News Coverage
MassLive: Mass. lawmakers want ‘under oath’ answers from new owner of Steward‘s physician network
Ahead of a Beacon Hill hearing, a pair of Massachusetts lawmakers have called on a state oversight panel to ask some tough questions of the company that‘s taken over the physicians’ network formerly owned by bankrupt Steward Health Care. Benson Sloan, the CEO of the private-equity-owned Rural Healthcare Group, is slated to testify Thursday before the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission. In a three-page letter obtained exclusively by MassLive, Democratic U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren asked … Continue Reading
November 07, 2024
TIME: Sen. Elizabeth Warren: Here's the Plan to Fight Back
To everyone who feels like their heart has been ripped out of their chest, I feel the same. To everyone who is afraid of what happens next, I share your fears. But what we do next is important, and I need you in this fight with me. As we confront a second Donald Trump presidency, we have two tasks ahead. First, try to learn from what happened. And then, make a plan. Many political experts and D.C. insiders are already blaming President Joe Biden’s economic agenda for Vice President Kamala … Continue Reading
November 04, 2024
NBC News: Top Democrats take another swipe at grocery prices as Election Day nears
Two Democratic lawmakers are urging an investigation of grocery stores that they say might be overcharging customers. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., sent a letter, seen by NBC News, to the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Agriculture on Sunday, calling on the agencies to investigate whether “major grocery chains may be making false and misleading representations regarding food sold by weight, leading to customers paying more for groceries than … Continue Reading
October 31, 2024
Boston Herald: Elizabeth Warren’s office: Biden-Harris and Congressional Dems saved 1.4 million union pensions
The Biden-Harris Administration and Congressional Democrats saved the pensions of more than a million union members, many of which could have become insolvent in the coming year, according to a new report out of U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s office. Titled “Promises Made, Promises Kept,” the report explains how system shockwaves that started with the 2008 financial crisis were compounded by corporate bankruptcies, congressional inaction, and fund mismanagement, and were putting multiemployer … Continue Reading
October 31, 2024
American Banker: Warren slams DOJ for side-stepping tougher action against TD
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., is blasting the Department of Justice for not punishing TD Bank Group more harshly over the Canadian bank's money-laundering failures in the United States. Law-enforcement officials and regulators hit the Toronto-based bank's U.S. subsidiary with a record $3.09 billion fine and asset-cap handcuffs earlier this month in a novel money-laundering case. But the penalties imposed by the DOJ don't go far enough, Warren said Wednesday in a letter seen by American … Continue Reading
October 31, 2024
Space News: Members of Congress seek details on Chandra funding and operations
Several members of Congress are seeking more details about the operation of NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, a space telescope whose budget has faced steep cuts. In an Oct. 30 letter to Patrick Slane, director of the Chandra X-ray Center, six members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation, led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D), asked for more details about the operation of the 25-year-old X-ray space telescope and the effects potential NASA budget cuts would have on it. NASA had proposed … Continue Reading
October 29, 2024
Stat News: Warren wants close FTC scrutiny of drug distributors buying cancer medical groups
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is urging the Federal Trade Commission to scrutinize recent deals from McKesson and Cardinal Health to buy oncology practices, saying those transactions pose “clear, anticompetitive risks.” The letter from Warren to the FTC highlights how prominent lawmakers continue to support the Biden administration’s antitrust agencies, which have put health care mergers in their crosshairs. The Department of Justice, for example, has created a task force specifically to … Continue Reading
October 29, 2024
Reuters: U.S. senators urge overhaul of customs program to stop fentanyl chemical smuggling
Prominent U.S. Democratic senators on Tuesday called on the Biden administration to crack down on a popular duty-free customs program after Reuters reporting revealed how drug traffickers use the streamlined entry system to sneak Chinese-made fentanyl chemicals into the country virtually unchecked. In a letter addressed to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, the lawmakers urged the agencies to use their statutory authority to prohibit e-commerce … Continue Reading
October 28, 2024
Business Insider: More student-loan borrowers are taking advantage of an updated route to get rid of their debt in bankruptcy court, top Democratic senators say
An updated process for student-loan borrowers to get rid of their debt in bankruptcy court is working, a group of Democratic senators said. On Monday, Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Dick Durbin led Sens. Raphael Warnock and Sheldon Whitehouse in sending a letter — first viewed by Business Insider — to the Justice and Education Departments regarding the status of recent guidance intended to make it easier for borrowers to have success in bankruptcy court. Discharging student loans in bankruptcy … Continue Reading
October 24, 2024
NBC News: Senators take aim at big private equity landlords as rents soar
As Wall Street financiers snapped up huge swaths of the nation’s rental housing market in recent years, the deals sailed through unchallenged. Now, with the costs of renting an apartment or home out of reach for a growing number of Americans, four Democratic senators say these transactions need more scrutiny. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., sent a letter to private equity giant KKR on Wednesday, demanding information about its recent $2.1 billion purchase of 5,200 rental apartments across … Continue Reading
October 24, 2024
Mass Live: Sen. Elizabeth Warren calls on federal law enforcement to help Springfield with increasing gun violence
Following 21 months of record gun violence that has left at least 55 people dead in Hampden County, a Springfield police officer blinded in one eye and the seizure of more than 620 firearms, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., is calling for federal authorities to help Western Massachusetts. On Wednesday Warren sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives with a five-point plan to better stop gun trafficking and crack down on … Continue Reading
October 23, 2024
Bloomberg Law: Democrats Urge Biden: Fix Migrant Work Permit Backlog This Year
Congressional Democrats Tuesday pressed the Department of Homeland Security to clear a backlog of 1.4 million work permit applications for migrants before the end of the year. Despite several policy changes to address wait times at US Citizenship and Immigration Services, more than 900,000 immigrants seeking their first work permits and half a million more looking to renew the documents remain “at the mercy of USCIS’s bureaucratic processing delays,” according to a letter from 70 House and … Continue Reading
October 22, 2024
NBC News: Democratic senators slam McDonald's for menu price hikes they say have outpaced inflation
Three Democratic senators are asking McDonald's about its menu price hikes in recent years, arguing that the increases are higher than they should be - even with inflation and rising operating costs. In a letter sent late Monday afternoon, Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Ron Wyden of Oregon demanded that McDonald's President and CEO Chris Kempczinski explain the chain’s pricing decisions. "McDonald’s own reports indicate that the company’s price … Continue Reading
October 22, 2024
The Verge: Democrats want DOJ to prosecute tax prep companies for privacy violations
A group of Democratic lawmakers are urging the Justice Department to prosecute tax prep companies accused of improperly sharing user information with Meta and Google through their advertising pixels. Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA), are calling on the DOJ to take action against tax prep companies that they say failed to protect taxpayer privacy. In a new letter shared exclusively with The Verge, the lawmakers advance … Continue Reading
October 18, 2024
The Hill: Drug companies that violate law would fund medical research under new Democratic legislation
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) have introduced legislation that would require pharmaceutical companies that have entered settlement agreements over violating federal law to invest a portion of their profits into key agencies. Titled the "Medical Innovation Act," the bill would apply to large drugmakers that are found to have violated federal laws and also have received federal funding that helped them develop what the bill calls "blockbuster drugs." The … Continue Reading
October 17, 2024
HuffPost: Elizabeth Warren, AOC, Others Urge Biden To Take Action On Housing Costs Before Term Ends
Thirty-two Democratic lawmakers are urging President Joe Biden to use his remaining time in office to draw on an array of executive branch agencies to rein in housing costs. “We strongly encourage you to cement your legacy by addressing one of the most pressing economic issues of our time and take swift action to create more housing and lower housing costs for Americans everywhere,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter sent to Biden on Wednesday and obtained by HuffPost. The Biden administration … Continue Reading
October 17, 2024
Military.com: Pentagon Discloses 21 Allegations of Sexual Misconduct in JROTC As It Outlines Reforms to Congress
Twenty-one instructors in the Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps program were accused of sexual misconduct against high school cadets in the 2022-23 school year, but the Pentagon enacted several congressionally mandated reforms this year to curb the issue, the department said in a recent letter to Congress. The number of allegations of sexual misconduct was disclosed in a new annual report to Congress that is now required after language was included in last year's defense policy bill … Continue Reading
October 15, 2024
Boston Herald: Report: Inflation Reduction Act saves Bay State Medicare enrollees 100s of millions
Ahead of her first debate with her Republican opponent, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren's office is out with a new report that shows hundreds of millions in savings for Medicare beneficiaries in the Bay State. According to the report, by next year Medicare cost savings written into the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 will have saved Massachusetts residents millions. "Overall, these provisions will allow Medicare enrollees in Massachusetts to save as much as approximately $170 million on … Continue Reading
October 11, 2024
The Hill: Lawmakers press FTC chair on federal price gouging ban
A group of mostly Democrats pressed Federal Trade Commission (FT) Chair Lina Khan this week for more information on how a federal price gouging ban could help "hold bad actors accountable" in the event of major disasters like Hurricane Helene. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) led 11 lawmakers in signing onto the letter, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Reps. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), Cartwright (D-Pa.), Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.), … Continue Reading
October 10, 2024
Reuters: US Senator Warren calls for scrutiny of Novo Holdings' Catalent deal
U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren has asked antitrust regulators to closely scrutinize a $16.5 billion deal in which Novo Nordisk's (NOVOb.CO), controlling shareholder would acquire contract drug manufacturer Catalent (CTLT.N), saying it may give the pharmaceutical company an unlawful advantage in weight loss and obesity drugs. Novo Holdings, the investment firm that has a controlling interest in Novo Nordisk, signed a $16.5 billion deal to buy Catalent in February to boost supply of Wegovy, … Continue Reading