News Coverage
The Nation: Elizabeth Warren’s ‘Big Fight’ Against Monopolies
In 2015, the seventh year of Barack Obama's presidency, the United States saw $4.7 trillion worth of corporate mergers and acquisitions-an all-time high. Though Obama did pick some high-profile fights with mega-companies that were trying to merge, his administration barely surpassed the number of antitrust cases brought to trial under George W. Bush, who set a record for bringing the fewest of any president. But when congressional Democrats unveiled their "Better Deal" platform last summer, … Continue Reading
February 14, 2018
CNBC: Wells Fargo faces grilling from Sen. Elizabeth Warren on bungled fee refunds
Wells Fargo again finds itself on the hotseat for mistakes it made trying to repay customers hit by improper loan fees. Sen. Elizabeth Warren , the Massachusetts Democrat who has been highly critical of the bank and its management over numerous issues with customers, fired off a letter to Wells CEO Tim Sloan this week grilling him about botched refunds. Warren accused Sloan of breaking his promise to customers since he took over as CEO in late 2016 after a fake accounts scandal burst into … Continue Reading
February 12, 2018
Bloomberg Law: Sen. Warren Turns Attention to White House on Tip Pool Rule
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) wants the White House regulatory review office to explain its role in the removal of economic data from the Labor Department's tip sharing proposal. The senator, who has been leading the Capitol Hill charge against the proposal, gave the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs until Feb. 26 to detail all correspondence betwen OIRA and the Office of Management and Budget, the White House and DOL on the rule. ... "You have been a proponent of more … Continue Reading
February 12, 2018
El Nuevo Dia: Senadora Warren defiende la independencia del Instituto de Estadísticas
Washington - En una petición de información a la Oficina de Presupuesto de la Casa Blanca (OMB), la senadora Elizabeth Warren (Massachusetts) defendió la independencia del Instituto de Estadísticas y pidió conocer cómo su reorganización puede limitar su colaboración con el sistema federal. La demócrata Warren escribió el pasado viernes al director de OMB, Mick Mulvaney, y a la jefa de Estadísticas de esa dependencia … Continue Reading
February 08, 2018
Springfield Republican: Sen. Elizabeth Warren, fellow lawmakers say EPA should insist on GE cleaning up Housatonic, dumping toxic waste outside Mass.
Massachusetts federal lawmakers are urging the Environmental Protection Agency to push General Electric to finish cleaning the polluted parts of the Housatonic River and cart the toxic waste out of the state. The EPA and GE, which is now headquartered in Boston, agree that the river must be cleaned up but have clashed over where to put the toxic waste. GE has pushed for the material, which has to be dredged from the riverbed, to be located in nearby landfills, arguing that moving it out of … Continue Reading
February 07, 2018
Springfield Republican: Elizabeth Warren slams Attorney General Jeff Sessions' record 1 year after being silenced on Senate floor
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, spoke out Wednesday against Attorney General Jeff Sessions' record on civil rights, criminal justice and immigration -- a speech that came exactly one year after chamber leaders formally silenced her for questioning the then-senator's nomination. Warren criticized actions Sessions took during his first year as attorney general and stressed that Americans will "persist" despite them as she delivered afternoon remarks from the U.S. Senate … Continue Reading
February 07, 2018
Vox: Elizabeth Warren warns Equifax could “wiggle off the hook” for users’ credit data getting hacked
Days after a report emerged that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau might be pulling back its probe into the Equifax data breach under acting head Mick Mulvaney, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is releasing a new report on the incident that left the personal information of more than 145 million Americans exposed. In September 2017, the consumer credit reporting agency revealed that millions of its US users had had their personal information, including Social Security numbers, birthdates, … Continue Reading
February 07, 2018
American Banker: Equifax misled public on data breach, Warren claims
Equifax's cybersecurity regime was grossly inadequate and the company misled the public about the removal of data from its systems during a hack last summer, according to a report by Sen. Elizabeth Warren. The Massachusetts Democrat released the 15-page report on Wednesday as part of an effort to gain backing for legislation to rein in the credit bureaus. The report claims that hackers removed, rather than simply accessing, the Social Security numbers, addresses and birth dates of 145 million … Continue Reading
February 06, 2018
Charlotte Observer: Wells Fargo should find a new CEO, Elizabeth Warren says after latest Fed action
The Federal Reserve's latest action against Wells Fargo is a new test for CEO Tim Sloan and is once again bringing pressure from the bank's biggest critics. In an unprecedented step, the Federal Reserve last week announced it is restricting Wells' growth following a raft of scandals at the San Francisco-based bank. Harshly worded letters from the Fed accuse Wells' board of failing to properly oversee the company, which the regulator said must improve its governance and controls. ... As … Continue Reading
February 05, 2018
New Republic: The Elizabeth Warren Model of Political Leadership
Before turning in the executive restroom key last week, outgoing Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen had one final task: bringing the hammer down on Wells Fargo. Responding to a litany of failures at one of America's largest banks, most notably the issuing of 3.5 million fake accounts to customers without their knowledge, the Fed announced sanctions against Wells, including restricting the bank's growth and removing four board members. This is not nearly the punishment that Wells Fargo … Continue Reading
February 05, 2018
Dorchester Reporter: Warren demands bipartisan solution as health center crisis looms
Community health centers are edging ever closer to a "funding cliff" that would severely limit their ability to provide critical local care services, and US Sen. Elizabeth Warren this week leveled a sharp critique at congressional Republicans who she says are the using the centers' funding "as a bargaining chip." A group of 11 neighborhood health center leaders submitted an op-ed to the Reporter this week, decrying the continued standoff in Washington. Federal funding expired for community … Continue Reading
February 02, 2018
American Banker: CFPB's Mulvaney strips his fair-lending office of enforcement powers
Acting Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Mick Mulvaney has stripped the agency's fair-lending office of enforcement powers in a sign that many consumer advocates see as trying to reduce oversight and penalties for firms that discriminate against borrowers. The move appeared to be a demotion for the fair-lending division, which was previously an equal division alongside supervision and enforcement, and which is now part of the office that handles internal agency concerns about … Continue Reading
February 01, 2018
Bloomberg Law: Democrats Want Answers From Labor Dept. on Tip Sharing Secret
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) and other leading Democrats are calling on the Labor Department to halt its new tip sharing proposal and explain why the DOL didn't tell the public about an internal analysis showing the move could cost workers billions of dollars. Warren in a letter to Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta said she is "alarmed and angry" about a Bloomberg Law report that the DOL dropped the analysis from the recent proposal. The DOL wants to allow tip pooling among restaurant servers … Continue Reading
February 01, 2018
Bloomberg Government: Revolving Door Between Trump Pentagon, Contractors Spins Faster
Ties between the Pentagon and the defense industry have deepened under President Donald Trump, prompting renewed concern about conflicts of interest that could result in favoritism toward top military contractors. More than 80 percent of top Defense Department officials under Trump have defense contractor work experience - in many cases extensive - compared with roughly half of those President Barack Obama appointed to the same jobs, a Bloomberg Government analysis found. ... "The Defense … Continue Reading
January 31, 2018
American Banker: Warren, Waters ask Mulvaney about CFPB change of heart on payday
WASHINGTON - Top Democrats in the House and Senate sent a letter to Mick Mulvaney on Wednesday questioning his decision to delay the implementation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's payday loan rule. "We have a number of questions about the sudden reversal of the CFPB's positions" including the payday rule, a case against four installment lenders and an investigation into a payday lender, said the letter, which was led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and the top Democrat … Continue Reading
January 31, 2018
Boston Globe: Trump promises opioid fight, but Warren and others ask, ‘Where’s the money?’
President Trump made a lofty promise in Tuesday night's State of the Union to "fight the drug epidemic," but Senator Elizabeth Warren wants to know what his administration has actually done to address the issue. The Trump administration declared a public health emergency last year but has yet to officially allocate any new funds to address the opioid crisis, the Massachusetts Democrat said in a letter to the Government Accountability Office. "Given the severity of the crisis, we have grown … Continue Reading
January 29, 2018
Brockton Enterprise: He’s gone from Haiti to Brockton’s council -- now, Trump’s State of the Union
BROCKTON - After coming to the U.S. in the wake of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, learning English, going to college, gaining his citizenship and then making history at age 27 by getting elected to the Brockton City Council last year, Jean Bradley Derenoncourt was heading to President Trump's State of the Union address as the guest of Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., on Tuesday night. "I'm excited about it," said Derenoncourt, reached on Monday morning. "I think it's a wonderful opportunity … Continue Reading
January 25, 2018
The Hill: Warren rips Trump immigration proposal: It's 'insulting'
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) ripped the immigration proposal unveiled by President Trump's White House on Thursday, calling the plan "insulting." "By ending DACA, @realdonaldtrump subjected 800k Dreamers to deportation. Now he wants to hold them hostage to Steven Miller's anti-immigrant wish list. It's insulting," Warren wrote on Twitter. "We already have a bipartisan solution to the Trump-created crisis: it's called the Dream Act. #DreamActNow" Read the full article on The Hill's website … Continue Reading
January 25, 2018
Boston Globe: Led by Warren, lawmakers urge Trump to overrule Sessions on pot
A bipartisan group of 54 members of Congress led by Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and Colorado Representative Jared Polis is demanding that President Trump restore the federal government's previous hands-off approach to marijuana. Trump's attorney general, Jeff Sessions, shook the foundation of the blossoming cannabis industry earlier this month when he rescinded Obama-era policies that had discouraged federal prosecutions of marijuana operations that are legal at the state level. … Continue Reading
January 25, 2018
Huffington Post: Elizabeth Warren Lays Out Plan To Hold Health Insurers Accountable
WASHINGTON - In a speech to a liberal health policy conference on Thursday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) proposed new rules to force private insurers to be more responsive to Americans' health care needs. Warren spoke at the annual gathering of the consumer advocacy group Families USA. She emphasized that she wholeheartedly supports efforts to expand public health insurance programs, including a "single-payer" bill introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) that would expand Medicare to the … Continue Reading