elizabeth Warren and Edward J. Markey have called for an investigation into the “increasingly aggressive and intimidating tactics” used by federal agents in immigration raids across the country, according to a letter sent Wednesday to the US Department of Homeland Security. “ICE’s escalating aggression is not making us safer,” read the letter, which was cosigned by all nine of the state’s representatives in Congress. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are … Continue Reading
June 12, 2025
Rolling Stone: Liz Warren Says Crypto Bill Creates a ‘Superhighway’ for Trump Corruption
The Democratic senator is sounding the alarm over the GENIUS Act, which will put financial power in the hands of Big Tech. What could go wrong? The Senate is set to pass the GENIUS Act early next week, a controversial piece of cryptocurrency legislation that critics say will hand an undue amount of financial power to the tech industry. On its face the bill, which has advanced with bipartisan support, purports to offer a regulatory framework for the expansion of “stablecoins,” a form of crypto … Continue Reading
June 12, 2025
The New York Times: Elizabeth Warren: Trump Is Right About This One Thing
It is possible that hell has frozen over. President Trump and I agree on something very important: Abolish the debt limit. The debt limit is a political tool that allows the minority party to threaten economic collapse, forcing Congress to negotiate its demands. It serves no other function. None. It has no impact on spending, and it doesn’t restrain the growth of the national debt. I’ve pushed publicly and privately, whether Democrats or Republicans have been in charge, to scrap the debt … Continue Reading
June 12, 2025
CBS News: Warren urges Trump to "abandon" DOGE's "inefficient and harmful" agenda in new letter
Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts is urging President Trump to "reverse course" on the Department of Government Efficiency's efforts to cut government spending and agencies, advocating instead that he implement her policy proposals to find savings, days after a split between Elon Musk and the president spilled into public view. "Although Mr. Musk and DOGE have failed at achieving their purported savings goals, you could choose to end this government waste while avoiding … Continue Reading
June 11, 2025
WBUR: Warren, Markey call for answers on federal funding cuts to Mass. museums and libraries
Massachusetts Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey sent a letter Tuesday evening to the Institute of Museum and Library Services Acting Director Keith E. Sonderling demanding answers on funding cuts to museums and libraries across the country. Sen. Warren's office shared the letter exclusively with WBUR on Monday. In the document, Warren and Markey asked for further information on the future of certain programs and IMLS’s plan to act in accordance with laws that require minimum funding by … Continue Reading
June 11, 2025
Wired: Senators Warn DOGE’s Social Security Administration Work Could Break Benefits
Democratic senators have concerns that the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) could break the Social Security Administration’s tech infrastructure. In a new letter addressed to SSA commissioner Frank Bisignano, senators Elizabeth Warren and Ron Wyden say that DOGE’s plans to “hastily upgrade” Social Security IT systems could disrupt the delivery of benefits or result in mass data losses. The warning comes after WIRED reported in March that DOGE officials were planning to … Continue Reading