News Coverage
Bloomberg: Elizabeth Warren Presses Tom Barrack Over Deals With Saudis
by Caleb Melby and Gillian Tan
U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren is demanding Donald Trump ally Tom Barrack explain how he won business with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund after working closely with the president and his administration.In a letter to Barrack, the lawmaker highlighted deals the financier’s Colony Capital Inc. arranged after he met with Saudi officials including Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman while serving as head of Trump’s inaugural committee and as an adviser to the presidential transition team. The … Continue Reading
February 20, 2019
GQ: Elizabeth Warren's Universal Child Care Program Will Save American Families Thousands of Dollars
Elizabeth Warren made it clear [that she wants] to be a populist crusader who doubled as a check on the power of corporations and the super-rich. She proposed a "wealth tax," a 2 percent tax on families with assets over $50 million and 3 percent on those with assets over $1 billion. It would generate an estimated $2.75 trillion over the next ten years, and now we know what Warren wants to do with that money: fund a national child-care program. Earlier this year, a New York Times poll found … Continue Reading
February 19, 2019
New York Times: Elizabeth Warren Proposes Universal Child Care
Elizabeth Warren's plan, the Universal Child Care and Early Learning Act, would create a network of government-funded care centers based partly on the existing Head Start network, with employees paid comparably to public-school teachers. Families earning less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level would be able to send their children to these centers for free. Families earning more than that would be charged on a sliding scale, up to a maximum of 7 percent of their income. The plan … Continue Reading
February 19, 2019
WaPo: Elizabeth Warren proposes universal child care, paid for by tax on ultra-millionaires
by Jeff Stein
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) released a plan Tuesday for creating a "universal child care" system in the United States paid for by a tax on the very wealthy. The plan proposed by Warren would ensure that every American would be able to enroll children up to 5 years old in a child-care program while paying no more than 7 percent of their income in fees. Families below a certain income level - $50,000 a year in today's dollars, for a family of four - could use the facilities free of charge, … Continue Reading
February 19, 2019
Vox: Elizabeth Warren's Ambitious Plan to Fight the Opioid Epidemic, Explained
Elizabeth Warren is widely known for her public battles with big banks and Wall Street. She's gotten attention for her wealth tax proposal. She's praised, even by some conservatives, for her book The Two-Income Trap. As a US senator for Massachusetts, Warren has built a formidable record on the opioid crisis, which now kills more Americans than gun violence or car crashes. She's called for more research into alternative painkillers, including medical marijuana. She's tried to holdPresident … Continue Reading
January 28, 2019
The Week: How Elizabeth Warren's wealth tax could save America
by Jeff Spross
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has a big new idea: She wants to directly tax the assets of the richest Americans. Her associates are calling it the "ultra-millionaire tax." This is not crazy. Taxes on wages and income are common, including taxes on the money people get when they sell assets. Straight-up wealth taxes like Warren is proposing - which go after the value of things that individuals own - are less common, but not unheard of. "My proposal will help address runaway wealth … Continue Reading
January 24, 2019
Washington Post: Sen. Warren’s plan to tax the ultrawealthy is a smart idea whose time has come
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has just introduced a tax idea this country desperately needs: a tax on high-end wealth. It's an idea that's well-crafted for our time, one that promises to add fairness to an unfair tax code, raise significant, much-needed revenue and push back on the historically high level of wealth concentration in the United States. Here's the plan, which, for the record, is extremely simple to explain, an advantage when it comes to tax policy: Wealth over $50 million … Continue Reading
January 16, 2019
Vox: Elizabeth Warren is confronting big banks over how they intend to “help” workers during the shutdown
by Emily Stewart
Banks say they’re helping federal workers missing pay during the partial government shutdown, but exactly what they’re doing, in many cases, is unclear. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is pushing for more details.The Massachusetts Democrat and 2020 presidential contender sent letters to Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, US Bancorp, and Wells Fargo on Tuesday, asking them for details on the actual services and solutions they are offering to federal workers who are furloughed or aren’t … Continue Reading
January 16, 2019
American Banker: Warren asks big banks for details on their shutdown response
by John Heltman
WASHINGTON — Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., pressed the five largest U.S. retail banks Wednesday on details about what the firms are doing to reduce the effects of the partial government shutdown on furloughed government employees.Warren, a member of the Senate Banking Committee and potential 2020 presidential hopeful, said in a letter to Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, U.S. Bancorp and Wells Fargo that the challenge for furloughed federal employees is now reaching … Continue Reading
December 20, 2018
Vox: Elizabeth Warren’s ambitious new bill to lower generic drug prices, explained
by Dylan Scott
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) would like the federal government to start manufacturing prescription drugs when the market fails and prices for certain medications become unaffordable. It's an interesting idea, experts who lean right and left agree. But more than that, it is a reminder that there are all kinds of creative ways we might go about bringing down drug prices. We know Americans are really worried about drug costs - six in 10 people take a prescription … Continue Reading
December 12, 2018
Curbed: Elizabeth Warren doubles down on affordable housing legislation
by Dianna Budds
Today, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) doubled down on her strategy to fix America's housing crisis. Along with Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-LA) and Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI), she introduced the American Housing and Economic Mobility Act to the House, a companion to a Senate bill Warren introduced in September. "America is facing a housing crisis-a crisis that has been decades in the making," Sen. Warren said at a press conference at the U.S. Capitol Visitors Center. "This is a crisis that hits … Continue Reading
December 06, 2018
McClatchy: Senators want broader probe of FEMA contracts in Puerto Rico
by Kevin G. Hall
Four prominent Democratic senators on Thursday asked the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security to broaden an ongoing investigation into contracting and hurricane relief problems in Puerto Rico. More than a year after Hurricane Maria's devastating rampage across Puerto Rico, the island is struggling to rebuild. The letter from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and three other senators, directs the inspector general to look closely at the $1.2 billion Tu Hogar Renace … Continue Reading
November 30, 2018
The Nation: Elizabeth Warren Just Took a Crucial Stand for Democracy and Enlightened Internationalism
by John Nichols
Warren is proposing to break the grip of billionaire campaign donors and corporate interests on US foreign policy. Americans who seek an enlightened alternative to the crudely nationalist and frequently antidemocratic ideology of Trumpism, and to a broader misdirection of US foreign policy that began long before the current president took office, got it this week from Elizabeth Warren. "Our country is in a moment of crisis decades in the making, a moment in which America's middle class has … Continue Reading
November 29, 2018
Vox: Elizabeth Warren wants to outflank Trump on trade
by Matthew Yglesias
"His actual policies aren't stopping [GM] or others like them from continuing to put corporate profits ahead of American workers." Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) isn't ready to cede trade policy themes to President Donald Trump. In a speech set to be delivered Thursday afternoon at American University, in Washington, DC, Warren unloads a biting critique of a generation's worth of neoliberal trade policy consensus in Washington and - strikingly - insists that despite Trump's embrace of … Continue Reading
November 26, 2018
WBUR: Congress Members Call For Columbia Gas Executives To Resign Over Merrimack Valley Disaster
by Philip Marcelo
Congress members called for executives at the utility company to blame for September's natural gas explosions and fires in Massachusetts to step down Monday as they held a special hearing into the disaster. The six House and Senate members from Massachusetts and New Hampshire who held the hearing at a packed middle school gymnasium in Lawrence took aim at the corporate culture at Columbia Gas of Massachusetts and its parent company, Indiana-based NiSource. They painted a picture of a … Continue Reading
November 20, 2018
Bloomberg: Senator Warren Calls on Companies to Contribute to the Toys 'R' Us Worker Fund
by Rick Green
Senator Elizabeth Warren calls for six companies to contribute to new hardship fund for Toys "R" Us workers. Warren says it's "inexcusable" for investors in defunct toyseller to withhold contributions. Urges other firms that were involved with company to contribute to new $20m fund created by KKR and Bain Capital; says former workers owed a total of $75m in severance. Read more on Bloomberg's website … Continue Reading
November 20, 2018
American Banker: Warren lays into Navient CEO over Education Dept. Audit
by Neil Haggerty
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., has accused Navient's chief executive of false statements related to allegations of improper practices facing the student loan servicer. In a letter to Navient CEO Jack Remondi, Warren claims that he denied the merits of a lawsuit by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau alleging that Navient had steered struggling borrowers into expensive loan forbearance programs. But at the time, Warren said, Navient was being audited by the Department of Education. The … Continue Reading
November 15, 2018
Reuters: Senator Warren presses regulators on leveraged lending
by Kristen Haunss
US Senator Elizabeth Warren sent a letter to regulators Wednesday expressing concerns about underwriting standards in the leveraged loan market, which she says could pose serious risks to the economy.In the letter, Warren questioned regulators on what their agencies’ plans are to address what she describes as “growing risks” in the leveraged lending market as well as proposed changes to rules governing the Collateralized Loan Obligation (CLO) market, the largest buyers of leveraged loans. She … Continue Reading
November 15, 2018
CNBC: Elizabeth Warren says the Fed is making the same mistakes as before the crisis: 'Deeply worrisome'
by Jeff Cox
Ahead of the financial crisis, a buildup of leverage on bank balance sheets that went largely undetected by regulators helped cause the worst downturn since the Great Depression. Sen. Elizabeth Warrenis afraid the same thing is happening again a decade later.The Massachusetts Democrat said Thursday that she thinks the Federal Reserve and its fellow watchdogs of the financial system are overlooking a dangerous buildup of loans going to companies that are already deeply in debt. The so-called … Continue Reading
November 15, 2018
NBC: Elizabeth Warren's ethics bill is moving to the House. Does the new Democratic Congress want it?
by Benjy Sarlin
WASHINGTON — A sweeping ethics bill by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., is making the jump to the newly Democratic House.Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., plans to introduce companion legislation in the coming days that she hopes will become a rallying point for progressives.The Anti-Corruption and Public Integrity Act is headlined by a lifetime ban on lobbying by former lawmakers, presidents and top executive branch appointees, but includes a wide array of additional provisions.Read the full … Continue Reading
