News Coverage
Washington Post: Pressure builds on RFK Jr. as confirmation hearing remains unscheduled
Bipartisan critics of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are sharpening their arguments that he is unfit to serve as the nation's top health official, embracing the extra time they have been given while Kennedy waits for his confirmation hearings to be scheduled. The Office of Government Ethics as of Friday was still evaluating Kennedy's financial disclosures, which are required for potential Cabinet officials, delaying his anticipated hearings in front of the Senate’s finance and health committees. The … Continue Reading
January 17, 2025
The Hill: Warren pushes for Hegseth’s wife to divest from defense company stocks
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) sent a letter Friday to President-elect Trump's Defense secretary pick, Pete Hegseth, asking for his wife to divest from thousands of dollars worth of stock she holds in defense company stocks, calling it a conflict of interest. Warren said she found Hegseth's wife, Jennifer Rauchet, holds stock in top defense contractors like Northrop Grumman Corp., Lockheed Martin Corp., Honeywell International, IBM, and Microsoft, along with smaller contractors and also … Continue Reading
January 17, 2025
The Guardian: Elizabeth Warren urges Trump to beef up ethics rules as Musk takes key role
The Massachusetts Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren has called on Donald Trump to institute new ethics rules to guard against scandals involving appointees such as Elon Musk, the SpaceX, Tesla and X owner who will jointly lead an effort to slash federal spending after the new administration takes power on Monday. Trump “can and should top” Joe Biden’s ethics standards for government officials, Warren told Trump’s transition co-chairs in a letter exclusively obtained by the … Continue Reading
January 17, 2025
The Verge: Lawmakers press Meta, Apple, Google, and others on massive Trump donations
Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Michael Bennet (D-CO) are putting pressure on big tech firms to explain their motives for donating to President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration fund. In letters to Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, and Uber, the lawmakers express concerns about the companies making contributions to “avoid scrutiny, limit regulation, and buy favor.” Over the past several weeks, Google, Microsoft, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Meta, Amazon, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman all … Continue Reading
January 15, 2025
Business Insider: Democrats urge Trump nominees to keep the IRS's free direct tax-filing tool, touting it as a DOGE-friendly program
As some Republicans urge President-Elect Donald Trump to kill the IRS's free direct tax-filing tool, Democrats are attempting to preserve it. In a letter to Treasury Secretary nominee Scott Bessent and IRS Commissioner nominee Billy Long, Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Chris Coons of Delaware touted what they see as the benefits of the program. "Direct File is making the process of interacting with the government more efficient, a goal we all can agree on," Warren and … Continue Reading
January 13, 2025
HuffPost: Elizabeth Warren To Grill Trump Housing Nominee On Rents, Shell Companies
Rent price-fixing by computer algorithms and keeping real estate from being used for money laundering through shell companies are two issues that Scott Turner, the former professional football player picked to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development, will likely face at this committee confirmation hearing Thursday. In a lengthy 13-page letter to Turner on Sunday obtained by HuffPost, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, laid out … Continue Reading
January 13, 2025
Yahoo Finance: Elizabeth Warren has more than 180 questions for Trump Treasury pick Scott Bessent
Senator Elizabeth Warren is outlining a detailed list of her concerns with Scott Bessent in a new letter that runs for 31 pages and includes more than 180 questions that she wants the Trump Treasury secretary pick to answer before his confirmation vote. The missive from the influential senator on the left, which was provided for review exclusively to Yahoo Finance before its publication, covers an array of topics from taxes to banking oversight to terrorist financing - and even ethics … Continue Reading
January 09, 2025
Billy Long, Trump's pick to lead IRS, pushed a tax credit that raises red flags, Sen. Warren says
Billy Long, President-elect Donald Trump's pick to run the IRS, is facing questions about his qualifications to lead the tax agency from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts who serves on the Senate's Finance Committee. While serving as a representative, Long, a Republican from Missouri and a former auctioneer, co-sponsored legislation that aimed to wipe out much of the tax code. After leaving office, he served as a tax adviser to businesses seeking to employ a controversial … Continue Reading
January 07, 2025
Washington Post: Warren pushes Hegseth on controversies ahead of Senate hearing
The record of Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Pentagon, should disqualify him for such a pivotal national security role, a Democratic senator told the former Fox News personality in a letter imploring him to address, before his confirmation hearing next week, the swirl of controversy that has marked his candidacy. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Massachusetts), the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services subcommittee on personnel, outlined 10 areas of concern, … Continue Reading
December 20, 2024
Mass Live: Trump could slash biomed funding for Mass. One effort to protect it
Massachusetts may run on Dunkin — but its colleges, universities, hospitals, and labs rely on federal cash to help pay for critical biomedical research efforts. With Congress headed into its final furlong for the year, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said she plans to reintroduce legislation that would create a $10 billion funding stream to underwrite select initiatives at the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The money would underwrite basic … Continue Reading
December 20, 2024
The Verge: Senators rip into automakers for selling customer data and blocking right to repair
A bipartisan group of senators is calling out the auto industry for its “hypocritical, profit-driven” opposition to national right-to-repair legislation, while also selling customer data to insurance companies and other third-party interests. In a letter sent to the CEOs of the top automakers, the trio of legislators — Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), and Josh Hawley (R-MO) — urge them to better protect customer privacy, while also dropping their opposition to state and … Continue Reading
December 19, 2024
CNBC: Student loan servicer transfer led to ‘millions of consumer credit reporting errors’: Lawmakers
A “faulty” transfer of student loan accounts from Nelnet to Mohela in 2023 led to “millions of consumer credit reporting errors,” lawmakers say in a new letter to government agencies reviewed by CNBC. The change in loan servicers caused nearly 2 million duplicate student loan records to appear on borrowers’ credit reports, while hundreds of thousands of borrowers’ credit scores were reported incorrectly for up to a year and a half, according to the letter. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Ron … Continue Reading
December 19, 2024
Bloomberg Law: Warren Urges Fair Wellpath Bankruptcy for Harmed Inmates
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is urging top executives at troubled prison health-care provider Wellpath Holdings Inc. not to abuse the company's bankruptcy proceedings by shortchanging incarcerated patients "harmed by medical malpractice." H.I.G. Capital-backed Wellpath, one of the nation's largest providers of health-care services to prisons and jails, should commit to ensuring fair payments for claims of deficient medical care while it restructures in Chapter 11, Warren said in a letter … Continue Reading
December 19, 2024
Bloomberg: Fed, OCC Use Outdated Criteria to Assess Bank Mergers, Senator Warren Says
US regulators in charge of evaluating bank mergers are "asleep at the wheel," especially given the looming task of considering Capital One Financial Corp.'s proposed purchase of Discover Financial Services, according to Senator Elizabeth Warren The Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency should fall in line with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which has already finalized updates to its merger guidelines, and the Justice Department, which said it intends to … Continue Reading
December 18, 2024
The New Yorker: A Call to Action on the Haditha Massacre
Nearly two decades after U.S. Marines killed twenty-five civilians, including women and children, in Haditha, Iraq, Congress is demanding answers. In a request sent this morning to the Department of Defense’s inspector general, which cites recent coverage in The New Yorker, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Chris Van Hollen write that the department “repeatedly misled the public” about Haditha, and that inaccurate reporting by the Marine Corps and delayed investigation of the incident thwarted … Continue Reading
December 18, 2024
CBS News: Sen. Elizabeth Warren pushes bill to make it easier and cheaper to file for bankruptcy
Continuing a decades-long effort to change the nation's bankruptcy system, Sen. Elizabeth Warren plans to propose legislation on Wednesday aimed at making the process less costly and complicated for the hundreds of thousands of individuals who seek court-sanctioned relief from debt each year. "People typically file for bankruptcy for one of three reasons: a job loss, a medical problem or a family breakup — and when they do, they're faced with an expensive and complicated system," the … Continue Reading
December 18, 2024
Bloomberg: Warren Seeks Faster Crackdown on Insurers Overcharging Medicare by Billions
Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren urged the Biden administration to advance a proposed rule before Donald Trump takes office to crack down on insurance companies that she says are overcharging Medicare by more than $80 billion. At issue is Medicare Advantage, the private version of the health program for seniors that's been a fast-growing market for insurance companies such as Humana Inc., UnitedHealth Group Inc. and CVS Health Corp.'s Aetna unit. Warren said excessive payments to private … Continue Reading
December 17, 2024
New York Times: Armed Services Committee Democrats call allegations against Hegseth disqualifying
A group of Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday began a bid to block the confirmation of Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald J. Trump’s pick for secretary of defense. In a letter to Mr. Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, the senators argued that allegations of sexual misconduct against Mr. Hegseth and his opposition to women serving in combat roles made him an unacceptable choice. “At a time when D.O.D. is struggling to build up military enlistments, Mr. Hegseth’s … Continue Reading
December 17, 2024
NPR: Senators launch probe into sale-leaseback company, citing NPR's reporting
EasyKnock says its sale-leaseback deals have helped hundreds of people improve their finances. An NPR investigation found some homeowners who enter into these deals lose tens of thousands of dollars and few buy their houses back. A group of U.S. Senators has launched a probe into a now-defunct real estate company that offered homeowners a chance to "unlock" their equity through a unique sale-lease arrangement, but which an NPR investigation found cost some residents thousands of dollars and … Continue Reading
December 17, 2024
Washington Post: Elizabeth Warren asks Trump to set conflict-of-interest rules for Musk
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) wrote a letter to President-elect Donald Trump on Monday to request clear and transparent conflict-of-interest rules that would bind Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, during his role as a top Trump adviser. The letter sent by email from the Democrat’s Senate office to Trump’s transition team notes that regular members of the Trump Vance 2025 Transition Team operate under an ethics policy that requires them to “avoid both actual and apparent … Continue Reading